The paper deals with the synonyms and semantic correlates of the adjective пустой (‘empty’)
in modern Russian language. The purpose of this study is to consider the synonymic relations
of the adjective пустой. The results of this work may be applied in the courses on Russian dialectology,
etymology, and lexicology or they can be studied in a full scientific etymological analysis
of adjectives with the general meaning ‘empty’.
The results have allowed establishing that the first basic and direct meaning for the adjective
пустой is ‘empty, free’. It is in the center of the nexus of the lexical-semantic group. The closest
synonyms of the adjective are the words полый – ‘hollow’, пустынный – ‘deserted’, порожний –
‘unfilled’ etc. In general, the adjective пустой, according to lexicographical sources, has the following
groups of synonyms: synonyms meaning ‘a place where something that can be naturally
expected is missing: пустующий, опустелый, безлюдный, пустынный; synonyms with general
meaning ‘a place where contrary to expectation there are no people or they are not visible’:
безлюдный, пустынный, глухой, нежилой, необитаемый. The adjective полый – ‘hollow’
means ‘having free space inside’. The second group of synonyms for the word пустой is connected
with another main meaning ‘бессмысленный, бессодержательный’ (‘senseless, meaningless,
vain, useless’ etc.). In some cases the adjective пустой correlates with the words сухой
(dry), голый (naked) and легкий (light).
The very adjective пустой often has a seme ‘not containing anything’, and the basic morpheme
пуст- can be synonymous for the prefixes без-, не- (non-) in compound words. It should
also be noted that most of the adjectives with the general meaning ‘empty’ in the Russian language
have a seme ‘not having a specific expected trait’; the widest meaning and field of performance
has the adjective empty. Also, the majority of words of this group have a negative evaluation.
The words свободный, незамещенный, незанятый и вакантный, просторный (free,
unsubstituted, unoccupied, vacant, spacious) are also synonyms of the adjective пустой, but,
unlike most others, they do not have a negative evaluation. In addition, the word пустой
has some other semantic correlates, for example, the opposition пустой – живой (empty – alive)
is characteristic of Russian dialects.
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