Age of the child in nominative units: linguo-cultural aspect (based on dialects of the Middle Ob area)

The article considers the nominative units of The Middle Ob dialects used for calling the child from infancy to adolescence studied in the linguo-cultural aspect. The aim is to identify the relevant traditional cultural representations of the child enshrined in the semantics of lexical items. One of the main motivational traits in the nomination of children is the idea of "smallnes", "small age" expressed by root -mal-. In nouns naming children the meaning "non-adult" and the meaning "small size" are often indivisible. Ways of denoting childhood are a direct indication of the number of years, the use of adjectives formed by the model 'numeral + root -mesyach- or -god-, etc. They have a dictionary definition of "being the age of X months / years", lexemes with the root -god-. Lexical units in the dialects of the Middle Ob area which call children by age are conventionally divided into several groups (newborns and infants, children, older infants, teenagers). The greatest number of nominations concern children's infancy. These nominations reflect the idea of having some of the characteristics represented in the infant, including the inability to walk and talk, inability to use the adult way of eating, connection with certain objects, etc. Children older than infants but not having reached adulthood yet are denoted by nouns with the roots -reb- and -det- (singular and plural), or by specifying the gender (a boy, a girl and their derivatives). Teenage nomination contains semantics of incompleteness, having a formal expression in the negative prefixes ne-, nedo-. The idea of incompleteness, formation is directly related to the semantics of growth; the nomination expresses "dissonance" in the development of the adolescent, in which the physical development goes faster than intellectual. Semantics of the age in children's nomination connected with the ideas of smallness, youth, incompleteness can be expressed through the inner form of the word. The basis of child nomination is with reference to objects and qualities that are attributive for this age stage. Thus, by linguistic and cultural analysis of the internal form of the word (root morpheme, word-forming affixes) and motivational signs expressing the basics of children's calling, we can identify perception of the child relevant for traditional culture representatives.

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