Search
Submit an article RU
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2020 Vol. 11 №4

Back to the list Download the article
ENG
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
RUS
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
Somin A. A. Gridneva E. M.

Historical perspective on the word gospoda as a form of address

Abstract

Using the method of corpus analysis, this article explores the history of the Russian hon­orific gospoda and related forms of address: damy i gospoda, gospoda-tovarischi, and other noun-noun and adjective-noun collocations (gospoda publika uvažaemye gospoda). It draws on examples from literature to demonstrate that although, contrary to popular belief, the honorific damy i gospoda is not a neologism of the end of the 20th century, it was mar­ginal to pre-revolutionary speech. It is also shown that, albeit rarely, the word gospoda was used before the Russian Revolution to address a mixed company. Abandoned after the Revolu­tion, the honorific underwent a revival in the second half of the 20th century when it was used more often to address a mixed company than it had been in tsarist times. Probably, this was accounted for by extra-linguistic factors. Special attention is given to the use of the honorific gospoda in periods of transition: at the beginning and end of the Soviet era and after the collapse of the USSR.

Reference

  1. Balakai, A. G., 2001. Slovar' russkogo rechevogo etiketa [Dictionary of Russian speech etiquette]. Moscow (in Russ.).

  2. Vinogradov, V. V., 1939. O yazyke Tolstogo: (50—60-e gody) [Towards the language of Tolstoy: (50’s and 60’s)]. USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of the Russian litera­ture (in Russ.).

  3. Gulyga, A., 1989. Gentlemen! Literaturnaya gazeta [Literary newspaper] (in Russ.).

  4. Dal’, V. I. 1863. Tolkovyi slovar' zhivogo velikorusskogo yazyka. Chast' pervaya. A—Z [Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. Part one. A-Z]. Vol. 1. Moscow (in Russ.).

  5. Dulichenko, A. D., 1999. Etnosotsiolingvistika «Perestroiki» v SSSR: Antologiya zapechatlennogo vremeni [Ethnosociolinguistics of “Perestroika” in the USSR: Antholo­gy of the Captured Time]. Munich (in Russ.).

  6. Efremov, V. A., 2010. Transformations of the Russian speech etiquette: forms of address. Universum: Vestnik Gertsenovskogo universiteta [Bulletin of the Herzen Uni­versity], 10, pp. 44—48 (in Russ.).

  7. Kabakchi, V. V. and Prokshina, Z. G., 2012. When in Rome, do in your linguistic and cultural way: forms of address. Lichnost', Kul'tura. Obshchestvo [Personality. Cul­ture. Society], Vol. XIV, 1 (69—70), pp. 164—173 (in Russ.).

  8. Klubkov, P. A., 2004. Govorite, pozhaluista, pravil'no [Please speak correctly]. St. Pe­tersburg (in Russ.).

  9. Krongauz, M. A., 2007. Russkii yazyk na grani nervnogo sryva [The Russian lan­guage on the verge of a nervous breakdown]. Moscow (in Russ.).

  10. Ozhegov, S. I., 1972. Slovar' russkogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Russian language]. Vol. 9. Moscow (in Russ.).

  11. Ozhegov, S. I., 1989. Slovar' russkogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Russian language]. Vol. 21. Moscow (in Russ.).

  12. Ozhegov, S. I. and Shvedova, N.Yu., 1992. Tolkovyi slovar' russkogo yazyka [Ex­planatory dictionary of the Russian language]. Vol. 1. Moscow (in Russ.).

  13. Pakhomova, I. N., 2008. Novye yavleniya v russkom rechevom etikete (na materiale sredstv massovoi informatsii) [New phenomena in the Russian speech etiquette (based on media)]. Ph. D. Pushkin State Russian Language Institute (in Russ.).

  14. Ushakov, D. N., 1935. Tolkovyi slovar' russkogo yazyka. Tom 1. A — Kyuriny [Ex­planatory dictionary of the Russian language. Volume 1. A — Kyuriny]. Moscow (in Russ.).

  15. Shafikov, S. G., 2012. Honorifics in European languages and the problem of the Russian address form. Vestnik Bashkirskogo universiteta [Bulletin of Bashkir Universi­ty], 17 (1), pp. 133—138 (in Russ.).

  16. Shmelev, A. D., 2008. The evolution of the Russian linguistic picture of the world and the culture of speech. Russian Language Journal, Special Issue: Language Culture in Contemporary Russia, 58, pp. 229—248 (in Russ.).

  17. Georg, L., 1868. Grammaire élémentaire et pratique de la langue anglaise: Ouvrage ac­compagné de nombreux exercices de conversation et suivi de deux vocabulaires alphabétiques. Genève.

  18. Wagner, L., 1894. Manners, Customs and Observances: Their Origin and Significance. London.