Славянская лексика звукосимволического происхождения: проблемы этимологизации
Slavonic vocabulary of sound-symbolic origin: problems of etymologization

Summary/Abstract: According to etymological dictionaries of Slavic languages, as well as recently issued ones, there should not be any words of sound symbolic origin in these languages or their amount should be very small. This fact, however, contradicts the typological assumption of primitiveness and universality of phonetically motivated words. The present paper discusses two main points of the etymological analysis of words of sound symbolic origin: how to recognize them and how to define the groups of cognates between them in Slavic languages. In the recognition of sound-symbolic words, the reduplication should be considered as a most reliable criterion.In discussing the possibilities of defining the groups of cognates between words of sound- symbolic origin the following points are emphasized. The continuants of the different sound- symbolic origin in the different languages and dialects can have the same or similar phonetic forms and convey the same meaning, too. Since the similar reduplicated forms can be created as sound symbolic denominations of different meanings, blending of sound-symbolic groups of cognates is possible during the evolution. There exist parallel forms with full and partial re-duplication, which convey the same meaning of sound-symbolic origin. This fact supports the hypothesis according to which partial reduplication is historically simply a reduction of full reduplication.

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