Polesnaya Dryan’ (‘Useful Rubbish’) and Tsennyi Fignya (‘Valuable Garbage’). On Some Cases of Changing the Assessment in Informal Colloquial Speech

The paper examines the group of nouns with evaluative meaning that are widely used in informal oral and written speech to reference a wide range of entities, such as objects, people and situations: barakhlo, beliberda, galimat’ja, gluposti, govno, der’mo, drebeden’, drian’, erunda, labuda, mura, mut’, mutoten’, fignia, khlam, khren’, chepuha, etc.(meaning ‘rubbish’, ‘junk’, ‘crap’, ‘rubbish’, ‘idiocy’, ‘filth’ etc.). The meanings of these words in normative explanatory dictionaries are compared to the interpretations provided by the Explanatory Dictionary of Russian Colloquial Speech (EDRC). As illustrated by examples from colloquial speech and blogs, these words may be used in neutral and even positive contexts.

Neutral usage is often observed when such a nown is used in a substantive sense that is absent from normative dictionaries but covered by the EDRC (e.g. HREN’. 1. DEF. on any object or substance the name of which the speaker has forgotten or is unwilling to use for some reason …). The assessment shift is also supported by adjectives with positive semantics (classnyj, dorogoj, tsennyj, poleznyj) appearing next to such nouns: tsennaja hren', poleznaja fignya, nuzhnaja erunda (valuable stuff, useful thingy, helpful trash) etc. However, such collocations may also indicate combinations of two different viewpoints: an objective assessment and a subjective opinion of the speaker, – in such cases, the evaluative component is still preserved: cf. dorogostojashhaja hren', poleznaja gadost', tsennyj hlam (‘expensive junk, healthy crap, valuable garbage’) etc. The expressive nature of these words does not disappear altogether but rather is transformed – instead of the negative assessment it can mark the casualness of speech, express irony or self-irony, characterize individual speech manner of the speaker.

Keywords

colloquial speech, informal speech, oral speech, informal written speech, appraisal, expressiveness

Received

28.12.2022

Publication date

28.12.2022

Number of characters

20871

Cite

GOST	Zanadvorova A. Polesnaya Dryan’ (‘Useful Rubbish’) and Tsennyi Fignya (‘Valuable Garbage’). On Some Cases of Changing the Assessment in Informal Colloquial Speech // Russkaya Rech’ – 2022. – Issue 6 C. 50-62 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/rusrech/s013161170023736-8-1-en (circulation date: 28.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013161170023736-8
MLA	Zanadvorova, Anna V "Polesnaya Dryan’ (‘Useful Rubbish’) and Tsennyi Fignya (‘Valuable Garbage’). On Some Cases of Changing the Assessment in Informal Colloquial Speech." Russkaya Rech’ 6 (2022):50-62. DOI: 10.31857/S013161170023736-8
APA	Zanadvorova A. (2022). Polesnaya Dryan’ (‘Useful Rubbish’) and Tsennyi Fignya (‘Valuable Garbage’). On Some Cases of Changing the Assessment in Informal Colloquial Speech. Russkaya Rech’ (6), pp.50-62 DOI: 10.31857/S013161170023736-8

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