Dame si pivko nebo cajicek? Genre and contextual conditions of diminutives use in Russian and Czech languages

The article describes the variation of diminutives pragmatic functions in Slavonic speech. The study is based on the ideas of linguistic relativity, discourse theory, functional theory of word formation and descriptive studies of the Slavic language picture of the world. The authors reveal a range of pragmatic aspects of the semantics of diminutives, contextual and con-situational conditions for the actualisation of group units. A comparative analysis of their implementation in Russian and Czech is based on the functioning contexts of the units of the thematic group "beverages" 'чаек' and 'пивко, 'pivko and 'cajfcek'. The data of the National Corps of the Russian language and the Czech National Corps are used as the source of the analysis. The authors determine and describe conditionally of concretisation of semantics and functions of diminutives, their discursive-genre fixation by the tradition of "chaepitie" (tea drinking) in Russian culture and beer catering in Czech and, on the contrary, the lack of a culturally fixed long tradition of drinking and serving beer in Russia and tea in the Czech Republic. The difference in cultural influences is manifested in the variable frequency of using 'чаек' and 'пивко,'pivko and 'cajfcek' and also in the variation of the denotative and pragmatic components of the lexemes' semantics.

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