THE ARCHAIZATION OF NEOLOGISMS IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article discusses processes of lexical archaization in modern Russian. A special feature of this study is understanding archaization as an ongoing process covering many still relevant words. Words enter the passive vocabulary gradually, but a decrease in the frequency of use indicates the initial stage of the archaization process. At the same time, the word can remain in the active vocabulary of native speakers and eventually return to frequent use over time. Archaizations can be subject to even recent neologisms, as they can fall into a passive vocabulary without being entrenched in general literary use. This article considers two pairs of words with potential archaism in each pair: зашквар – кринж and няшный – кавайный, as well as two expected historiisms – аська and эмо. The article is supported by an analysis of the frequency of the words based on data from the National Corpus of the Russian Language, the Google search service, in particular the Google Trends, and a survey of native speakers.