The semantics of attenuation in the Old Slavonic and Russian Languages (based on verbal vocabulary)

Abstract

The article dwells on the verbs with a diminutive meaning in Russian and Old Slavonic. It describes particular diminutive meanings in action designation and determines originality of prefix models with po- pod-, pri- with the semantics “to do something a little, without making special efforts, not to the full extent, not for long, for some time” for these languages. The work is based on the studies of the Slavic language picture of the world reflected by derivational means. The authors claim that verbs with these prefixes are highly productive in the modern Russian language. They indicate the diminutuve nature of the designated action not fully performed and/or evaluated as such and reflect the mentality of native Russian speakers (uncertainty, emotionality, reflexivity). Old Slavonic and Ancient Greek lexicographic sources contain a small number of units with the meaning of incompleteness and limitation of action. The authors emphasise different shades of attenuation in comparison with the Russian language, an increasing number of verbal units with the meaning of incomplete action in the Old Slavonic language, and the expanded range of partioiral meanings of attenuation. The difference in diminutive verbs of the Old Slavonic and Russian languages is associated with the peculiar worldviews of their speakers. The authors conclude about the original “attentuation” models in the Russian language. They argue that it was important for native speakers to characterise the designated actions from quantitative, productive, temporal, and other aspects relevant to the sphere of the Russian verb.