INFORMATION ABOUT NOUNS WITH DIMINUTIVE AND AUGMENTATIVE SUFFIXES IN “EXPLANTORY DICTIONARYˮ BY N. YU. SHVEDOVA

Abstract

Тhe article is about the lexicographic presentation of nouns with diminutive and augmentative suffi xes in “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language with the inclusion of information about the origin of words” under the editorship of N. Yu. Shvedova. Words of this group are derivatives with modifi cation meanings, their semantics consists of the meaning of the producing word and the meaning of the suffi x. This allows such words to be presented in dictionary differently than non-derivatives and derivatives with mutational meanings, but in the same way as other modifi cation derivatives and syntactic derivatives. The aim of the article is to study the ways of presentation of words with diminutive and augmentative suffi xes in one of the modern one-volume dictionaries, the amount and types of information about them. Using the continuous sampling method, 2,449 words withtheir characteristics were extracted from the mentioned dictionary. All words and their characteristics were entered into the database, which allows us to know the word-formation, grammatical and semantic aspects of their structure. Most of the words are placed in the word-formation zone of the dictionary entry of the producing word, which is refl ected in the amount of information about them: on the one hand, these words, like entry words, have grammatical and semantic characteristics, on the other hand – illustrative material in the form of sayings is provided extremely rarely. The main feature of the presentation of these words is that their meaning is explicated not in the form of an interpretation, but with the help of labels conveying the semantic component ‘small’ and ‘big’, or by means of a reference to the producing word. Meanwhile, at least in some cases, the question arises about the accuracy of the label refl ecting the semantics.