FROM VISUAL PERCEPTION TO SUBJECTIVE MODALITY: THE SEMANTIC EVOLUTION OF RUSSIAN ОЧЕВИДНО AND ITS CHINESE COUNTERPART 显/显然

Abstract

The article investigates the semantic evolution of the Russian word очевидно and the equivalent Chinese lexical units 显/显然 from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. On the basis of corpus data, contextual analysis, and an examination of the results of previous studies, a three-stage trajectory of the transition is established: from physical visibility through cognitive understandability/clarity to subjective meanings and modal functions. It is demonstrated that the Russian word очевидно, in the course of its evolution, exhibits a gradual attenuation of the primary visually-perceptual seme and a concomitant strengthening of modalization, whereas the Chinese character 显 develops an additional semantic branch associated with the socially-evaluative positive meaning ‘prominent’ / ‘outstanding’ / ‘distinguished’, which has no parallel in the semantic range of the Russian word очевидно. The work shows that the source of the semantic development in both the Russian and Chinese units is the sensory experience of visibility, which subsequently gives rise to a universal visual-cognitive metaphor. However, upon entering the modal domain, the Russian word очевидно exhibits high modal variability, enabling it to express both certainty and supposition or doubt, whereas the Chinese adverb 显然, upon transitioning into the sphere of subjective modality, retains stability in judgments of high certainty and positive evaluation and does not participate in the expression of weak inference modality.