Semantic Originality of the Nest *MORK- in Russian Dialects

Abstract

The article analyzes the semantic structure of the nest * mork - ‘flicker’ in Russian dialects. Extensive lexical material extracted from dialect dictionaries, as well as unpublished card indexes containing materials from field collections of the Toponymic expedition of Ural University (Russian North and Upper Volga Region). A hypothesis is proposed and proved that the values of the * mork - continuants turn out to be related to different stages of flickering, which is a return movement, when either one of the extreme points (darkness or light) comes to the fore, or the intermediate stage is actualized - movement from light to complete darkness and vice versa. A thematic and motivational classification of dialect vocabulary is carried out, during which two main semantic blocks are distinguished: “Nature” and “Man” (there is a third block - “The subject world” - but it is extremely small and contains values derived from the sphere “Man”). It is emphasized that the first block implements primarily meteorological semantics, while the second one shows a wide range of meanings (behavioral, communicative, perceptual, related to the field of physiology, mental, intellectual activity, etc.). Contamination processes are analyzed, the actants of which become elements of the nest being studied (during attraction to the extensions of mor -, smorod -, morsh -, etc.). An explanation of the phenomenon of enantiosemia observed in the semantic space of the studied nest is proposed.

Keywords

• russian dialectology
• lexicology
• etymology
• derivational semantics
• semantic transition
• etymological and derivational nest