The Great Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language as a Reflection of Economic Change: Semantic Dynamics of Words with the Root Torg-
Authors:   Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), Vorontsov Roman I. 
Published: January 2021

The article deals with the dynamics of a fragment of the Russian linguistic worldview projected onto the experience of academic lexicography. Based on the data extracted from the three editions of the Great Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language (also referred to as the Dictionary), which serves as a reflection of the 80-yearlong history of the Soviet and Russian society, the sociocultural dynamics of a conceptual view of economy and trade is uncovered through its lexical, semantic and lexicographic realization. The aim of the research is to analyze the semantic dynamics of the words with root torg- [trade] based on the Dictionary data. This includes the study of the lexicographic interpretation of these words as well as the justification of new lexicographic solutions. The key attention is paid to a number of polysemantic words: torg, torgovat’, torgovat’sya, torgovlya, torgovyy. In the course of the research, the method of componential semantic analysis is applied together with the comparison of the entries from different editions of the Dictionary and with the selection of text illustrations by means of linguistic corpora. Two aspects of the semantic dynamics of the words with root torg- are discussed: 1) reflection of lexicographic principles adopted by the authors of the Dictionary and 2) lexical and semantic objectivation of the Russian linguistic worldview. The first aspect is represented by the trend of semantic differentiation typical of the Dictionary and manifested in both enlargement and specification of the word semantic structure. Syncretic meanings that can be seen in the first edition are later splintered into separate meanings or even shades of meaning (torgash, torgashestvo, torgovat’). The sociocultural dynamics is presented by a number of linguistic trends. The first trend is generating new collocations, and the adjective torgovyy shows here the highest productivity. Adjacent to it stands the active formation of compound words beginning with torgovo-. The second (controversial) trend is obsolescence of words and meanings: notions of the Soviet economy are going out of use (torg as a ‘trade institution’). The third trend is actualization of obsolete words and meanings, which is often only illusive. In the Soviet period, many notions of economy were considered inadmissible or typical of the Czarist era, hence, these words were defined as obsolete ones. However, the historic change of the early 1990s showed that this part of vocabulary was always commonly used, even in the Soviet texts that could not serve as a source of illustrations due to censorship. Thus, the considered aspects of the semantic dynamics of the words with the root torg- demonstrate the general way of conceptualizing the economic sphere by the Russians. It is mainly reflected in the social revaluation of the market relations, trade, and entrepreneurship. The lexical and semantic objectivation of this revaluation requires shrewd lexicographic solutions.