Exploring the Origins of Russian Lexicology

The beginning of the academic study of Russian lexicology is usually attributed to the last quarter of the nineteenth century and associated with the names of A.A. Potebnya, N.V. Krushevsky, and M.M. Pokrovsky. The aim of the article is to challenge this tradition and, accordingly, to outline the names of different scholars who were the genuine forerunners in the study of lexicology of the Russian language. Using the comparative method, the author identifies three periods in the formation of Russian lexicology: (1) the pre-academic period, which the author outlines giving the evidence of the Old Russian scribes' attention to the meaning of words and describing the scribes' practice of presenting new words and ethnographic vocabulary; (2) the academic period, which the author displays on the basis of the works on the theory of linguistics, the history of the Russian language, historical lexicology and etymology written by Russian philologists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The author also pays attention to the discussion of the supporters of the "old" and "new" style as the first debate on the vocabulary of the national language and the lexicon of literary texts in Russia; (3) the period of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, which is described as the phase of the study of lexical semantics and lexical system. The author focuses on the conception of a word developed by M.V. Lomonosov and F.I. Buslaev, as well as their attitude to literary traditions and colloquial speech in the period, in which the lexical norms of the Russian literary language were standardised. While analysing the two conceptions of a word, the author shows the correlation between grammar and lexis and describes them as follows: a word is indicated as an essential component of a sentence; the meaning of words is related to their place in the sentence and depends on the context; the development of vocabulary depends on the sociocultural history of the ethnic group. Within the framework of modern semasiology, the author first reveals the original outlines of the word's semantic structure analysis and the word's semantic development patterns, which were discovered by these two scholars and then developed in the works of their followers. The semantic observations of the two scholars also include their notes on rhetoric and lexical stylistics. The tropes as expressive means, described by Lomonosov, formed the basis of lexical stylistics and rhetoric, and Buslaev's "figurative expressions" laid the foundation for the study of phraseology in Russian linguistics. The works of the founders of Russian lexicology demonstrate a connection with the ideas of Wilhelm von Humboldt and modern anthropology. They first analysed many Russian words, such as mir 'peace', zemlya 'land', otechestvo 'fatherland', put' 'path', dusha 'soul', vera 'faith', sud'ba 'fate', chest' 'honor', narod 'people', yazyk 'language', slovo 'word', and brak 'marriage', which relate to the main Russian stereotypes. Lomonosov and Buslaev also illustrated the analysis of the lexis of different historical eras and different social groups. The author proves that Lomonosov and Buslaev worked at the intersection of linguistics, literature, cultural history, and pedagogy. The study of their academic monographs, essays, etc. from the standpoint of onomasiology and semasiology should be continued. Due to their works, Russian lexicology evidently dates back from the middle of the eighteenth century and was successfully developed throughout the nineteenth century.

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