Questions tagged [semantics]
Questions about the formal, theoretical description of meaning of morphemes (e.g. suffixes), words, or constructions. For questions about the meaning of concrete words or expressions see tags "meaning", "single-word-request", "word-choice", "usage" and "expressions".
18 questions
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What is the meaning of соплежуйство?
I understand that соплежуйство is a compound noun literally meaning chewing on snots, but what is the figurative meaning of this word in Russian?
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4
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What would be the Russian word for "ownership"?
What would be the Russian word for "ownership", in the meaning of owning a topic or a task and not owning property?
The best equivalent I've found is "oтветственность". However, &...
- 113
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Is "чалый" a synonym of "рецидивист"?
Several websites I've come across state "чалый" as a synonym of "рецидивист", but I haven't been able to find any definitions of чалый that would suggest it's synonymous with рецидивист.
Are they ...
- 145
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3
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What is the logic behind "вялотекущая" attachable to an illness but not to a river?
In my understanding, "вялотекущая" means having a slow flux. This you would literally associate with rather with a river, but no -
вялотекущая шизофрения - ОK
вялотекущая река - NOT OK
Why? I ...
- 897
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2
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Are there any differences between "купи дорогой сыр" and "купи дорогого сыру"?
The first example appears to be not flective at all, like in analytical languages. The second is sound more correctly to me, because it's using grammatical case... Am I right? The second is right and ...
- 175
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3
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"Какая рогастая, глазатая, ушатая корова!" — or the morphological domains of "-ст-" vs. simply "-т-"
Perhaps you've noticed this before (every non-native speaker certainly has):
носатый
волосатый
рогатый
усатый
хвостатый
полосатый
but:
губастый
мордастый
рукастый
...
- 1,259
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Do Russian prefixes embody event structures?
Considering words (nominals, verbs and adjectives) we can notice that lexical items derived from a same stem (e.g. -лив-/-лит-) like полив, разлив, перелив, вылить, долить, отлить, etc. suggest ...
- 4,502
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What is the meaning of "от добра добра не ищут"?
От добра добра не ищут.
Is its meaning the same as in
Лучшее - враг хорошего?
If not, are there any similar idioms in Russian which might clarify the meaning of the former phrase?
- 4,502
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3
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What are the exact orthography, etymology and explicit semantics of галимо/голимо?
In phrases like:
Это г@лимый бред.
Это г@лимыe сопли.
The word has been detected in conversational register of middle/low class native speakers in NW Russia, sometimes in fictional literature to ...
- 4,502
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Этимология слова «аист» / etymology of “аист” (stork)
Считается, что в русском языке нет исконных слов, начинающихся на букву «А». Как объяснить этимологию слова «аист», явно отличающуюся от лексем в родственных языках?
бел. бусел
укр. лелека
русин. ...
- 4,502
2
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2
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Kонцепт «хамство» по Вежбицкой / Concept “khamstvo” according to Wierzbicka
Каково точное значение концепта "хамство" в терминах семантики Вежбицкой?
Опишите, пожалуйста, понятие "хамство", используя "семантические примитивы" из списка ниже. Внизу также дан пример описания ...
- 4,502
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What is the difference between “вчера” and “день назад”?
Do вчера and день назад refer to the same time period? If no, what is the difference?
- 4,252
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Usage patterns of "надо" vs. "нужно"
What are the mechanics behind using надо over нужно or vice versa? What governs when they are interchangeable and when not?
To be perfectly clear: I have no problems simply using whichever sounds ...
- 1,259
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2
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Is there any difference between "потому что" and "потому как"?
Is there any difference in meaning between these two conjunctions? And can someone come up with a sentence where only one of the two can be used?
So far, I think that потому как is a more colloquial ...
- 6,558
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2
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Do quantification adjectives have any effect on metonymy?
Are the following phrases equally acceptable?
a. Он взял автобус в заложники.
b. Он взял весь автобус в заложники.
a. Он съел тарелку.
b. Он съел всю тарелку.
a. Он договорился с домом.
...
- 6,558
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The meaning of verbs with prefix "раз-\рас-" and postfix "-ся"
Can the following words be used in any context? I even doubt that some of them exist, but I cannot think of any reason why they shouldn't:
разработаться
расчитаться (from читать)
раздуматься
...
- 6,558
10
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Why do "наддать" and "поддать" have the same meaning?
There are examples like наддать пару and поддать пару (not my favorite Russian words, but still they both exist).
They have the same meaning, at least that is what gramota.ru suggests: наддать, ...
- 6,558
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What's the difference between -либо and -нибудь?
The pairs кто-нибудь and кто-либо, когда-нибудь and когда-либо etc. have slight differences in meaning and each particle is used in specific settings, but I can't quite pinpoint what the difference is....
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