The Church lexicon as a lexical category

The article focuses on the study of church lexicon as a lexical category. The aim of this article is to analyze and compare different linguistic points of view on the key stages of church lexicon development in the Russian and English languages, to determine a working definition of the category “church lexicon”, as well as its most important elements. In order to achieve this goal, the methods of analyzing sources, their subsequent comparison and contrast, identification of analogies and similarities were used, as well as synthesis of information extracted from these sources.

The material includes dissertations, scientific articles and other works of modern Russian scholars considering the concepts “church lexicon” and “religious lexicon”, comparing and juxtaposing them, as well as singling out constituent elements of the categories “church lexicon”, “religious lexicon”, “sacral lexicon”, and “liturgical lexicon”. In this article are used the works of such scholars as A.A. Azarov, I.V. Bugaeva, S.V. Bulavina, N.S. Valgina, R.I. Goryushina, E.V. Kakorina, I.A. Koroleva, T.I. Kosheleva and others.

The results of the research show that the interest in the church lexicon as a lexical category among Russian linguists has increased since the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries due to the revival of the Christian Church of various denominations, as well as other religious organizations. The long period of persecution of the Christian Church in Russia has affected church vocabulary, marginalizing it and relegating it to the periphery of the language. In the UK, USA and other English-speaking linguistic communities, the activities of the Christian Church have never been banned or persecuted, and the history of church vocabulary in the English language as such has never faced marginalization similar to that in Russia.

It has also been established that church vocabulary is part of the broader category of “religious vocabulary” and includes basic concepts from the sphere of the life of the Christian Church. Although scholars argue about the constituents of the category “church lexicon”, many agree that it includes the names of sacraments and rites, elements of the church calendar, names of church buildings and their elements, items of decoration, elements of vestments, as well as names of persons in relation to the Christian faith and the Christian Church.

This article may be of interest to philologists, linguists, and teachers of the Russian and English languages.

1. Azarov, A.A. Russko-angliiskii slovar’ religioznoi leksiki [Russian-English Dictionary of Religious Vocabulary]/ A.A. Azarov. Moscow: RUSO, 2002.

2. Bugaeva, I.V. Pravoslavnaia leksika v russkom i finskom iazykakh [Orthodox vocabulary in Russian and Finnish languages]/ I.V. Bugaeva // Instrumentarium of Linguistics: Sociolinguistic Approaches to Non-Standard Russian, Helsinki, 2010.

3. Bulavina, S.V. Russkie ustoichivye slovosochetaniia, soderzhashchie tserkovno-religioznuiu leksiku. Autoref. dis. kand. filol. nauk [Russian stable word combinations containing church-religious vocabulary]/ S.V. Bulavina, https://www.dissercat.com/content/russkie-ustoichivye-slovosochetaniya-soderzhashchie-tserkovno-religioznuyu-leksiku (Accessed 22 January 2024).

4. Valgina, N.S. Aktivnye protsessy v sovremennom russkom iazyke [Active processes in the modern Russian language] / N.S. Valgina. Moscow: Logos, 2001.

5. Goriushina, R.I. Leksika khristianstva v russkom iazyke (sistemnoe otnoshenie priamykh konfessional’nykh i proizvodnykh svetskikh slov): Autoref. Dis…. kand. filol. nauk [The lexicon of Christianity in the Russian language (systemic relation of direct confessional and derived secular words)] / R.I. Goriushina, https://www.dissercat.com/content/leksika-khristianstva-v-russkom-yazyke-sistemnye-otnosheniya-pryamykh-konfessionalnykh-i-pro (Accessed 22 January 2024).

6. Kakorina, E.V. Transformatsii leksicheskoi semantiki i sochetaemosti (na materiale iazyka gazet) [Transformation of lexical semantics and combinability (on the material of newspaper language)] / E.V. Kakorina // Russkii iazyk kontsa XX stoletiia (1985-1995) / otv. red. E.A. Zemskaia. Moscow: Iaziki russkoi kul’turi, 2000.

7. Koroleva, I.A. Pravoslavnaia sakral’no-bogosluzhebnaia leksika v khudozhestvennom tekste: Autoref. Dis. … kand. filol. nauk [Orthodox sacral and devotional vocabulary in the artistic text]/ I.A. Koroleva, https://www.dissercat.com/content/pravoslavnaya-sakralno-bogosluzhebnaya-leksika-v-sovremennom-russkom-yazyke-i-v-khudozhestve (Accessed 22 January 2024).

8. Kosheleva, T.I. Leksika pravoslaviia v rechi zhurnalistov [Lexicon of Orthodoxy in the speech of journalists] / T.I. Kosheleva // Uchenye zapiski Novgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. Iaroslava Mudrogo, https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/leksika-pravoslaviya-v-rechi-svetskih-zhurnalistov/viewer (Approached 24 January 2024).

9. Krylova, I.A. Sovremennaia pravoslavnaia propoved’ v funktsional’no-stilisticheskom aspekte: Dis. Kand. filol. nauk. [Modern Orthodox sermon in functional and stylistic aspect] / I.A. Krylova. Saint-Petersburg, 2005.

10. Mechkovskaia, H. B. Iazyk i religiia (lektsii po filologii i istorii religii) [Langiage and religion]/ N.B. Mechkovskaia, Moscow: FAIR, 1998.

11. Mikhailova, Iu.N. Religioznaia pravoslavnaia leksika i ee sud’ba (po dannym tolkovykh slovarei russkogo iazyka): Autoref. kand. filol. nauk [Religious Orthodox lexicon and its fate (according to explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language)] / Iu.N. Mikhailova. Yekaterinburg, 2004.

12. Novikova, Iu.V. Rol’ tserkovno-religioznoi leksiki v romane M.A. Bulgakova «Master i Margarita» [The role of church-religious vocabulary in M.A. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita] / Iu.V. Novikova // Baltiiskii gumanitarnyi zhurnal №4(25), 2018.

13. Petukhova, M.E. Funktsional’nye osobennosti tserkovnoi leksiki s predmetnym znacheniem v russkom iazyke: Autoref. Dis. … kand. filol. nauk. [Functional peculiarities of the church lexicon with subject meaning in Russian]/ M.E. Petukhova. Kazan, 2003.

14. Rabzhaeva, M.V., Semenkov, V.E. Sovremennaia tserkovnaia leksika: problema normativnogo proiznosheniia i ee sotsial’nye posledstviia [Modern Church vocabulary: the problem of normative pronunciation and its social consequences] / M.V. Rabzhaeva, V.E. Semenkov // Vestnik SPbGUKI №4(13), 2012.

15. Skliarevskaia, G.N. Slovar’ pravoslavnoi tserkovnoi kul’tury [Dictionary of Orthodox Church Culture]/ G.N. Skliarevskaia. Saint-Petersburg: Nauka, 2007.

16. Slautina, M.V. Osobennosti reprezentatsii khristianskoi kartiny mira v leksike russkogo iazyka: Autoref. Dis. … Kand. filol. nauk. [Peculiarities of representation of the Christian picture of the world in the lexicon of the Russian language] / M.V. Slautina. Yekaterinburg, 2006.

17. Smirnova, S.A. O poniatii «tserkovnaia leksika [On the concept of «ecclesiastical vocabulary»] / S.A. Smirnova // Nauchnyi dialog №12(36), 2014.

18. Smirnova, S.A. Sviatost’ kak fenomen russkoi kul’tury (semanticheskoe i lingvokul’turologicheskoe opisanie): Dis… kand. filol. nauk. [Sainthood as a phenomenon of Russian culture (semantic and linguocultural description)] / S.A. Smirnova. Arkhangelsk, 2005.

19. Timofeev, K.A. Religioznaia leksika russkogo iazyka kak vyrazhenie khristianskogo mirovozzreniia: monografiia [Religious vocabulary of the Russian language as an expression of the Christian worldview] / K.A. Timofeev, http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/timofeev-01.htm (Accessed 22 January 2024).

20. Chetyrina, A.M. K voprosu o razgranichenii tserkovnoi i religioznoi leksiki v tolkovykh slovariakh russkogo iazyka [On the question of differentiation of church and religious lexicon in explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language] / A.M. Chetyrina // Aktual’nye voprosy izucheniia dukhovnoi kul’tury. Yaroslavl: Remder, 2010.

21. Iakimov. P.A. Religioznaia leksika – tserkovnaia leksika – bibleiskaia leksika: k voprosu o sootnoshenii poniatii [Religious lexicon − church lexicon − biblical lexicon: a question about the correlation of concepts]/ P.A. Iakimov // Vestnik OGU №9 (158) 2013.