The semantic unity of “generosity”–“greed” in the ethical paradigm

based on contextual analysis, the article traces the formation of the semantic unity of generosity – greed, where the first is the concept itself, which includes aspiration, a pattern, a positive example, and the second is an anti–concept, that is, avoidance, a negative example. However, this antonymic pair is gradually forming in the Russian language consciousness. In the 18th century, there is no reason to consider generosity – greed as a dual concept, since the lexeme “greed” still carries a positive or neutral value associated with earlier usage in religious discourse, where its first literal meaning was “hunger” and the second, metonymic, “acute, strong desire”. But the prerequisites for the formation of the anti-concept of generosity were laid already in the XVIII century, when an ethical paradigm was being formed, in which generosity and greed are used as ethical concepts, being verbalized in various genres. The fragments of the works of V.K. Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov, S.S. Volchkov, I.I. Lepekhin, N.P. Rychkov, I.A. Krylov, D.I. Fonvizin, A.N. Radishchev and other writers, scientists and publicists of the XVIII century, whose texts containing the studied concepts are selected according to the degree of representativeness and influence, are analyzed. the formation of the Russian linguistic consciousness and the national conceptual sphere. The result of the study is the conclusion that the concept of “generosity” occupies an important place in Russian linguistic culture, being ethically significant, basic, while “greed” is gradually losing its polysemanticism and turning into an anti-concept.

linguistic and cultural concept, ethical concept, anti-concept, lexical prototype, generosity, greed, linguistic consciousness