WORD-FORMING MEANING OF „SIMILARITY”: PRINCIPLES OF DETERMINING AND FIXING IN DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

Abstract

This research focuses on the analysis of the specificity of fixing the word-forming and general lexical semantics of substantival derivatives with a figurative component of content in dictionary definitions. The need to fix the concept of word-forming meaning of „similarity” in the terminological tools of modern derivatology is substantiated.
To describe the word-forming semantics of derived units with a figurative component of content, the terms derivational meaning of „comparativeness” or derivational meaning of „similarity” have been accepted in modern linguistic studies. The article emphasizes that by their morphological structure the units of the word-forming level reflect not only comparative relations, but also their conceptual (cognitive) basis – determining similarity (real or imaginary).
The connection of the lexical meaning of figurative substantival derivatives of the Ukrainian language, – particularly, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and nouns, – with the nature of motivational relations and with the content of the motivational feature, is reflected differently in the dictionary definitions. It is determined that dictionary interpretations with formulas, which include the components „alike”, „similar” (for adjectives and verbs) and „in the form (shape) of” (for adverbs) are more established. In Ukrainian lexicographical sources, definitions referring to the original lexeme in the expressions „such as…” are less common.
The generalizations made served as a basis for regarding the word-forming meanings of figurative derivatives as those fixing the similarity, established in the process of word-forming nomination, between the object of naming and the source of associatively figurative comparison selected by the speaker (under the influence of a number of extralingual and lingual factors).