Loan Words in the Russian Language of the Second Half of the 19th Century (On the Material of N. S. Leskov᾽s Letters)

Abstract

Neology of the Russian language of the 19th century is a promising field of historical lexicology. Russian neologisms of that era are among the main objects of attention for the compilers of the Dictionary of the Russian language of 19th century. Letters of Russian writers represent an important source for the study of neologisms, since in their correspondence with friends, colleagues, relatives, acquaintances, writers responded to changes in the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural life of Russia in the second half of the 19th century, and this was reflected in the language of the letters. We used the letters of N. S. Leskov as our source, in which one can observe different types of foreign language units. Borrowed words are often reflected in dictionaries with great delay. Leskov’s letters offer interesting material for the observation the initial stages of the use of foreign words in the Russian language. In addition, letters allow us to analyze the peculiarities of functioning of borrowed words in the Russian language. The purpose of the study is to identify loan words in Leskov's letters and to analyze their peculiarities in the aspect of the overall dynamics of Russian lexical-semantic system. The article gives the definition of the term «borrowing», and specifies criteria of the emergence of foreign language units in the lexical system of the Russian language. Material of Leskov’s letters proves that they are a valuable linguistic source for exact dating of the emergence of foreign words in the Russian language, and thus they can be used to adjust data dictionaries; and to trace the processes of adaptation of loan words in the 19th century Russian language (the processes of expansion and narrowing of the semantic structure of words, determinologization, metaphorization values).