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Abstract: The article analyzes the problem of linguistic description of internal states in the context of lexical and grammatical conceptualization. The study focuses on the material of predicatives which are interpreted by the author as a hybrid semantico-functional class of words including the category of state, as well as nominal predicative lexemes and some meanings of the words of various parts of speech. The aim of the work is to show the theoretical prerequisites of such conceptualization and the possible ways of expressing the semantics of internal states in the language. The descriptive-analytical method, accompanied by elements of statistical analysis and lexicographic description, is the main research method in the article. The study is based on the texts of classical and modern Russian-language fiction, including online literature, data from the National Corpus of the Russian Language, explanatory dictionaries, as well as examples of word usage registered in the live speech of native speakers and Internet materials. The problem of internal states conceptualizing is presented as a kind of spiral movement: language uses lexical and grammatical means to form a stable class of states, and the text generation mechanisms, including the “speaker’s grammar,” conceptualize such units as syncretic. This applies to both experiential states within the framework of the canonical category of state and beyond and evaluative predicatives with the semantics of perfect evaluation. Thus, internal states are described as a phenomenon constructed by language according to certain models and formalized as a lexico-grammatical class (category of state / predicative). The sphere of states as a phenomenon of language (and not mental reality) involves (primarily due to the influence of grammatical transformation mechanisms) various peripheral types of meanings, primarily evaluative names and predicatives with a perceptual and/or evaluative semantic component. The data obtained make it possible to clarify the conceptual and grammatical characteristics of a class of predicatives of the Russian language, as well as the semantic classes of “states” and “properties / qualities”. The results of the study make a definite contribution to the semantic typology of predicates and can be used in teaching courses of modern Russian literary language, as well as in conducting special courses in functional grammar and cognitive syntax.

About the author(s) :

Petr E. Toporkov

Kaluga State University named after K. E. Tsiolkovski (Kaluga, Russian Federation)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8848-9948

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 28.03.2024; date of publication: 31.03.2026

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