Money and definition, linguistic semantics, linguistic piercing

The semiotic study of the essence of money, defining and analysing it linguistically in order to create a system of linguistic techniques for solving practical business, financial business problems, is a fundamental task in the scientific work of the Money Research Institute.

Parametric feature as an object of secondary nomination (with the example of compound terms with a money component)
Perceptual attribute as an object of secondary nomination (using compound terms with a money component)

M.V. Zaitseva* (Moscow, Russia)
Money Research Institute
O.S. Schwartzman (Zug, Switzerland) Money Research Institute

PARAMETRIC ATTRIBUTE AS AN OBJECT OF SECONDARY NOMINATION (by the example of compound terms with the money component)

The spatial category “size” classifies modern perceptual money nominations by means of a parametric attribute, explicating the visual perception experience of the surrounding reality in the linguistic consciousness of the person. The study of the parametric adjectives’ metaphorical context with the word money allowed us to identify the development of their primary meaning in the Russian language. Non-spatial spheres have been established into which spatial adjectives transfer parametric features, acting as the basic object of their secondary nomination.
Key words: perceptual money nominations, parametric adjectives, categorization, spatial category, metaphorical context

PARAMETRIC ATTRIBUTE AS AN OBJECT OF SECONDARY NOMINATION (by the example of compound terms with the money component)

The spatial category “size” classifies modern perceptual nominations of money along parametrical lines, expressing the experience of visual perception of surrounding reality in human language consciousness. The study of metaphorical combinability of parametric adjectives with the word money has revealed the development of their primary meaning in Russian. The non-spatial spheres into which spatial adjectives transfer parametrical features, acting as the basic object of their secondary nomination, have been established.

Keywords: perceptive nominations of money, parametric adjectives, categorization, the category of space, metaphorical combinability

Introduction. Categorization as one of the basic concepts of cognitive linguistics reveals the general principles of the cognitive process in the formation of the fundamental knowledge about the world. The objects of the real world reveal both similarities and differences between them. The presence of common and distinctive features of surrounding objects allows us to structure our knowledge about the world in a certain way. This division is based on primary – sensual perception of the reality surrounding us and thinking activity as a secondary – cognitive process of processing of our knowledge about the world. E.S. Aznaurova, N.D. Arutyunova, E.S. Kubryakova, I.B. Levontina, V.N. Telia, A.A. Ufimtseva conclude that “Primary nomination is possible only when there is an opportunity with some element of language to represent in the mind an object in space” (Cited from: [Bagana, Kravets 2012: 126]).

The ontology of the world is reflected in our consciousness in the form of a certain categorization as a system of categories [Boldyrev 2021: 114]. One of the most important basic categories is the category of space, which has “the largest in its scale, the most important for the perception of the world” [Kubryakova 1997: 26]. [Kubryakova 1997: 26] integrity. The content of the category of space is defined as follows: “Extension. Volume. Form. Place. Position. Direction. Location of objects in relation to one another. Remoteness. Orientation. Compartmentalization of space. Limit. Boundaries” (Cited from: [Kanafina 2022: 53]). The language of spatial relations is important because it belongs to the primary and basic: “Even temporal modelling often represents a secondary superstructure over the spatial language” [Lotman 1988: 292]. [Lotman 1988: 292].

Problem statement. The category of size belongs to semantically graded categories: its formation is based on parametric (graded) concepts, correlated with some kind of dimensional scale, “Size conceptually exists outside time, it is an inherent feature of an object, unlike such physical characteristics as, for example, colour, smell and others, which can vary depending on the situation of perception and situational features characterizing such situation” [Usmanov 2011: 80]. [Usmanov 2011: 80]. Abstract concepts are not always describable: “The formation of the most complete knowledge is possible only as a result of a combination of different ways: both sensual contemplation, object activity, comprehension, and linguistic communication” [Boldyrev 2021: 25: 25]. [Boldyrev 2021: 25]. And “the higher the level of abstraction, the more pronounced is the subject’s ability to transcend the immediate and move into the sphere of more distant temporal, spatial and semantic contexts” [Kholodnaya 2004: 191]. [Cold 2004: 191].

The physical parameters of length, height and width are linear dimensions that make up the concept of geometrical size and determine what place in space this or that physical object occupies. The presence or absence of certain dimensional features makes it possible to categorise objects according to a given parameter.

The characteristic parametric features of qualitative adjectives: long – short, wide – narrow, – in the mechanisms of metaphorization of the concept-category “size” undergo mental reconstruction, reflecting human perceptual experience, obtained as a result of visual perception of the surrounding reality.

Market mechanisms of economic development and the modern banking sector have intensified the use of professional monetary vocabulary, borrowed into modern Russian from the English-speaking sphere. Adjective nominations of money with a semantic component parametric adjective, penetrating from business communication into everyday speech, often require additional qualitative analysis – theoretical and linguistic comprehension at a higher abstract level, their cognitive interpretation in the everyday language consciousness.

Methods and material of the research. Descriptive and lexico-semantic methods of research were applied in the lexicographic analysis of data from the Financial and Economic, Investment Dictionaries, the New Economic English-Russian Dictionary-Reference Book and the Big Dictionary of Russian Proverbs. The extracted semantic contexts were then subjected to cognitive interpretation and introspective analysis.

Results of the study. In modern market economy, narrow money is informally defined as M0 or sometimes M1, i.e. the part of money in circulation which can directly perform the function of means of circulation. Broad money is either M2, which includes deposits in accounts of building societies, or M3, which includes interest-bearing bank deposits.

“Narrow” money or money for transactions includes cash and money in current accounts with banks. These are highly liquid assets that have a high rate of transformation into cash – they can therefore be interpreted as fast money. “Broad” money consists of less liquid assets: this is money in term and savings accounts at banks. Thus, “broad” and “tight” money can be interpreted as slow and fast money in a market-type economy.

“Long” money denotes long-term borrowing, investment and credit extended over a long period of time. Long money is popularly referred to as “long money”, verbalising the length of time it lasts. “Short” money is used immediately and/or short-term. The longer the credit period, the cheaper the long money is for the economy. Long money is cognitively interpreted as cheap money, short money as expensive money. “Dear” money is lent at high interest rates, “cheap” money at low interest rates.

The term dear money verbalises the British equivalent of the term tight money. Thus, in this case there is a transfer of several non-spatial categories of meaning into the key spatial sphere: tight money – dear money – short money.

Conclusions. Metaphorical combination of parametric adjectives with the semantic component money forms professional terms borrowed from English banking discourse – verbalizers of financial conceptosphere of modern Russian market type economy. The analysis of semantic context of parametric adjectives with the word money explicated the development of primary meanings of parametric features – transfer of spatial meanings into non-spatial spheres of qualitative characteristics of money. Metaphorical meanings of spatial adjectives transfer the temporal attributes of fast and slow money to the semantic context of narrow & broad money, the temporal attribute of long money to long money. The term dear & cheap money qualitatively characterizes and categorizes long & short money, constituting a professionally termed banking vocabulary, which is widespread in contemporary economic discourse.

Literature

Bagana J., Kravets J.Y. Secondary nomination of thematic group “Bread products” (on the material of German and Russian) // Bulletin of IGLU. 2012. 2 (19). С. 116-120.

Boldyrev N.N. Cognitive semantics. Introduction to cognitive linguistics : a course of lectures. Tambov : Derzhavinsky Publishing House, 2021.

Kanafina A. R. The representation of the category of space in Russian, Bashkir and English languages: diss.. Candidate of Philological Sciences. Ufa, 2022.

In her critique of the Bardic language and the language space: A Critique of the Problem. Series Literature and Language. 1997. 3 (56). С. 22-31.

Lotman Y.M. Artistic space in Gogol’s prose / Y.M. Lotman. In the school of poetic word: Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol. M.: Prosveshcheniye, 1988. С. 251-292.

Kholodnaya M.A. Cognitive Styles: On the Nature of the Individual Mind. SPb: Peter, 2004.

Usmanov R.Sh. Parametrical categorization of adjectival vocabulary: a monograph. Ufa: Ufa Printing Works, 2011.

BSLP – The Big dictionary of Russian proverbs / V.M. Mokienko, T.G. Nikitina. M: Olma Media Group. 2007.

M.V. Zaitseva* (Moscow, Russia)
Money Research Institute
O.S. Schwartzman (Zug, Switzerland) Money Research Institute

PARAMETRIC ATTRIBUTE AS AN OBJECT OF SECONDARY NOMINATION (by the example of compound terms with the money component)

M.V. Zaitseva (Moscow, Russia) Money Research Institute

O.S. Schwartzman (Zug, Switzerland) Money Research Institute

PERCEPTUAL ATTRIBUTE AS AN OBJECT OF SECONDARY NOMINATION (by the example of compound terms with the money component)

The article analyzes composite terms with the semantic component ‘money‘, explicating new realities in the modern Russian market-type economy. The authors identify the specific features of the linguistic compatibility of the lexeme ‘money‘ with perceptual (qualitative) adjectives. According to the results of the study, it is concludes the perceptual attribute in this case acts as an object of secondary nomination.

Key words: Russian language consciousness, perception, perceptual attribute, secondary nomination, compatibility, money

Introduction. With the development of the anthropocentric approach in modern humanitarian knowledge, scientific directions related to the study of linguistic consciousness have become more relevant. Since the end of the twentieth century, language is no longer studied only “in itself and for itself” (F. de Sossur), in isolation from its speaker. Language consciousness is primary and language is secondary to the person creating it. Since the 1980s the research of ordinary language consciousness of “average” native speaker of the Russian language (Yu. N. Karaulov, Yu. S. Sorokin, E. F. Tarasov, N. V. Ufimtseva, G. A. Cherkasova, etc.) has become regular. ), complex cognitive structures formed in language consciousness, which have a direct influence on formed processes of speech formation and speech perception are studied in depth (N.N. Boldyrev, V.Z. Demyankov, E.S. Kubryakova, Z.D. Popova, Y.S. Stepanov, I.A. Sternin, V.N. Telia).

The solution of this or that cognitive problem in linguistics requires a certain understanding of the role and nature of naming [Laenko 2005: 7]. The act of nomination is “a speech-thought process aimed either at selecting a ready designation existing in a language for a phenomenon to be named and thinking about this phenomenon, or at creating a suitable name for it” [Kubryakova 1986: 42]. (Kubryakova 1986: 42) and is associated with primary and secondary phenomena. If primary nomination is understood as the act of naming an object, a feature that does not yet have it, then secondary nomination is the naming by a new name of the already named, “the use in language of already available nominative means in the function of naming that is new for them”. [Telia 1977: 129].

The emergence of secondary nominations is due to the nature and peculiarities of human thinking, its abstract and generalizing nature, capable of reflecting objective reality in the relationship and interdependence of all its elements. Secondary nomination is a reinterpretation of ready-made linguistic units, acting in their secondary function. Secondary nomination is based on the associative nature of human thinking, which allows us to establish similarities and differences based on the features inherent in the new names. Thanks to the associative nature of thinking, which is able to see the new in the meanings of old words, the fixation of real-life phenomena in language is achieved.

As the researchers point out, the secondary nature of nomination is typical for the majority of terms in contemporary Russian: “Secondary nomination is created as a result of semantic reinterpretation of the commonly used vocabulary, terms, words of professional sphere and jargonisms”. [Kalitkina 2010]. This tendency is especially characteristic of borrowings [Boldyrev 2022].

Research problem. The lexical system as the most dynamic is the most sensitive to the impact of extra-linguistic factors. The socio-economic changes of the 1990s transformed the lexical composition of the Russian language, reviving, among other things, the processes of secondary nomination in linguistic conceptualization of reality [Babina 2003], associated with the appearance of new realities in the fields of private enterprise, business, commodity-money, financial and monetary relations.

In the Russian language consciousness money has moved to the centre of the linguistic picture of the world and currently occupies one of the key positions in the system of values of the modern Russian linguistic culture. Y.S. Stepanov refers money to the key constants of Russian culture [Stepanov 2004: 580]. According to research [Ufimtseva 2004: 6-7], money forms the core of our national linguistic consciousness along with such notions as “home”, “happiness”, “life”, “man”, “friend”, “joy”, “love”, “good”, “family”, “children”. Modern researchers of youth language conclude that in the language consciousness of the young Russian “such concepts as “love”, “family”, “marriage” depend on the concept “money”, the concept “money” involves them in its sphere”. [Grachev, Romanova 2008].

With the emergence of new concepts in the sphere of commodity-money circulation in the Russian language, the process of their nomination has intensified. Modern dictionaries give a number of compound terms with the component money (e.): e. external, e. internal, e. “hot”, e. light, e. small, e. heavy, e. check, e. elastic [RBCE 2006], etc. Many of these nominations are conventionally treated by linguists as professionally termed names, considered as professionalisms, phraseological expressions, terms of metaphorical origin [Karpukhina 2007: 4]. The lack of a unified classification expresses the problem of insufficient study of the cognitive nature of such terms in Russian linguistics.

Purpose and methods of research. The purpose of this study was to study and explicate the semantic content of compound terms with the lexeme money in order to identify the cognitive mechanisms underlying the formation of nominations with a semantic component qualitative adjective in the modern Russian language.

We believe modeling to be the main method in the study of the internal mechanisms of semantic processes, allowing to reconstruct the structure of cognitive features that make up the selected fragment of the world around in the consciousness of native speakers. The initial stage of the research included the application of introspective, cognitive and descriptive methods to the analysis of a solid sample of the main corpus [NKRN], formed by the contexts of the lexeme money with the semantic component qualitative adjective. Subsequent lexicographic analysis of the explanatory, economic and financial dictionaries clarified the semantics of these nominations. A comparative analysis of the contexts extracted from the newspaper and fiction subcorpus of the NKRN revealed common and distinctive features in the perception of money by the naive and scientific linguistic consciousness. The national peculiarities of the perception of money were explicated by the analysis of the contexts extracted from the Grand Dictionary of Russian Proverbs [BSLP 2007].

Results of the study. Based on the results of the analysis we have explicated perceptual (Latin perceptio – “perception”) images of money in the Russian language, formed through the sensual perception of money in the everyday language consciousness. We have identified groups of perceptual oppositions constituting new terms with the money component in the Russian market economy. Since empirical cognition of the environment occurs with the help of a system of senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile, and visual perception is the source of primary information about the environment, modern linguistics treats spatial (‘external – internal’), dimensional (‘big – small’), colour (‘white – black’) oppositions as perceptual. Т. T.V. Grigorieva also identifies a group of perceptual oppositions united by the experiential nature of a sign [Grigorieva 2019: 273], referring to experientially perceived oppositions, for example, weight (‘light – heavy’), temperature (‘hot – cold’) oppositions.

We considered the presence (or absence) of a perceptual feature (size, colour, etc.) to be fundamental in the linguistic and cognitive modelling of the nominative sphere ‘money’ in Russian linguistic consciousness (see Table).

Table

Linguistic and cognitive modeling of nominative sphere “money” by means of perceptual opposition
by the method of perceptual opposition

Opposition	Cognitive attribute	Money nomination
I. Visually perceived oppositions
‘outer – inner’ ‘right – left’	spatial orientation	outside money – inside money right money – left money
‘big – small’. ‘large – small’ ‘long – short’. ‘wide – narrow’	Size	big money – small money big money – small money long money – short money broad money – narrow money
‘white – black’	colour	white money – black money
II. Experientially perceived oppositions
‘light – heavy’	weight	light money – heavy money
‘hot – cold’	tactile perception	hot money – cold money
‘elastic – tight’ ‘soft – hard’	tactile sensation	elastic money – tight money soft money – hard money

The cognitive attribute “orientation in space” underlies the oppositional nominations external – internal, right – left (money). External money is “the part of the money supply that is injected into a country’s economy from outside, as opposed to the part that is created within the economic system by the banking sector (internal money)”. [New English-Russian Dictionary-Reference Book 2010]. (Cf.: No one expected us to be so dependent on foreign markets and external money (“Russian Reporter” 2008 [NKRYA]); Suddenly he realised that he did not have a ruble of domestic money. Will the taxi driver take dollars? (Aksenov V. Island of Crimea)).

Left-wing money is used in language and speech to mean additional income to the main, correct (right-wing) earnings. The image goes back to the archetypal opposition ‘right – left’, where right has the meaning ‘right, open to the truth’ and left is ‘wrong, hidden from the light and truth’. (Cf.: Did you put left-handed money in your pocket? No, I put right and honest, I paid the income tax… If you give this money back, you will admit that you got it illegally… (Magomayev M. My love is a melody).

The cognitive attribute “size” divides the money in the Russian language consciousness into large sums (cf.: large sums – 200-300 rubles – are taken from somebody who wants to buy his freedom (“Izvestia” 2002), small sums (cf.: But his mother didn’t have any small sums and she gave him a hundred-ruble, strictly forbidding him to lose it and bring him his change (“The Evening Moscow” 2002); big sums (cf. He sometimes had a lot of money (Kuprin A.I. Stavs-captain Rybnikov), little money (cf.: In Russia, all these specialists work for someone and get very little money for it (“Znanie sila” 2013 [NKRNYA]).

Long money in the economy is long-term investments or loans, which are granted for a long period of time. Long money is used to finance long-term development programmes, as well as long-term savings (Cf.: We are not talking about bank deposits, but rather about “long money”, insured with different time horizons (“MN Time” 2003 [NKRJ]). Long (long) money in common Russian speech is used in the sense of “high and easy earnings”, “a large sum of money”. [BSRP 2007: 186].

Short money in an inflationary market-type economy is short-term loans and investments [SBT 2001]. (Cf.: The promotion of short money related products – credit cards, consumer short-term loans and so on – would be the most optimal now (“Expert” 2009 [NKRJ]).

Narrow money is a category of money supply that includes all physical money, such as coins and currency, demand deposits and other liquid assets held and readily and quickly available to the central bank [Narrow Money Definition – Federal Reserve – 2022 URL: https://ru.earnmoneyfromhometoday.com/narrow-money]. Narrow money is a subset of broad money, which includes long-term and other deposits, accounts. Broad money can include a variety of deposit accounts that can be accessed after a day. They are often referred to as long-term deposits because they are limited to a specific time requirement [Ibid]. (Cf.: It is primarily a question of a deliberate step-by-step increase in the monetisation ratio, < … > which requires a level of organisation of the banking system, < … > in which most of the broad money (including foreign exchange money) is concentrated in the banking system. “MN Time.” [NKRJ]).

The cognitive attribute “colour” classifies “white” and “black” money. “White” money in ordinary language consciousness is legal income, money circulating legally. As illegal income, “black” money (in the naive language consciousness) is often contrasted with “white” money (Cf.: And are Ulyanovsk residents paid in “white” money, or do they still get some of it in “black” money? (Komsomolskaya Pravda 2009 [NKRJ]).

The cognitive feature “weight” underlies the oppositional nomination “easy money” and “hard money”. Easy money is “a monetary policy of keeping interest rates at a low level”. [Finance. Dictionary 2000]. (Cf.: The problem of this easy money <…> is the deformation of the very system of regional development, the lack of incentives for long-term plans, the destruction of the competitive market (“Expert” 2015)). Heavy money is “money that characterises the situation on the money market, which arises when there is an insufficient supply of credit and causes an increase in lending interest”. [BES 2004].

In the common linguistic consciousness easy money is money easily obtained by its owner without much effort (cf.: Easy money – it does not weigh anything and there is no feeling that you earned it (Solzhenitsyn A.I. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich); “Easy money is money obtained by dishonest means”. [BSRP 2007: 186]. Heavy money – obtained by hard work, obtained by the owner with considerable physical effort (cf.: It was not easy for a dropper to get his scanty heavy money! (Krestovsky V. V. Petersburg slums. A book about the well-fed and the hungry)).

The tactile perception of money is figuratively represented in Russian by the epithet hot money – “money that needs to be quickly spent due to the threat of its depreciation or put into circulation for profit”. [ATSRJ 2016: 599], “Money in the form of balances in bank accounts or liquid securities that can be moved to other countries if the owners anticipate that the currency will depreciate”. [Economics. Dictionary 2000]; (Cf.: Tomorrow night, a few minutes before the stock exchange closes, the “hot money” guys will be dumping those stocks hand and foot (Skvortsov V. Singapore Quartet)).

Cold money – “money, types of currencies that have a stable purchasing power, distinguished by prospects for the investor who wants to keep his capital in a reliable currency that is not threatened by devaluation”. [Lopatnikov, Rutheiser 2010]. The term refers to a narrow professional sphere.

The cognitive attribute “tactile sensation” categorizes tight, elastic, soft and hard money. Tight money – “1. A small, hard earned income. 2. Of a lack of money”. [BSRP 2007: 186]. Elastic money – money whose quantity changes with changes in the conjuncture [BES 2004]. (Cf.: The state can, for its own purposes, regulate the amount of paper money in circulation; in this sense money is “elastic” [The collapse of paper money. Elastic money and the impending collapse of the monetary system. URL: https://perfumero.livejournal.com/252793.html]).

In Russian linguistic consciousness soft money is analogous to soft currency, i.e. unstable, with a changing exchange rate. Hard money (Cf.: And now we have ‘hard money’, silver and copper coinage has been walking around towns and villages for a long time now, our chervonets are firmly standing (Bukharin N.I. The Road to Socialism and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Union)) is analogous to hard currency – stable and freely convertible into the national monetary units of another country.

Conclusions. Thus, the analysis has shown that the formation of the considered compound terms with the semantic component money is based on the secondary signification of perceptual features, verbalized by qualitative adjectives, forming a perceptual opposition in the Russian language. The visual sense perception of money conceptualizes and categorizes it in space: outer e. – inner money, right money – left money, naming their size: big money – small money, big money – small money, long money – short money, wide money – narrow money, endows them with certain qualities: white money – black money; experiential perception – properties that convey secondary meanings of perceptual attributes, primarily expressed by tactile sensations: elastic money – tight money, soft money – hard money, tactile: hot money – cold money in the Russian language consciousness.

Combination with qualitative adjectives of the lexeme money (as a linguistic representative of the key concept) expands the primary meaning of the adjective’s perceptual feature (filling it with new semantic content), which in this case is the object of secondary nomination. This semantic content is different and depends on the sphere of word usage: in a broad context it reflects the distinctive features of money perception by the ordinary (naive) linguistic consciousness, in a narrow professional sphere it characterizes scientific thinking.