Morphological features of Belarusian Russian: factors of language change

Authors

Keywords:

grammar, morphology, variation, language contacts, language change, Russian in Belarus

Abstract

The article focuses on the morphological characteristics of the Belarusian variety of the Russian language: the realization of the grammatical categories of number, gender, case, mood, time, etc. The research demonstrates that the morphological features of Belarusian Russian are a result of the interaction of contact-induced and internal factors: as a rule, linguistic contacts reinforce internal trends. A corpus-based analysis shows that many cases of potential morphological interference do not become reality, which demonstrates selectivity in language change and the lexicalized nature of the grammatical features of the variety. It has been established that, under the influence of language contacts, some elements, which are peripheral in one national variety of the Russian language, are closer to the core in another. In addition, the article highlights that semantic and pragmatic features of linguistic units shape contact-induced processes in morphology.

Author Biography

  • Olga S. Goritskaya, Minsk State Linguistic University, 21 Zacharava Street, Minsk 220034, Belarus

    PhD (philology), docent; associate professor at the department of general linguistics.

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Published

2020-12-11

Issue

No. 3 (2020): Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology

Section

Linguistics

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How to Cite

[1]
Goritskaya, O.S. 2020. Morphological features of Belarusian Russian: factors of language change. Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology. 3 (Dec. 2020), 29–39.