Verba

From Editor-in-Chief

2025-09-15T07:18:49+00:00

Dear colleagues, authors and readers!

Before you is another, hopefully traditional, neological issue of the journal. The theme was announced in the previous issue – information about the annual conference “Neology. Neography – 2024,” held at the Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. This issue (starting from the end) features a review of the collection of articles prepared by the conference participants based on its outcomes. The review was written by Doctor of Philology Elena V. Osetrova from Krasnoyarsk, providing an external perspective. Thus, our journal offers the most comprehensive coverage of the conference, which explores the current state of the Russian language and is of great interest to the linguistic community.

The articles published in this issue of the journal address the topic of neology from two perspectives – lexical and grammatical.

The New in Vocabulary section features articles by professional neologists, researchers from the Institute of Linguistic Studies. The topics covered are classic themes within the field of neology. In their article, Natalia V. Kozlovskaya and Alina S. Pavlova examine a truly novel word with no known precedents – skuf – as a linguacultural type and a key word of the present moment. Despite its novelty, skuf has already integrated into the derivational system of Russian grammar. Meanwhile, Ekaterina V. Parysheva offers insightful observations on a word that, although somewhat familiar and not widely popular, has acquired a new meaning. Thus, this section demonstrates vocabulary renewal both through the emergence of new words and the enrichment of meanings of existing ones.

The Grammatical Aspects of Neology section, which consists of three articles, presents quite diverse phenomena, united by the fact that they demonstrate the action of grammar, not standing aside from the processes of vocabulary renewal. The article by Tatyana I. Steksova from Novosibirsk shows how vocabulary needs overcome interlevel boundaries, and whole sentences, which according to traditional views are not characterized as nominative units, become such. The article by Nadezhda I. Konovalova from Yekaterinburg discusses facts of the opposite nature – how morphological segments, or more precisely – prefixoids, acquire the status of a word. In my article, I would like to show that observations of suddenly popular adverbial constructions lead to the fundamental problem of analyticism in the Russian language, which, it seems, was considered in terms of vocabulary updating. Thus, the section presents three grammatical phenomena that vocabulary renewal needs include in neological techniques.

Thus, the issue offered to your attention unites university and academic linguists from Veliky Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and Krasnoyarsk, expanding its geography: in addition to the North-West of Russia, it includes the Ural and Siberia.

I sincerely thank all the authors of the issue and its reviewers – Doctors of Philology Victoria G. Didkovskaya from Veliky Novgorod, Valery A. Efremov from St. Petersburg, Tatyana I. Steksova from Novosibirsk.

Until next time on the electronic pages of our journal!

T. V. Shmeleva

“They are support of institutions”: Skuf as linguocultural type and present-moment keyword

2025-09-15T07:58:40+00:00

This article offers an analysis of the textual, lexical, and grammatical aspects of the neologisms skuf, skufina, and several related derivatives. It builds upon and refines existing theories in Russian linguistics regarding keywords of the present moment. The study investigates the use of neologisms with the root skuf- in contemporary media texts, focusing on their usage in titles, frequency, expansion of derivational potential, and inclusion in language play. The analysis is based on a corpus of texts drawn from press and online sources. The main characteristics of the linguocultural type skuf, as formed in the collective consciousness of modern society, are identified and described.

Adjective soevyi and its lexicographic analysis

2025-09-15T08:23:21+00:00

The article is devoted to the transformations of the systemic relations of the word soevyi (paradigmatic, syntagmatic, associative-derivational), used figuratively in modern Russian. The analysis is based on materials from articles found in the online English lexicographic resource Urban Dictionary, the database New in Russian Vocabulary. Dictionary Materials, the archive Integrum (2020–2025), the Russian National Corpus, as well as online content from the Vkontakte website, which is not reflected in either the Russian National Corpus or the Integrum archive and was collected through unselective sampling. A review of lexicographic sources shows that explanatory dictionaries mainly record only the direct meanings of the adjective soevyi, associated with the food industry and agriculture. Clearly, the neologism soevyi is a calque from the English word soy. In English, it is used to describe a young man who stereotypically exhibits feminine traits (gentleness, vulnerability, a desire to look attractive, passivity, excessive emotionality). In Russian, this new meaning has been documented primarily in online publications from 2020–2021, and as its usage spreads, the word soevyi gradually loses its strong association with gender semantics. In socio-political discourse, the use of soevyi serves as a marker of verbal aggression, often employed to ridicule or insult. The semantic field of the lexeme soevyi in Russian has expanded to encompass additional components. When using the soy nomination, the speaker or writer draws attention not only to a person’s appearance, character traits, or behavioral peculiarities but also to their political views and worldview, frequently mocking and condemning their actions and attitudes toward current events. Based on the identified macro- and microcomponents of the new lexical meaning of the word soevyi, an example of a dictionary entry for a neological dictionary is presented.

Phrases-memes as source of neologisms

2025-09-15T08:38:25+00:00

This article is dedicated to the emergence of neologisms based on predicative units. The author revisits the issue of recognizing the capacity of a sentence to perform a nominative function – that is, to act as a sign representing a particular situation. Drawing on previously documented examples such as titles of works of art and ergonyms expressed through predicative units, as well as the documented ability of predicative units to function as various sentence members in different contexts, the author identifies and analyzes neologisms whose productive basis consists of entire sentences. The objective of this study is to determine the conditions under which such neologisms have arisen in the Russian language over the past decade and to analyze their functioning. It is argued that only sentences which have become memes can serve as a productive base. These sentences must meet specific criteria: they should be typical utterances that reflect socially significant, recurring situations; they must exhibit high frequency, reproducibility, and recognizability. From these meme phrases, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs can be derived that conform to the full range of grammatical properties of their respective parts of speech. Furthermore, the study observes that these neologisms themselves often become productive bases for subsequent word-formation processes. The neologisms under consideration exhibit a marked evaluative tone and function as markers of in-group versus out-group categories. It is also proposed that not all such neologisms will be lexicographically documented, as many are ephemeral in nature. Their usage is prompted by specific moments in time and reflects attitudes toward those moments, rendering them relevant only while the events inspiring the meme phrases remain socially pertinent.

Prefixoids as evaluation means

2025-09-15T09:00:09+00:00

This article focuses on the analysis of active word-formation trends in the Russian language during the early 21st century. The study centers on prefixoids, which constitute an open system characterized by various dynamic processes. While certain elements of this system undergo de-actualization, novel word-formation formants and new meanings of polysemantic prefixoids emerge and gain relevance. The status of prefixoids within the structure of derivative words is examined, and their relationship with prefixes is elucidated based on function, positional features, and their consistent role in expressing specific types of word-formation meanings. The paper also presents an analysis of lexicographic practices in describing these formants within explanatory dictionaries, including both traditional and contemporary vocabulary dictionaries. The primary empirical material comprises modern media discourse, which serves as a field for the realization of prefixoids' potential in conveying evaluative aspects of communicative contexts. Considering discursive factors in the interpretation of word-formation idioms involving prefixoids, along with the interrelations of formants within the system, enables the identification of the productivity of particular prefixoids. To address this issue, corpus linguistic tools were employed. Special attention is given to semantic shifts in the meanings of topical prefixoids and new formants documented in the Integrum-Profi information and analytical database, as well as the “New in Russian vocabulary. Dictionary materials” retrieval lexicographic resource. Some novel prefixoids, while not yet lexicographically recorded, repeatedly occur – unlike mere occasionalisms – within mass media discourse. The word-formation data demonstrate the effectiveness of T. V. Shmeleva’s methodology for analyzing “words of the moment”. The analysis reveals observable trends within the word-formation system of contemporary Russian, most notably the specialization of semantically overlapping prefixoids and the acquisition by neutral prefixoids of the capacity to express a range of evaluations, both rational and emotional-expressive, contingent on the lexical base of the generator.

Analytical adverbs

2025-09-15T09:27:07+00:00

From the standpoint of neology, adverbial constructions that have become popular in recent years in various types of media texts – such as na postoyannoy osnove (on a permanent basis), v massovom poryadke (en masse), v rezhime onlayn (online) – are examined. The analysis of these adverbs is conducted within the framework of analyticism in the Russian language, considering the semantic and stylistic demands of media discourse. It is emphasized that analyticism extends beyond the immutability of words, with a key feature being the distinct expression of grammatical and lexical components of meaning. Attention is given to the frequency of specific occurrences of the examined adverbial models, their analytic structure, semantics, and their paradigmatic relationships with synonymous expressions (cf. na perevostnoy osnove / postoyanno / na postoyanke). The analysis draws on observations of media texts and incorporates data from corpora such as the National Corpus of the Russian Language and the Internet resource New in Russian Vocabulary, enabling the tracing of both the historical development and contemporary usage of these adverbs. Additionally, instances of linguistic reflection by Russian speakers are considered, particularly as evidenced in discussions on social networks. Consequently, three essays on adverbial constructions formed with the substantives osnova, poryadok, and rezhim are presented. Adverbs containing the substantive poryadok exhibit structural diversity, permitting the addition of adjectives and nouns in the genitive case; the latter construction is the most productive and characteristic of technical, scientific, and medical texts. The study concludes with reflections on the role of these adverbs in the renewal of the media lexicon and its stylistic differentiation.

Russian neologisms on linguistic surface: fresh perspective

2025-09-15T10:38:49+00:00

The review presents the collected volume of scholarly articles “Neology. Neography. 2024,” published in 2025 by the Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in St. Petersburg. In the review five thematic sections of the volume are being examined, edited by N. V. Kozlovskaya. It is worth noticing that the authors demonstrate a combination of academic rigor and proficiency with new technologies for analyzing linguistic reality. The linguistic specialization of the volume ensures a very high degree of scientific novelty for all the materials presented for discussion, showcases the dynamic process of language development, and introduces readers to effective tools for its description. It is emphasized that the authors do not limit themselves to outlining the neological picture of the world but also contribute to the methodology of science as applied to the theory of neology and neography.