About the original semantics of the verb «бить» (to beat)

Abstract

The issue of native semantics of the verb «бить» (to beat), referring to the oldest stratum of the active vocabulary of modern Russian language is studied. The reconstruction of historically prime meaning falls into the priority tasks of diachronic semantics, inasmuch as it lays the foundations of the word semantic evolution and fixes the primary collectively meaningful experience of a native speaker in the cognition of the naming object. In the process of external reconstruction, as the leading research method, we analyze meanings of the units, which together with the verb «бить» (to beat), are included in the one etymological family of words. According to the analysis results we make an attempt to reveal a complex of denotative situations, marked by ancient syncretic protoforms of the verb. Basing on the carried out analysis it is established that the native meaning of the verb «бить» (to beat) which is in the active vocabulary of modern Russian language, nominating the relevant sphere of physical action and in its origins comes from the language of Indo-European epoch. It is proved that at modern stage of Russian language development the semantic structure of the verb «бить» (to beat) has more generalized meaning, that in the system of language protoform *bheia- in indivisible form used to mean the more general situation of influence on human by the punch and more specified impact effect which in modern Indo-European languages are fixed by independent meanings of the verbs.