The Function Unit ‘V Smysle' as a Conjunction

The article offers a functional-semantic description of the function unit v smysle [in the meaning] in a function that is new to it, that is not fixed in the dictionaries - the function of a conjunction. This function of v smysle appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, and intensified sharply in the 2000s. The research material consisted of 968 contexts selected by hand sampling from the Russian National Corpus. With the help of contextual analysis, four groups of usage contexts of the conjunction v smysle that differ in the features of semantics and compatibility were singled out. The first group is represented by texts in which the speaker clarifies what s/he or the interlocutor has just said, makes a semantic or stylistic translation of the word or expression. In the second group, the conjunction v smysle has only an explanatory meaning, eliminating the ambiguity of a pronoun or a word with an unclear meaning. In the third group of contexts, the conjunction v smysle serves to accentuate any aspect of a situation or a notion. In the fourth group, the conjunction v smysle introduces a word that reconstructs a syntactic pattern. It is noted that the conjunction v smysle acts as a meta-indicator of an alternative practically in all contexts; the very semantics of this conjunction contains the idea of choosing from different variants of interpretation. A comparison of the conjunction v smysle with the canonical explanatory conjunction to est' [that is] shows that they often act as synonyms, but they are not interchangeable in all contexts. V smysle always assumes a choice of at least two aspects of a situation or an interpretation, whereas for to est' such a choice is not necessary. The conjunction v smysle is not used in contexts containing full synonyms, but for the conjunction to est' such contexts are typical. The authors believe that the reason lies in the etymological connection of the conjunction v smysle with the noun smysl [sense, meaning]. Using this unit, the speaker signals that an interpretation, a clarification, an explanation of what has been said earlier is to follow, or, in case of an echo question, the speaker induces the interlocutor to give an explanation, an interpretation. Constructions with the conjunction v smysle reflect the dynamics of the generation of speech, the formation of the meaning of the utterance, and are often accompanied by hesitation markers. The etymology of the conjunction to est' is connected with the concept of being, staticity. It can be argued that the emergence of the conjunction v smysle in the Russian speech creates prerequisites for differentiating the meanings of explanatory conjunctions. Taking into account that dictionaries treat the function unit v smysle only as a derivative preposition having the meaning “in relation to”, it seems necessary to bring the lexicographic practice into correspondence with the speech reality and to refine the meaning of the function unit v smysle in the dictionaries.

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