Dynamic Processes in Russian Emotive-Evaluative Vocabulary

Abstract

Modern studies of the dynamic processes of the emotive-evaluative vocabulary are determined by 1) ideas about the nature and structure of the pragmatic macro-component and its interaction with the denotative semantics of the word, 2) the emergence of new vocabulary and text sources, 3) taking into account the parameters of the communicative situation (the relationship between the subject and the object of assessment, gender, age, social position of speakers and their intentions). The use of corpus and experimental methods in the study of evaluation makes it possible to identify significant changes in the semantics of different categories of vocabulary. In this article, the evaluative semantics is considered in relation to the elements of denotative and / or pragmatic gender, social and age macrocomponents. It has been revealed that the axiological characterization of a word, changing under the influence of the gender component, becomes significantly more complicated and varies depending on WHO (a man or a woman) evaluates and WHOM (a man or a woman) the speaker characterizes. In the thematic group ‘A weak-willed, spineless and feeble person’, there are dynamic processes, which are manifested in seme and semantic variation (the “male” characteristics tryapka, kisel', etc.), demonstrate an expansion of gender semantics, correlating with persons of both sexes. Thus, in the semantic structure of evaluative metaphors, independent evaluative meanings are formed, representing male and female weaknesses in different ways.