How Words Change Meaning: Observations on the Evolution of Modern Russian Lexical Semantics in Post-Soviet Moldova
How Words Change Meaning: Observations on the Evolution of Modern Russian Lexical Semantics in Post-Soviet Moldova
Author(s): Donald L. Dyer, Tatiana Kadirbaeva, Valentina IepuriSubject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Lexis, Semantics, Eastern Slavic Languages
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Post-Soviet Moldova; Russian language; lexis; semantics;
Summary/Abstract: This article investigates the process of semantic change in a language in general by scrutinizing in particular the Russian spoken in Moldova and the various effects that Romanian, with which Moldovan Russian has been in contact for centuries, has had on its lexicon. We first discuss more broadly the parameters within which this lexical influence has occurred and then examine a variety of more recent borrowings from Romanian into Moldovan Russian. Finally, we look in great detail at the case of one particular lexical item -public - and discuss how and why its meaning in the Russian of Moldova (публичный: publičnyj) has shifted as a result of its contact with its counterpart in Romanian, the word public.
Journal: Съпоставително езикознание / Сопоставительное языкознание
- Issue Year: 2010
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 101-108
- Page Count: 8
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF