THE NOTION “COMPOUND WORD” IN RUSSIAN LINGUISTICS

Abstract

Тhis article is devoted to the analysis and generalization of the existing approaches to the interpretation of the notion “compound word” in the Russian linguistics. These units are examined from derivative and syntactical points of view. According to the fi rst, traditional representation, a compound word is considered to be a derivative whose word-formative structure consists of two or more producing stems, or components-roots, or root morphemes and possessing structurally-semantic integrity. According to the second one – compounds harken back to word collocations and are the result of their syntactic and semantic compression. The fi rst one implies the composite tracing to the corresponding syntactic unit, while the second one indicates the transformation and adaptation of its meaning to the meaning of the producing word combination. As far as the lexical meaning of a compound consists of the meaning of several words, then the determinant one will be the semantics of the root (main) word of the corresponding word phrase. In the framework of the syntactical approach compounds can be treated as analytical constructions whose fi rst elements are so called analytical adjectives which are combined with the content words. There is also a specifi c way of analyzing compounds in the Russian linguistics – from a cognitive point of view according to which these units are the result of the derivational combination of several marked semantic categories in which the perceptive subject performs the conceptualization of the reality. Considering composites in such a way the main attention is given to their function in distraction from their form. The most advanced is the interpretation of compounds as word-building syntactical derivatives consisting of univerbs (compound stems – combination of two or more motivating stems into one) representing a positional analogue of a root – radix which can undergo affi xation. The main characteristics of such units are the following: structural synthesis; semantical integrity; morphological and accentual continuity; impenetrability; certain semantic relations between the components; reference to a particular part of speech; ability to be formed by specifi c structurally semantic models.