Stylistic stratification of the vocabulary of the language. Big encyclopedia of oil and gas

The vocabulary of a language is all the words used in a given language. The vocabulary of the language reflects the living conditions of the people, the level of their development, the nature of their occupations. It is not surprising that the Eskimos have up to 40 names for snow, and the Arabs have almost 200 names for a camel, depending on age, sex, breed, size, etc. The peoples of Siberia have many words in their languages ​​related to hunting, and islanders Pacific Ocean- with the sea and fishing, etc. The more difficult the economic; social, cultural life of the people, the richer the vocabulary of its language. Over the years Soviet power In the Chukchi, Selkup, Yakut and other languages ​​of the peoples of the North, hundreds and thousands of new words appeared, as their life was enriched, culture increased, new objects and concepts entered everyday life.

The dictionaries of modern developed languages ​​contain tens and hundreds of thousands of words. Thus, the 17-volume Dictionary of Modern Russian literary language”, published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, contains 120480 words, which, of course, does not reflect all the wealth vocabulary Russian literary language, since not all words fall into dictionaries. Dictionaries do not include words that are obsolete, recently emerged, used in certain areas of the country or only by certain groups of speakers.

At the same time, not all words given in the dictionary are known to all speakers of this language. For example, in the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” compiled by S.I. Ozhegov, on almost any page you can find an unknown, little-known word or a word whose meaning is clear, but which is rarely used. This gives grounds to distinguish two different groups of words in the vocabulary of any language, which differ in the breadth of their use: an active vocabulary (active dictionary) and a passive vocabulary (passive dictionary).

The active stock includes words that the speaker not only knows, but often uses in his speech. It is necessary to distinguish between an active vocabulary, which is the same for all speakers of a given language, and an active vocabulary, which is peculiar only to individual groups population. Words such as bread, house, window, eat, walk, big, evil, good, etc., are in constant active use all speakers of the given language; the same as a lecture, audience, seminar, test, topic, etc. - only for a part of the population, for example, students.

Passive reserve - these are well-known, but uncommon words. These include many terms capillary - 1) a tube with a thin channel, 2) the thinnest blood vessels; captainarmus - executive, a person in charge of the storage and issuance of military property and food; cardiogram - graphic image heart movements; karotel - a variety of carrots, etc.), obsolete words[temple - a pagan temple, a cap - a paper bag), emotionally colored words (karachun - death, karga - an evil old woman, katsaveyka - an old-fashioned outerwear for women, the word is now used to refer to bad, unfashionable, outdated clothes), etc. .

The boundaries between passive and active vocabulary are mobile, changeable. One of the indicators of improving the culture of speech of speakers is the replenishment active stock words, the transition of words from passive to active. The division of words into active and passive stock is very important when learning foreign languages.

With the division into active and passive stock, the division of words according to the sphere of their use is also connected. There are common words, that is, used by everyone regardless of any conditions: walk, know, white, black, hand to the city, I, who, etc., and words whose use is limited. This limitation can be caused by various factors.

Words whose distribution is limited territorially are called dialectisms. These include, for example, the words well-known in the Kursk or Oryol regions: dezha (dishes for dough), karets (ladle for water or flour), chaplya (frying pan), capacitance (grab), zamashki (hemp), squeaky (chickens), goat (snake), etc.; or words characteristic of the inhabitants Vologda region: pester, pechter (wicker basket), ledina (swampy place), kitina (pea stalks), siverka (damp cold weather), flock (cattle room), ox (beet tops); etc.

Words whose use is limited to the boundaries of some social or professional group are called jargon. For example, in the speech of village artisans (tailors, felters, wool beaters), such words as: bakry (two), burma (fur coat), kimat (sleep) ^ creso (meat), sary (money), bald (small) were noted , vakhno (cloth), etc. Jargon often penetrates into the speech of schoolchildren, clogging and disfiguring it.

Special place in the vocabulary are words that are used only in a certain special scientific or industrial field. They are called terms (see §35).

Words may differ in expressive style coloring. There are neutral words that do not carry a special expressive coloring and are used in different styles speech (summer, rain, snow, want, white, etc.) and there are words that differ in this coloring, inherent in certain styles of speech, for example: Russian bliss, dreams, marshmallows, cherish; German Ross - horse (in contrast to the neutral Pferd, Gewand - attire (in contrast to the neutral Kleid - dress, clothes); English brow (brow), billow (wave), couch (bed), warrior (warrior), etc. are characteristic of the poetic style.On the contrary, the words feisty, good fellow, loafer, grabber, nonsense, frantic, etc.; German Mahre (nag - cf. with the neutral Pferd), Maul (mouth, mouth - cf. with the neutral Mund) etc. are used primarily in colloquial everyday speech and often have a familiar or even rude, vulgar coloring.

AT colloquial speech quite often we meet with the so-called euphemisms (from the Greek euphemeo - I speak well, politely), that is, words used to replace other, for some reason, unwanted words. Now euphemisms most often replace words that are rude, indecent (you are mistaken instead of lying, an insect instead of a louse) or associated with unpleasant associations (ordered to live long, died instead of died, death instead of death, etc.). In the past, euphemisms were caused by the prohibition on words (taboos) 1 . The peoples located on early stage community development, had faith in special power words, in that the pronunciation of the word may cause some undesirable results. In this case, a ban (taboo) was imposed on the words, and the word was replaced by another. For example, many peoples have lost the old name of the bear, since it was banned, and replaced it with various euphemisms; Russians - the word bear - "one who eats honey"; the Germans Var - “brown”, the Baltics lokus - “lizun”, etc.

Later, the taboo of words was associated with various prejudices and beliefs. So, euphemisms arose for the name of the goblin (forester, gray in Russian dialects), diseases (Ukrainian titka, that is, aunt as a designation of fever), death (gave his soul to God, ordered to live long in Russian), etc.

In our time, the ban on words may be due to the observance of etiquette (norms of behavior) and the need to maintain military or diplomatic secrets. Recall how during the war they wrote about “battles for the city of N”, “offensive in the En direction”, etc.

Words included in the vocabulary of any language may differ in their origin. Among them are primordial words that have existed in a given language for a long time, which got into it from the base language that was the source of this language (see § 66), or formed already in this language from its own material (see § 38), and words borrowed that came into the given language from some other language (see § 39).

Finally, in the vocabulary of a language, words can be distinguished by varying degrees their stability. There is a circle of stable words that have been preserved for a number of centuries almost without; changes. These are words associated with the expression of a range of concepts, especially important and necessary in the life of the people, independent or almost independent of cultural and historical conditions and their changes. This includes the names of parts of the human body: head, arm, leg, eye, ear; the most important space phenomena: sky, sun, moon, earth, water, day, night; kinship: mother, brother, sister, son, daughter; designations of the main qualities: white, black, large, old; primary numerals: two, three, four, five; main pronouns: I, you, who, that; names of actions: stand, walk, speak, etc. Such a circle of words-concepts is called "the main lexical fund of the language. This is a very stable circle of words. According to the observations of the linguist" M. Swadesh and other researchers behind the facts different languages, it turned out that in a thousand years only 30-40 words of this type change for about 200 words.

On the contrary, words that are especially closely related to the concrete historical conditions of the life of the people, production, public relations, culture, are subject to intense change. In them, there is an intensive process of loss of some and the appearance of others.

Language is directly related to production and any other human activity. Since the production and any other social activity a person is in constant motion, change, to the extent that the language is changing all the time. The most sensitive to these changes is the vocabulary of the language. Changes in the vocabulary consist in the fact that some words, obsolete in their meaning, fall out of the language, others, new words, appear in the language. More new words appear in the language than old, obsolete words drop out, so the language is continuously enriched.

The change in the vocabulary of the Evenki language occurs in the following ways:

Formation of new words by own means of the Evenki language.

Disappearance from the use of obsolete words.

Changing or spreading the meanings of old words.

Borrowing words from Russian and other languages.

1. To express new concepts, the need for which has arisen and continues to arise all the time in connection with the cultural and economic construction in the North, the Evenk language appeared after recent times a lot of new words. The formation of new words occurs with the help of lexical and grammatical means Evenk language.

Daegiktaewun airplane, yuvun release, ovun tool formed from stems ending with a suffix -wun. New words: ӈenevumni driver, aichimni doctor and others are formed from various verb stems with a suffix - think, which in the Evenki language usually forms names with the meaning of the figure.

The following words are the same neoplasms in the Evenki language: soӈmi strengthen, achiimi liquidate, ayami improve, gelavun requirement, dagamaldyn rapprochement, sinman elections, sinmawoods elective and whole line other words.

2. In connection with the changes that the Great October Revolution brought to the life of the Evenks socialist revolution and socialist construction, a number of words became obsolete and gradually began to completely disappear from the language. In the modern Evenki language, the words have become obsolete: saman shaman, kupes merchant, tegemer tsar, as well as a number of other words denoting the old social order, old family relationships, old religious ideas. However, it falls out of the language significantly less words than is re-formed.

3. One of the ways to update the vocabulary of the language is to use old words in a new meaning, for example, the word havamni laborer, worker: a person who works for the owner has acquired a new meaning worker. word rem onion in some dialects of the Evenki language began to be used in the sense gun. Verb harpatmi shoot a bow used in the meaning shoot a gun etc.

Words that used to have a very specific content, acquire a more abstract meaning; the reason for this is the need to express new, more abstract, general concepts. For example, in the old Evenk language the verb chokonmi take aim when shooting aim, direct in general: Party mitwe ӈorchandula chokonmukanen. The party sent us to fight. Verb ugirmi raise came to be used in the sense raise to fight, to a feat, ugirin climb- neoplasm from the verb ugirmi - got the meaning of a production or labor upsurge.

Er omaktava havadyva ugirinme oran. This caused a new labor upsurge. Party, Stalin hegdymemeve havave ugirchetyn, davdynma odavi. The Party, Stalin did an enormous amount of work to achieve victory.

Verb ӈenemi go, go, move now began to denote any movement in general, as well as development, growth.

Mittu sinmakichil khutumemeldu conditionaldu ӈenedere. Our elections are held in different conditions.

4. Due to the fact that in our country all conditions have been created for friendly cooperation between people of all nations, and the leading role in this commonwealth belongs to the Russian people, who provide assistance to other peoples of the Soviet Union on the basis of mutual respect and understanding, the Russian language in our country has a leading meaning. Languages ​​of other peoples Soviet Union are enriched by borrowing words from the Russian language, mainly related to the changes that have taken place and are taking place in connection with socialist construction in our state. Such words include the following words of the Evenk language: brigade, artel, collective farm, state farm, council, district committee, party, plan and many others.

With the development of horticulture and agriculture, the words appeared in the Evenki language: tractor, vegetables, turnips, potatoes, cabbage and etc.

In connection with the emergence of writing and the introduction of education in schools in mother tongue words appeared in the Evenki language: book, letter, class, map, board and etc.

In addition to borrowings from the Russian language, the Evenki language also has borrowings from other languages. There are especially many borrowings in the dialects of those Evenks who live next door to the Yakuts and Buryats. Among borrowings from Yakut language related words: kire time, baga a wish, eder young, kuta swamp, kergen a family and others. The number of borrowings from the Buryat-Mongolian language should include: khukur cow, tosun cow butter, duvusun salt, wuwei No and etc.

The totality of the words of the modern Russian language, as a designation of objects, phenomena and concepts, forms its vocabulary, or vocabulary. Vocabulary is the subject of study of the corresponding section of linguistics - lexicology.

Words are characterized by a certain specificity: they differ from each other in their origin, the degree of their activity, the scope of their use and their stylistic affiliation [Shcherba, 1957]. Accounting for these features language units allows to substantiate general principles vocabulary classification:

According to its origin, the vocabulary is divided into native Russian and borrowed (from Old Church Slavonic and other languages ​​of the world);

According to the degree of use, vocabulary is divided into active and passive vocabulary (regularly and often reproduced units belong to the first, obsolete and outdated ones belong to the second). new vocabulary: historicisms, archaisms and neologisms);

In terms of the scope of use, common vocabulary is opposed to vocabulary limited territorially (dialecticisms), professionally (terms and professionalisms) and socially (jargonisms);

According to the stylistic characteristics, neutral (interstyle) vocabulary is opposed to stylistically marked high, official, scientific vocabulary. book speech and colloquial and colloquial vocabulary oral speech.

Original Russian vocabulary.

In the vocabulary of the modern Russian literary language, there are more than 90% of native Russian words. From the point of view of the formation of native Russian vocabulary, several historical layers can be found in it. Originally Russian words are actually Russian words that are specific to the Russian language and known to other Slavs only as Russian borrowings. Some of the actual Russian words may contain a foreign root, but they are formed according to Russian word-formation models. These are words such as: lace, flirt, start, etc.

Borrowed words.

During the big social change there is an active enrichment of the vocabulary of the language. This is due to the need to identify many new concepts in various areas of life: politics, economics, show business, computer technology. Often words from other languages ​​are used for this. There are many borrowed words in our speech that have become so firmly entrenched in Russian speech that they are not perceived as foreign. For example: bathrobe, sofa, beets, dumplings, doll and many others. However, a significant number of words from other languages ​​are perceived by native speakers as something alien. foreign words you can and should use it in speech, but you should not abuse them, and most importantly, when using a borrowed word, you need to be sure that its meaning is clear. Otherwise, communication failures are inevitable.

Outdated words.

Obsolete words are divided into two groups: historicisms and archaisms. Historicisms include those obsolete words that have fallen out of use due to the fact that the objects or phenomena they designate have gone out of life: armyak, caftan, camisole, chain mail, serf, prince, armor, etc. Historicisms have no synonyms in modern Russian. Unlike historicisms, archaisms are obsolete names contemporary items, phenomena, displaced by synonyms from the composition of the active vocabulary. Wed: this - this, mouth - lips, forehead - forehead, neck - neck, green - very, eyelids - eyelids, mirror - mirror, etc.

New words (neologisms).

The lexical composition of the language is constantly updated with new words, neologisms, created to designate new objects, phenomena, to express new concepts. At the moment of their appearance, they enter the passive vocabulary and remain neologisms until they lose their shade of novelty and freshness. When such words become common and enter into active vocabulary, they cease to be neologisms.

Dialectisms.

Dialectisms are words characteristic of some dialect or several dialects: susAly - cheekbones (tar), pohleYa - way (Vladim.), borshat - grumble (volog.), Otka - father (ryaz.), Tropkat - is ( psk.).

professionalism.

Professionalisms are words or expressions characteristic of the speech of a team united by any one profession. If the term is the scientific designation of the concept, accepted and legalized in science, then professionalism is a semi-official word common in the colloquial speech of people of a certain profession: steering wheel - steering wheel, basement - Bottom part newspaper sheet, cap - a common heading for several articles.

Jargon.

Jargons are words used in a particular social group. Everyone slang words a bright expressive and stylistic coloring is inherent, they can easily turn into colloquial everyday speech. Jargons are characterized by instability in time - some quickly go out of use, others appear. For example: a tail is an undelivered test or exam, a linden is a fake, a hammer is well done, a TV set is a TV.

The vocabulary of the language

S. s. I. is continuously replenished with the development of society according to the word-formation laws of the language (see Word formation), as well as through borrowings (see Borrowings). In the vocabulary of Russian. The language, which is based on words of common Slavic and native Russian origin, entered at different stages of development words from Scandinavian, Finnish, Turkic, Old Slavonic, Greek, and later from Latin, Romance, Germanic languages. Into the vocabulary German language included words from Latin, French, Italian, English and some other languages. These layers of borrowed vocabulary in S. s. I. reflect the cultural and historical ties of peoples, being one of the evidence (sometimes the only one) of the contacts of ancient peoples. S. s. I. are recorded (not completely) in explanatory dictionaries (See Dictionary).

Lit.: Ozhegov S. I., On the issue of changes in the vocabulary of the Russian language in Soviet era, "Questions of linguistics", 1953, No. 2; Borovoy L. Ya., The Way of the Word, 2nd ed., M., 1963; Yakubovich T. D., New words, M. - L., 1966; Ufimtseva A. A., The word in the lexical-semantic system of the language. M., 1968.

Big soviet encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

• Biographical dictionaries
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See what the "Vocabulary of the Language" is in other dictionaries:

VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE- a set of words (lexicon) of a given language. The object of study of lexicology and lexicography ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary of the language- a set of words (lexicon) of a given language. Object of study of lexicology and lexicography. * * * VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE, the totality of words (lexicon) of a given language. The object of study of lexicology and lexicography ... encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary of the language- The whole set of words that make up any language, including its main vocabulary ... Dictionary linguistic terms

VOCABULARY COMPOSITION OF THE LANGUAGE, VOCABULARY- the whole set of words that make up a language, including its main vocabulary ... Professional education. Dictionary

vocabulary- The totality of all the words of a particular language, one of the main components of the language, along with the sound and grammatical structure. The constant enrichment of the vocabulary of the language is one of the laws historical development language as a social phenomenon. Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

compound- n., m., use. often Morphology: (no) what? composition, why? composition, (see) what? composition of what? composition, about what? about the composition; pl. what? compositions, (no) what? compositions, why? compositions, (see) what? ingredients, what? compositions, about what? about compositions 1. Composition ... Dictionary Dmitrieva

VOCABULARY- VOCABULARY, dictionary, dictionary. adj. to the dictionary. Dictionary publishing house. Vocabulary of the Russian language. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

compound- a; m. 1. only units. whom what, what. The totality of what parts, objects, people, etc., forming something whole. C. court. C. flotilla. Social with. population. Personal with. (a set of people that make up some kind of institution, enterprise ... encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary- see dictionary; oh, oh. With th article. With th publishing house. Words / language composition of the language ... Dictionary of many expressions

Academy of Sciences of the USSR, scientific research institution, founded in Petrograd in 1921 as the Institute of Japhetological Research, since 1922 the Japhetic Institute. In 1930, the Commission of the Russian Language of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR became part of it, since 1931 it was called the Institute of Language and ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Books

• Vocabulary Acquisition as Ongoing Improvement, T. B. Nazarova. Vocabulary Acquisition as Ongoing Improvement. Tutorial considers actual problems in the study of the vocabulary of modern of English language and offers an extensive practical material, the mastery of which improves the quality ... Buy for 148 rubles
• The vocabulary of modern English at an advanced stage of learning, Nazarova T.. This educational edition contains: frequency vocabulary, stable compatibility models, key English-language business terminology with Russian equivalents. Designed to work in…

All words used in a given language form its vocabulary.

Among this large circle of lexical units there is a small but distinct circle of words - the main vocabulary fund that unites all root words, the core of the language. The main vocabulary fund is less extensive than the vocabulary of the language; it differs from the vocabulary of the language in that it lives for a very long time, for centuries, and gives the language a basis for the formation of new words.

One should not think that the words of the basic vocabulary of the language (“the main vocabulary fund”) are separated “ Chinese wall» from other vocabulary; it is not so, and there is no impassable border here. However, the presence in the language of some obligatory, basic stock of vocabulary is beyond doubt.

The main vocabulary fund covers the most necessary words language. Don't think it's exactly the same necessary concepts or essentials. Different words can be associated with concepts, and things can be called different words and rename if necessary.

To designate the same thing in a language, there may be a number of synonyms that are differently regarded in the vocabulary of the language and not all are included in the main vocabulary.

The concept associated with the main documents of Soviet power was called decree, but in 1936, according to the text of the Constitution of the USSR, the word was revived decree, which is now the main name of such documents. So the word decree although it expressed a very important concept in the field of new social relations Soviet power, but did not become a fact of the main vocabulary fund.

Consequently, the main vocabulary fund is a collection of words, and not "concepts" and, moreover, not "things", and it is not so easy for words to enter this fund.

What are the main definitions necessary to characterize the words of the main vocabulary fund?

In terms of lexicology, three such signs can be given that provide answers to the questions: 1) when? 2) to whom? 3) in what case?

These questions regarding the words of the main vocabulary fund should be answered as follows: 1) always (i.e., in the course of entire epochs), 2) all (i.e., not only all speakers of a given literary national language, but even representatives of most dialects) and 3) in all cases. The latter requires special explanation.

As we have already found out above, the vocabulary is differentiated by different features, including stylistic ones. And this is very important practically.

The theoretical doctrine of the basic vocabulary directly explains this practice. The fact is that the words of the main vocabulary (in their direct meanings) are facts of neutral vocabulary: they can be used with the same meaning in any genre of speech (oral and written speech, prose and poetry, drama and feuilleton, editorial and reportage and etc.) and in any context.

It should be noted that with the polysemy of a word (and this is the property of almost all words of the main vocabulary fund), not all meanings of a given word are a fact of the main vocabulary fund. So if the word Earth takes on the meaning of "continent" for the inhabitants of the islands or the word human acquires the slang meaning "a man from a restaurant", then these are not the facts of the main vocabulary. In the main vocabulary fund remain and live Earth -"terra" and human -"homo".

Highly important issue establishing the composition of the main vocabulary of any language is the question of what belongs to this language, as such, what is common to a group of relatives related languages and what binds the languages ​​of more distant groups united in one family. For example, for the main vocabulary of the Russian language, the following words can be given:

1) words only Russian: horse, peasant, good, throw(and all subsequent, see paragraphs 2,3,4);

2) words, common to east Slavic languages : forty, ninety, family, squirrel, dog, bucket, cheap(and all subsequent, see paragraphs 3, 4);

3) words, common to all Slavic languages(for the common Slavic basic vocabulary): head, house, white, throw(and all subsequent, see paragraph 4);

4) words, common to Slavic languages ​​and languages ​​of other Indo-European groups: I, you, who, that; two, three, five, ten, one hundred; mother, brother, sister, wife, husband; fire, sky, wolf.

Therefore, words like I, two, mother, fire, - and pan-Indo-European, and pan-Slavic, and pan-East Slavic, and pan-Russian.

Such, like head, white, throw,- common Slavic, common East Slavic, common Russian, but not common Indo-European (cf. lat. caput, German Kopf , French tẽte, English head-"head"; lat. albus, German weiβ, French blanc, English white-"white", etc.).

Words like forty, squirrel, dog, - only East Slavic (cf. Bulgarian. fourty, Czech. ctyricet, Polish czterdzesci; Bulgarian kateritsa, Czech. veverka, Polish wiewiorka etc.).

The same words as horse, peasant, good, throw, - only Russians (cf. Ukrainian toi ny, villager, garniy, kidati etc.).

It is interesting to note that not all dialects of a given language have the same composition of words naming the same phenomena as the general literary one. National language. So, in many northern Russian dialects, the squirrel is called vekshey, and the horse horse; and in the southern wolves - biryuk(from Turkic languages) 1 .

Using the example of various Slavic names for “squirrels”, it can be seen how in some languages ​​the old common Slavic name is preserved (Czech. veverka, Polish wiewiorka), in others, it is lost and replaced by another (Bulg. kateritsa, Russian squirrel) 1 .

From the position on the stability and preservation of the main vocabulary, one should not conclude that the main vocabulary is the oldest words in the language, preserved from prehistoric times and common to all languages ​​of this language family. Along with ancient words preserved in the main vocabulary fund: mother, brother; I, you; two, five; wolf, fire, sky etc., a lot of words have disappeared (for example, vira -"penalty fee" Gridnitsa -"front room", unknown to us the names of "bear", "snake") or became the property of dialects (for example, yatras -"brother's wife", yell -"plow", veksha -"squirrel") or special stylistic layers of the vocabulary (eyes -"eyes", ax -"axe", feast -"funeral feast", etc.).

It also happens that in direct meaning the word is not stored in the main vocabulary, but in figurative meanings or as part of derivative words is retained for a long time, however, more often in the vocabulary than in the main vocabulary, for example: nothing is visible[from stga -"road", cf. South Great Russian stitch, as well as stitch, stitch(blanket), etc.], correspondence and neologism "full-time training" (from eye -"eye"), ring, thimble(from finger -"finger"), gluttony (from the womb-"stomach"), tea (imperative form from chayati - tea), or in special terms: foot(Old Russian "step"), rank(Old Russian "order", "time", "time"). Sometimes old words or their forms "freeze" in proper names, which, as mentioned above (see § 7), can be preserved for a very long time, for example in toponymic names: sources in the Chernihiv region Ukraine old diminutive of istaba -"hut" (corresponds to the modern izbenki), Volokolamsk, Vyshny Volochok(from portage -"the space between navigable rivers, according to which dragged along products"), pillowcases -"poemny meadow" (cf. pier on the Volga pillowcases); in onomastics: Desnitsky(Old Russian and Old Slavonic right hand - « right hand»), Kindyakov(dialect kindyak -"Red Kumach", "Paper printed fabric", Kotoshikhin), Kokoshkin(Old Russian kokosh -"hen-hen", cf. Ukrainian kokosh-"rooster"), Studenetsky(Old Russian student -"well"), Tverdovsky(Old Russian firmament -"fortified place, fortress").

All other words together with the main ones form the vocabulary of the language.

Through vocabulary, the language is directly connected with reality and its awareness in society. Language is directly connected with the production activity of a person, and not only with production activity, but also with any other human activity in all spheres of his work.

Before explaining the ways of changing the vocabulary, we should dwell on some phenomena that allow us to more closely consider the vocabulary itself as a whole and in its individual parts.

First of all, this is the question of active and passive vocabulary.

An active vocabulary is those words that a speaker of a given language not only understands, but also uses himself. The words of the main vocabulary fund, of course, form the basis active dictionary, but do not exhaust it, since each group of people who speak a given language also has such specific words and expressions that for this group are included in their active dictionary, they use them daily, but are not required as facts of an active dictionary for other groups people who, in turn, have other words and expressions. Thus, the words of the main vocabulary fund are common for the active dictionary of any population groups, while the specific words will be different for the active dictionary. various groups people 1 .

Passive vocabulary is those words that the speaker of a given language understands, but does not use himself (such, for example, are many special technical or diplomatic terms, as well as various expressive expressions).

The concepts of active and passive vocabulary are very important when learning a foreign (foreign) language, but one should not think that there is an impenetrable wall between the facts of active and passive vocabulary; on the contrary, what is in a liability can, if necessary, easily turn into an asset (preamble, veto, pool, officer, general and similar words) and cash in an asset - go into a liability (nepman, decree, people's commissar etc.).

Harder question about the real and potential vocabulary. This issue cannot be resolved on the basis of a single registration of the presence of any word in the text or in oral speech, or the absence of such cases.

Written registration of words, especially in dictionaries, can not only be late for one reason or another, but simply absent for a long time (for example, the verb rustle existed in the Russian language for a very long time and was even recorded in written speech, but this word got into the dictionary of the Russian language only in 1940) 1 .

But even if given word someone used it in written or oral speech, then nevertheless it does not become a fact of language, but remains only a case of a text or conversation that has not received the main quality of a true phenomenon of language.

Therefore, it is so difficult to find an intelligible example of potential, that is, possible, but not really existing words. There is always a danger that a given word, if it is possible according to the laws of a given language, has already appeared and been used, but only not registered (for example, possessive adjective kestrelgin from kestrel, cf. Olga - Olgin; or robbery, robbery from baba, crab, cf. weakening, robbery etc.).

However, this question is interesting primarily because this way you can most clearly understand the relationship between vocabulary and grammar. Grammar establishes not only the norms of word changes and ways of their combinations in a sentence, but also constructive models of word formation. Grammar shows the possibilities of implementing certain patterns or word-formation schemes characteristic of a given language, while vocabulary either uses them (it includes words formed according to this model) or not; in last case and there is a potential dictionary in contrast to the real one. And this is one of the most powerful means of enriching the vocabulary without detriment to the language as a whole.

So, in Russian grammar "allows" (and even "obliges") to produce from the basics quality adjectives nouns categories of abstractness with the help of a suffix -awn, for example: tender - tenderness, raw - dampness etc. These are real dictionary facts. However, words goodness, directness, left etc. the real dictionary of the modern Russian language no longer knows. But can they be (before they were)? They can, if there is a vital need for their appearance; these are the facts of a potential dictionary of the Russian language, and the Russian language “allows” this.

Like any tier of the language structure, vocabulary is a system. However, it is in vocabulary that it is most difficult to establish a system, because if the facts of grammar and phonetics (the number of cases in declension, the number verb forms, the number of offer types; the number of phonemes and positions for them, etc.) are limited and countable, then the "facts" of the dictionary, as we have already seen, are innumerable and extremely variegated; it all depends on the fact that vocabulary is the most concrete sector of the language, and the less formal an abstraction is, the more difficult it is to understand it as a system. However, the vocabulary is systemic.