Semantics of the Lexeme khram in Language and Text (Based on Russian Orthodox Sermons)

Abstract

This article scrutinizes the semantic structure of the lexeme khram (‘church’) in the Russian language. The paper is relevant due to the need to describe and analyse key lexemes in the Russian linguistic worldview. A special place among such units is occupied by religious words, including khram. Russian linguists’ turning to religious vocabulary elucidates the value of these words, which for a long time had been banned for well-known reasons. Currently, religious vocabulary is studied in different aspects: the history of individual words; the development of the semantics of specific lexemes and their functioning in various texts; the linguistic and cultural features of using religiously marked language units; religious concepts playing an important role in shaping the linguistic worldview, etc. In this paper, using the descriptive method and the comparative analysis of lexicographic sources and texts of sermons, the author characterized some peculiarities of the semantics of khram. The research showed that this word’s semantics is not confined to the meanings found in dictionary entries, which are clear and comprehensible to all members of a certain speech community. Noteworthy, linguoculturological information is not included in dictionary definitions. At the same time, a word belonging to the religious sphere is connected with a whole range of religious and cultural meanings. By studying the functioning of the lexeme khram in the texts we can trace the changes in its meanings and semantic content.