The development of secondary meanings in the lexical units of the lexical-semantic group “Supernatural beings” in the history of the Russian language

Abstract

This article presents the study of the mechanisms of semantic derivation based on the lexical-semantic group “Supernatural beings” in the Russian language from a diachronic perspective (from the 11th to the 21st centuries). The object of the study comprises four lexical-thematic associations: beings from religious cultures (angel, demon, etc.), Slavic mythology (leshy “forest spirit”, rusalka “mermaid”, etc.), European and classical mythology (nymph, cyclops, etc.), as well as extraterrestrial beings and superheroes (alien, superhero, etc.). The methodological framework of the study includes the analysis of the data from historical and modern lexicographic sources, corpus materials, which allows the author to trace the real usage of words in context, and the data from associative dictionaries, reflecting underlying verbal connections in the linguistic consciousness of native speakers. The research revealed patterns in the formation of figurative meanings for the units within this lexical-semantic group. Despite the differences in etymology and the time of their entry into the Russian language, all analyzed lexical units demonstrate a common trend: a semantic shift from direct nominations of supernatural beings to anthropocentric polysemy. This process is realized through cognitive mechanisms such as metaphor, metonymy, and word-formative derivation. The results of associative material research confirm the dominance of secondary meanings in modern linguistic consciousness, which have often acquired ironic or evaluative connotations, while the primary sacral-mythological meanings are subject to displacement. The study concludes that the dynamics of semantic development within this lexical-semantic group serves as a linguistic indicator of global cultural and historical processes: desacralization and cultural adaptation of religious and mythological concepts, reflecting their transformation within the Russian linguistic worldview.