“Vypechka” (pastries) and “molochka” (dairy products): vectors of language changes

The article is devoted to the active processes in modern speech, such as massive spread of univerbated words and verbal nouns. These phenomena can be seen in various lexical forms derived with different suffixes. The data used in the article is verbal nouns derived with suffix -k- (vypechka, zapivka, moika, perenoska) and univerbated words with homonymous suffix (molochka, sotsialka, veterinarka, nulevka). These two groups of words are involved in active lexical and semantic variation processes. The data source is explanatory and word-formation dictionaries, The Russian National Corpus, latest fiction texts, colloquial speech recordings. Results and discussion. The lexicon dynamics is largely determined by two processes – on the one hand, by the wide expansion of verbal nouns with typical metonymic meaning transfer in this lexical group, on the other hand, by the extreme spread of univerbated words, especially in colloquial speech. The regular word-formation models correspond to regular metonymic meaning transfer. Univerbation as a means of folding multiple-word structures represents a compressive word-formation characteristic of colloquial speech. Lexical meaning dynamics is reflected in explanatory dictionaries that represent vocabulary of various historical periods. Some univerbated words are placed firmly in literary language (elektrichka, morekhodka, zachetka), as well as the other have recently appeared in colloquial speech (sanktsionka, udalenka). Lately appearing special dictionaries of univerbated words provide rich material for this phenomenon study both in synchrony and in diachrony. What is of particular interest is the use of verbal nouns and univerbated words with the homonymous suffix in modern fiction, where various forms of author’s reflection are observed. The conducted research has shown the communicative significance of two processes – the formation of verbal nouns and univerbated words with the homonymous suffix. The appeal to lexicographic publications shows a typical mechanism of lexical and semantic variation associated with the speaker’s desire to convey different thoughts concisely or to denote new realities with a single lexeme.

compressive word-formation, verbal nouns, univerbated words, metonymy, usus, language fashion