I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

novodel, semantic structure of a word, linguocultural analysis, discursive analysis, cultural connotation, Russian linguistic worldview, cultural memory

The article presents a linguocultural and semantic-discursive analysis of the Russian word “novodel” (“новодел”) from its first fixation in Vladimir Dahl’s “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” to its modern usage. Based on the data from the Russian National Corpus (RNC), lexicographic sources, and specialized discourses (numismatics, architecture, art, journalism, and internet communication), the evolution of the word’s meaning and its evaluative potential is traced. It is shown that the originally neutral meaning “a newly made thing” since the 19th century has become a technical term in numismatics to denote coins struck with old dies for collectors, acquiring a cultural connotation and ambivalent evaluation. In the post-Soviet period, the word expanded its sphere of use, becoming an evaluative name for reconstructed or stylized “old-style” objects (architectural structures, works of art, and cultural phenomena). The analysis of word usage recorded in the RNC revealed a predominance of negative evaluation for “novodel” (“новодел”) in journalism and literary discourse, reflecting the perception of such objects as secondary, inauthentic, and opposed to genuine historical heritage. At the same time, in professional environments (restoration, museology), the evaluation may vary (negative–neutral–positive). In numismatics, “novodel” (“новодел”) attains the status of a pre-term, as its semantics contains evaluative components. In other discourses, the word becomes a means of secondary nomination for a wide variety of objects. In the modern Russian linguistic worldview, “novodel” (“новодел”) serves as a marker of opposition between the “genuine” and the “imitated”, the historically valuable and the simulacrum. The application of a semantic-discursive approach to interpreting the cultural connotation of a linguistic sign allows us to qualify “novodel” (“новодел”) not only as a word within the lexical system of the Russian language but also as a concept reflecting modern society’s reflection on the problems of authenticity and cultural memory.

Farkhutdinova, Fenia Farvasovna – Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Сenter for Russian Studies and International Education, Ivanovo State University, Ivanovo, Russia, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0992-1864, fenfar@mail.ru

Zhang, Jing – Post-graduate Student of the Сenter for Russian Studies and International Education, Ivanovo State University, Ivanovo, Russia, https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7383-4279, 18339401682@163.com