Многозначность и синонимия слова любить
ON THE NUMEROUS MEANINGS AND SYNONYMY OF THE RUSSIAN LYUBIT’ ‘TO LOVE’

Summary/Abstract: Two programmatic and theoretic-methodological features of N. I. Tolstoy’s research attitude are continued by the author of the present article: (1) the idea of a close link between language and perception of the world, i.e. of a linguistic worldview, and (2) the postulate of the linguistic integrity of an object. Both of these constitute the basis of a new dictionary of Russian synonyms, coedited by the abovementioned author. The article presents a picture of Russian verbs lyubit’ and obozhat’ in their mutual synonymic bond. Lyubit’ has three meanings and three parallel usages: (1) Ona lyubit’ drugovo ‘She loves someone else’; (2) Sestry Tsvetaevy lubili svoy dom v Taruse ‘Tsvetaeva’s sisters liked their house in Tarus’; and (3) On lyubil davat’ interv’yu ‘He liked to give interviews’. Although obozhat’ can also appear in analogical semantic and syntactic contexts, it cannot be split into separate meanings. The observation is corroborated by a number of properties of the two words: their semantic, morphological, derivational and syntactic features, including the ability to function as indicators of the rheme. The abilities are realized differently in each of the three meanings of lyubit’, which for obozhat’ is not the case. In particular, it is impossible to use the latter in negatives (*On ne obozhal slushat’ muzyku ‘He didn’t love/adore to listen to the music’) or interrogatives (* Vy evo obozhayete? ‘Do you-PL love/adore him?’).

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