Blending in the Semantics of the Old Russian T"ska

The article focuses on the functional and semantic features of the lexeme toska and its supposingly same-root derivatives in Old Russian and Russian. The semantics of this field of lexis is related, on the one hand, to the designation of an important human emotion of melancholy/sadness, and, on the other hand, to the concept "empty; vain; futile" and the non-correlated concepts "hurried, quick", "constraint, pressure" and "accuracy, care". The analysis of the problem is based on the material of all Slavic languages having same-root formations. It has been determined that the derivatives of the root *t"sk- related to the designation of melancholy/sadness are represented only in East and West Slavic languages. It has been found that, in West Slavic languages, they designate only the feeling of melancholy/sadness (Czech stesk "melancholy, sadness", teskny "sad, plaintive", Old Polish teskny "sad, plaintive", etc.). The functional and historical-etymological analyses have broadened the analysed materials. The matter is that etymological sources generally link the derivatives of *t"sk- to the same etymological group of words as the derivatives of the root *t"sc-(< *t"sk-j-), cf. V. Machek., M. Vasmer, Ya. Chernykh, and others. Formations with the root *t"sc- are widely known in all Slavic languages with the meaning "empty; vain; futile" (cf. Russian toshchiy, tshcheta, tshchetnyy, their analogues in other Slavic languages). The semantics of the derivatives of this root in Old Slavonic (and isolated cases in Bulgarian and Slovenian) reveals, as in Old Church Slavonic Old Russian, the correlation of the concept "empty; vain; futile" with the concepts "strive", "hurried, quick" and "accuracy, care". The consideration of the complex semantic relations between the derivatives of the root *t"sk- and *t"sc- (primarily in Old Russian) has lead to the conclusion that the approximation of the concepts "melancholy/sadness" and "constraint, pressure" originated under the influence of the Latin linguistic culture in the West Slavic area (with subsequent propagation to South Slavic languages, cf. Serbo-Croatian teskoba), which was reflected in the semantics of the Czech and Slovak derivatives *tesk-/ *tisk- ("melancholy/sadness" and "depression"; "tight" and "melancholic, sad", cf. Czech tisen "need, lack" and "depression, melancholy/sadness", Slovak tiesen "melancholy/sadness", "depression", "need") and derivatives of the root *uzk- (Czech uzky "narrow, tight" - uzkost "melancholy/sadness; anxiety; fear, dread", uzkostlivy, uzkostny "(of a person) too accurate and careful; meticulous"). It is probable that semantic blending in the derivatives with the root *t"sc- ("empty, futile" and "constrain, strive" - "careful, meticulous"<*tes(k)n-: *tisk-) is connected with the further extension of this understanding of melancholy/sadness into the Eastern part of the South Slavic area.

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