On the life of the lexeme "format" in the Russian language: Lexicographic description vs. corpus data

This article attempts to identify discrepancies in the lexicographic description and textual functioning of the lexeme "format" and to present a complete description of its meaning using lexicographic sources (15) and the Russian National Corpus data (3,650 contexts). The methodology combines a traditional linguistic approach to semantic analysis through lexicographic sources and a corpus-based approach. The study utilizes definitional and contextual analysis, semantization techniques, quantitative analysis for calculating meanings, and comparative analysis. The study yielded the following results. The first dictionary entry for a specialized meaning was recorded in the 19th century. By the mid-20th century, the lexeme developed terminological polysemy without extending beyond the professional sublanguage of book publishing. By the end of the 20th century, a new meaning from the field of computer science began to emerge. Specialized sources consistently reflect the terminological polysemy of the lexeme under study, but descriptions of non-specialized meanings are recorded only in the early 19th century, despite their earlier appearance in texts. Corpus data reveal a clearly broader functional semantics -approximately 20 contextual meanings/shades. The lexeme "format" began its use in the 18th century with a narrowly specialized meaning, but gradually became polysemic, appearing in texts by the end of the 18th century with the meaning "style of speech, writing." By the first third of the 20th century, a system of meanings unified by the semantic component "size" was finally formed, from which metaphorical meanings with the component "significance" were derived. From the late 18th century, a system of meanings unified by the semantic component "style, manner" began to emerge, serving as the basis for the formation of a group of variants with the dominant components "method of presentation" and "method of organization," and then "standard." Within this system, an obvious evaluative meaning emerges, giving the lexeme an antonymic pair in the form of the single-root antonym "neformat." At the end of the 20th century, another subsystem of meanings emerged, united by the semantic component "technology," likely formed through a semantic calque of the English term. Since the early 2000s, the prepositional-case combination "format" has become active, gradually desematizing and possibly becoming a preposition in the future. The study suggests that lexicographic sources do not reflect the full spectrum of the lexeme's functional semantics, describing primarily only specialized meanings united by the semantic components "size" and "technology." The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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