Theoretical issues of the lexical-semantic typology (case study of the caucasian languages)

Abstract

The article applies the method of parametric analysis, introduced and studied by V. T. Titov, to four North Caucasian languages: Kabardian-Circassian and Abaz, as representatives of the Abkhaz-Adyghe family, Chechen and Avar, as representatives of the Nakh-Dagestan family. The creation of a language database is described in stages, namely, the transfer of a printed dictionary to Excel, dividing the lemma, field label, first definition, second definition, and so on into columns; creation of practical transcription so that the number of letters matches the number of sounds; replacing letters with symbols of completed transcription, and actions that ensure the selection of 4 main vocabulary cores: the functional core (evaluation by word length), which implies that the shorter the word, the more often it is used, and vice versa; the syntagmatic core (estimated by the number of phraseological units), which implies that the more phrases a word has, the more its syntagmatic weight; the paradigmatic core (estimated by the volume of the synonymic series), the more synonyms a word has, the greater its paradigmatic weight; the epidigmatic core (estimated by the number of meanings of a word), the more meanings of a word, the higher its epidigmatic weight. Further, all four languages were compared with each other to find typological similarities and differences. The conclusion of the comparison was that if languages are genetically related, this does not mean at all that they must be typologically similar. The study showed that typologically Kabardian-Circassian and Chechen are comparatively close to each other, while genetically they are different.