The Internet as a Source of Linguistic Information (for Studying the Dynamics of Russian Word Formation)

The article deals with the analysis of the internet search option as a source of linguistic information which linguists frequently apply nowadays. The authors verified the validity of quantitative indicators of using the derivatives on the Internet that were received from Yandex and Google browsers. The research material is the web-based project “Dar Slova” by M. Epstein (2000-2010). The project was aimed at Russian lexicon “creative updating” with the help of individual word formation and derivative integration into the Russian discourse through the Internet. Since this initiative has had a considerable impact on the Russian language, its effectiveness has been analyzed by the authors as well. According to the research, the quantitative indicators received from simple keyword internet search are knowingly more significant than the real number of particular word use. In this context, the search results received from Yandex and Google differ significantly (the reasons for this have been examined). The special operators that can increase the search accuracy are considered in the article. Taking these factors into consideration makes the analysis more relevant. Many other problems have been revealed during the analysis, for instance, the cases connected with the degree of internet search accuracy, in particular the mismatch of search quantitative indicators fixed by the browser and the number of available links (they could be several times less). The authors concluded that, in this regard, it is preferable to use the Russian National Corpus (RNC). However, when it concerns linguistic innovations like neoderivatives the RNC does not always provide robust data: in certain cases some new non-conventional derivatives are not fixed in the RNC as well as most of the words considered. This fact shows that one of the major linguistic research methodological objectives is keyword search optimization. The sample review of derivatives from “Dar Slova” showed that some of them, formed along the project, are not requested at all (for example, the words with the root -lub-). In our opinion, this partly “neological” effect of such an extraordinary and long-term project with regard to Russian word formation depends on the violation of cognitive and discourse terms of new word integration into the lexicon. Nevertheless, the results of this multi-year work concerning new word formation in terms of the “Dar Slova” project deserve a detailed and extensive linguistic analysis. Moreover, internet search under condition of its optimization has revealed that some of the non-conventional words from the project were created on the basis of productive models and used in appropriate discourse conditions so far in advance of the project start. Their usage helped to fill the gaps in the word formation system. The overall conclusions of the research are the following. The internet search option for non-conventional new derivatives scanning is a very important and relevant opportunity because, on a wide variety of different genre websites involved into the search process by the browsers, it helps to fix the latest “language material” which allows to follow the history of the neologisms origin and distribution. The integrated use of different functions available today (such as various browsers, operators of query languages, search statistics data) can make search results considerably more specified.

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