Sebe and vpolne sebe: semantics, pragmatics, functions

Cover Page

Cite item

Full Text

Abstract

Linguists are particularly interested in observing lexical units, reflecting the picture of the world of a modern person. It allows to visually study fashionable words and expressions as indicators of the linguistic taste of the era. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study the trends in using colloquial lexical units as markers of cognitive and social development of personality at the present stage. The aim is to characterize the functions and pragmasemantic meanings of the particle sebe (to oneself) and the set expression vpolne sebe (quite) in modern Russian linguistic culture. The material was taken from the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language and examples from the National Corpus of the Russian Language. The author used the methods of continuous sampling, contextual and interpretive analysis, elements of quantitative analysis, and semantic analysis of dictionary definitions. It was found that quite often the freedom and independence of actions of the statement protagonist, conveyed by this particle, his autonomy and sovereignty receive negative assessment of the subject of speech: they are considered as indifference to others, disregard for ethical norms and norms of social life and they are condemned, and this assessment is emphasized by the presence in the statement of the particle sebe (oneself). It was determined that the increase in the activity of the particle sebe (oneself) in modern speech is associated with changes in the modal type of the Russian personality. The semantic core, which focuses the basic meanings of the set expression vpolne sebe (quite), is concentrated in the lexeme vpolne (quite), while pragmatic meanings remain in the particle sebe (oneself). The author revealed that the main communicative purpose of the expression vpolne sebe (quite) is the function of taking off the responsibility for the statement's content, singling out the object of speech and identifying the speaker with the social group which is elite in his perception. Being a fashionable expression, the phrase is nowadays actively used in Runet, penetrates into public speech, reaches the peak of its popularity and then may give way to new indicators of linguistic fashion.

About the authors

Sergei G. Vorkachev

Kuban State Technological University

Author for correspondence.
Email: svork@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6290-2582

Doctor of Philology, Professor, Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages

2 Moskovskaya St, Krasnodar, 350072, Russian Federation

References

  1. Arutyunova, N.D. (1999). Language and the human world. Moscow: Yazyki Russkoi Kul'tury Publ. (In Russ.)
  2. Bartoshevich, A. (1978). Particles and lexicographic practice. Slavia Orientalis, XXVII(3), 331–334. (In Russ.)
  3. Fortuin, E., & Israeli, A. (2012). Modal particles and aspectuality: Znaj and sebe in Russian. Russian Language and Linguistic Theory, (2), 107–131.
  4. Fraser, B. (2010). Pragmatic competence: The case of hedging. In G. Kaltenböck, W. Mihatsch & S. Schneider (Eds.), New Approaches to Hedging (pp. 15–34). Bingley: Emerald Publ.
  5. Kiselev, I.A. (1976). Particles in modern East Slavic languages. Minsk: BSU Publ. (In Russ.)
  6. Klenin, E. (1975). The pronoun sebja, particle sebe, and affix -sja. The Slavic and East European Journal, 19(2), 188–199. https://doi.org/10.2307/306773
  7. Kolesnikova, S.M. (2012). Russian particles: Semantics, grammar, functions. Moscow: Flinta-Nauka Publ. (In Russ.)
  8. Kotyurova, M.P., & Bazhenova, E.A. (2020). Discursive particles in the context of the journalist’s critical thinking. Tomsk State University Journal of Philology, (64), 63–75. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17223/19986645/64/5
  9. Kreidlin, G.E., & Frid, N.E. (2001). Aloud about “myself” (semantics and syntactics of one Russian particle). Linguistics at the Turn of Eras: Ideas and Topoi (pp. 46–67). Moscow: RSUH Publ. (In Russ.)
  10. Krongauz, M.A. (2008). The Russian language is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Moscow: Yazyki Slavyanskoi Kul'tury Publ. (In Russ.)
  11. Lakoff, G. (1972). Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Journal of Philosophical Logic, (2), 458–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00262952
  12. Lekant, P.A. (2001). On the grammatical status of particles. Language System and Its Development in Time and Space: collection of scientific works dedicated to the 80th anniversary of K.V. Gorshkova (pp. 391–393). Moscow: Lomonosov Moscow State University. (In Russ.)
  13. Nikolaeva, T.M. (1985). Functions of particles in the statement (based on the material of Slavic languages). Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russ.)
  14. Nikunlassi, A. (2019). Syntax of the focus particle tol’ko i. Voprosy Jazykoznanija, (2), 7–30. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31857/S0373658X0004300-9
  15. Prince, E., Frader, J., & Bosk, C. (1982). On hedging in physician-physician discourse. Linguistics and the Professions: Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies (pp. 83–97). Norwood: Ablex Publ.
  16. Starodumova, E.A. (2002). Particles of the Russian language (multi-aspect description). Vladivostok: FEFU Publ. (In Russ.)
  17. Sukhov, S.V. (2015). On the main function of the particle “itself” in the modern Russian language. Philology. Theory & Practice, (8–1), 166–169. (In Russ.)
  18. Vinogradov, V.V. (1947). Russian language (grammatical doctrine of the word). Moscow; Leningrad: Gos. Ucheb.-Ped. Izd-Vo Publ. (In Russ.)
  19. Vorkachev, S.G. (1992). Meanings of the middle area of axiological assessment in language. Automatic Documentation and Mathematical Linguistics, (7), 1–3. (In Russ.)
  20. Vorkachev, S.G. (1993). Speech actions and assessment of the moral qualities of a person: Indicators of indifference in psychological relations. Philological Sciences, (3), 85–91. (In Russ.)
  21. Vorkachev, S.G. (2012). Initiative and obedience: To axiological variability of concept in language. Political Linguistics, (1), 173–180. (In Russ.)
  22. Weiss, D. (2008). Živi sebe normal'nenko! Zur Lexicalisierung von russ. sebe als Partikel. Schweizerische Beiträge zum XIV. Internationalen Slavistenkongress in Ohrid, September 2008 (pp. 327–344). Bern, Frankfurt am Main, 2008. https://doi.org/ 10.5167/uzh-10495
  23. Zhuravleva, N.G. (2009). The phenomenon of the “fashionable” word. Rostov-on-Don: RSUE Publ. (In Russ.)

Copyright (c) 2023 Vorkachev S.G.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies