Obsolete words and neologisms: examples. Archaisms and neologisms in Russian

The Russian language has an ever-changing vocabulary: some previously used common vocabulary is now almost not used, the other, on the contrary, is increasingly being used by us. Examples of obsolete words and neologisms are numerous, which indicates the development of language.

Such phenomena are closely connected with the change of social life: a new word arises with the appearance of a new concept, and if people no longer refer to a certain object or phenomenon, then the term serving for its designation is not used. In this article we will look at obsolete words and neologisms, examples of their use, types and features.

Obsolete words: definition

Obsolete words are those that are either very rarely used at this time or are not used at all (for example, the right hand, the child, the Red Army man, the mouth, the People's Commissar).

Obsolete words is a process, therefore different concepts can be at different stages of it. Still not released from active use, but used less often than before, the words are called "obsolete vocabulary."

Neologisms and archaisms are used for different purposes. The latter are used, for example, for naming phenomena and objects, that is, they perform a nominative function (for example, in scientific and historical works). In works of fiction devoted to the historical theme, such vocabulary plays a nominative-stylistic role - serves not only to indicate a concrete reality, but also creates a certain color of a given era.

In the literary text obsolete words can be used to indicate the time when the action takes place. Archaisms (and neologisms) can serve the actual stylistic purpose. Obsolete words give the text solemnity, being means of expressiveness.

Neologisms: definition

We answer the question about what neologisms are, we will try to give examples also. These are new words that have not yet become everyday and habitual. Their composition is constantly changing, some of the neologisms are adopted in the Russian language, while others are not. So, the word "companion" in the middle of the 20th century was a neologism. Every year, the mass media use tens of thousands of new terms and concepts, but not all of them are included in everyday use. Some are used only once in oral speech or some text, while others are included in the language composition and, being used many times, they lose their novelty. Certain new terms, without having yet to enter the main lexical fund, immediately go out of use and are becoming obsolete (such a fate befell, for example, the vocabulary of post-revolutionary years: universal, female girl, businesswoman, kerenka).

Ways of occurrence of new words

Obsolete words and neologisms of the Russian language - a very interesting phenomenon. It is especially curious to know how new concepts are emerging. They arise in several ways:

- the formation of lexical neologism (new term) from already existing in the language of morphemes and words according to existing models: gypsum board, disk drive, fiber optic;

- the borrowing of some foreign language with the subsequent formation from it new according to existing in the language models of word formation: scanner, scan, scan;

- the formation of a new lexical meaning of the term already existing in the language (in this sense, the words are called semantic neologisms), including by means of calculating the meanings of the words of another language: the mouse is both a device for entering information into the computer, and an animal; Winchester - this is a device for storing computer information, and a gun;

- the formation of some stable word combinations with a new meaning (including those that have been squashed): motherboard, hard disk.

Archaisms and historicisms

Among the obsolete vocabulary, archaisms and historicisms stand out. Obsolete words and neologisms, examples of which are indicated in this article, have different destinies.

It is determined by their use in speech, and not by "age": those who call for necessary, vital concepts and terms do not age for centuries, others quickly archaize, we stop using them, because the objects themselves, denoted by these words, disappear. For example, the education system in our country has changed, and therefore such terms as a classy lady, institute of noble maidens, an institute, a realist (in the sense of "a student in a real school") left the speech.

The concept of "historicism"

Employees of the names of already disappeared concepts, objects and phenomena of the word are called historicisms. All the above terms refer to them. These words occupy a special position in our language, since they are the only symbols of obsolete objects. Historicisms, therefore, do not and can not have any synonyms. In art works and historical literature about the past of the people they are inevitably used, because thanks to them the color of a particular epoch is recreated. These words give the features of historical authenticity to the description of the past.

Thus, historicisms are words that we have ceased to apply in connection with the fact that the phenomena and objects they designate have disappeared: the caftan, the bursa, the posadnik. They are used mainly in various texts describing the past (both artistic and scientific).

The concept of "archaism"

Archaisms are words that have passed into passive stock because new names have emerged from the phenomena, objects and concepts that they now designate. Allocate different types of them, depending on which aspect of this or that word is obsolete:

- lexical, if the word itself is obsolete and its sound-letter complex is no longer used, and meaning is now denoted by a new unit of vocabulary;

- semantic - in the case when the word in modern language exists, but lost some value or several of them ("deprive the belly");

- phonetic - if the sound image of this or that term has changed, reflected in its writing ("eighteen years");

- word-building - when the very word-formation structure of this word is obsolete ("poison caplet");

- grammatical - if some grammatical forms have disappeared from use.

Archaisms do not differ in principle from historicisms. If the latter are the names of some obsolete items, then the first ones are obsolete names of ordinary concepts and phenomena that we encounter in everyday life.

Types of archaisms

Among the archaisms can be identified specific groups of words. Some of them differ from their common synonyms with specific features in sounding, incomplete sound combinations (young - young, gold - gold, city - hail, shore - breg, crow - vrane, second words in these pairs sound archaic). These obsolete words are called phonetic archaisms. These include terms such as Klob (club in modern vocabulary), number (number), stora (curtain), hospital (hospital) and other obsolete words and phrases in Russian that can be found in writers and poets of the 19th century. From their "rivals" they often differ only with one sound, less often with a few of them or with an out-of-date accent.

As you can see from the examples, the lexical usage is different in its degree of archaic: some words are still used in speech, for example by poets, and others are known to us only from the works of literature of the last century. There are some that are completely forgotten today.

A very interesting phenomenon is the archaization of a certain meaning of the word.

The result is the emergence of semantic, or semantic, archaisms, that is, words that are used in an outdated, unusual meaning for us. Their knowledge helps to understand the language of classical literature.

How neologisms appear

We have already answered the question of what neologisms are, examples of which were given above. Now we will find out how they arise in the Russian language. What appears faster: archaisms and neologisms? Let's figure it out.

The speed of appearance is different for vocabulary layers, such as obsolete words and neologisms, examples of which are suggested in this article. Much more intensive and faster is the process of replenishing the language with a new lexical composition. In recent years, about 15-20 years, there have been great historical changes in our country, which was reflected directly in the state of the vocabulary of the Russian language. The neologisms that appeared at this time include such entities that did not exist before this, not only in the literary language, but in any other spheres of its use (territorial and social dialects, functional styles). Only with the restructuring of the vocabulary included such concepts as an agrobank (i.e., a land bank), corporatization (transformation into a joint-stock company of a state enterprise by issuing and selling various shares), addressed (addressed to a specific group of people), an anti-market (i.e., Countries to a market economy), as well as hyperinflation (inflation, rapidly developing and threatening economic collapse) and some others.

Kinds of neologisms

As you have already noticed, antiquated words contrast the neologisms. New units of vocabulary by their design are either individual words (tenantry, anti-Stalinism, audio cassette, ATM, band-forming), or compound names (UFO is a flying saucer, the poverty line is a certain level of welfare of the population, providing a minimum consumption of basic material goods).

Such neologisms are considered lexical. One can note here also the phraseological ones, which are newly emerged stable combinations of words, for example: to include a printing press (that is, to start additional printing of paper money that is not provided for the production of goods), hang noodles on the ears (meaning "to mislead someone" ) and etc.

Lexical-phraseological neologisms are phraseological units, compound terms and words.

Four groups of neologisms

As you can see, the functions of obsolete words and neologisms are different. We already mentioned the role of the former. All new words can be divided into four main groups according to their purpose.

The first of these includes the names of concepts and realities, which previously did not exist in the life of the people: the revivalists are followers of Russia's pseudo-patriotic movements seeking to revive it, the grant is certain grants that form a form of additional financial support for scientific research,

The second group of neologisms is created to denote phenomena already taking place in public life, but they have not received their designation for some reasons, for example ideological: the returnee - who voluntarily returned from exile to his homeland, extrajudicial - who is outside the jurisdiction, Leninist, command-bureaucratic and etc.

The third group is made up of facts that do not exist in real life, but are possible in fantasies, predicted with the further development of technology and science: space ship, nuclear winter, cyborg.

The last, fourth group includes lexical units that duplicate words with a certain lexical meaning. This includes ideographic (complete) synonyms, identical in stylistic color and meaning: thoughtful - weighed, statist - sovereign, historical - fateful, soviet - loyal.

Interstyle and neologisms characteristic of a certain style of speech

Neologisms in the sphere of use are mainly interstyle, that is, they are used in all types of speech (interdevochka, image, case, yogurt, beneficiary, liberal-democratic, drug business, interbank). However, a certain part of them is peculiar to a specific style: journalistic (dissident, rejection, drug lord, integrator, weightedness), scientific (biolocation, aura, ozone hole, radioecology, cloning), business (dealer, depository, natural monopoly) or conversational (xerit, Kompromat, cash, cheating, bad luck, strained).

We answered the question of what obsolete words and neologisms are. Examples of them can be given a variety of, in this article were listed only some of them. In fact, both are a significant layer of vocabulary. There are even special dictionaries in which you can find other examples of obsolete words and neologisms.