ETYMOLOGICAL BASES OF SYNONYMIC SERIES OF DIMENSION ADJECTIVES AND THEIR ENRICHMENT IN ENGLISH

Abstract

This research aims to examine the etymological basis of synonymic series (SS) of adjectives of dimension with the meaning of “small size”. The research material consists of data obtained from explanatory, synonymic, and frequency dictionaries such as The Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus, Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms, Crabb G. Crabb’s English Synonyms, Roget’s Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms, and others. The article examines the lexical-semantic group of adjectives with the meaning of “small size,” represented by synonymic series. It is shown that the formation of this group took place over centuries and includes both native adjectives and borrowed units. Native adjectives make up 35.7% of the material studied and come from common Indo-European roots, the Germanic branch, or have unknown origins. Most of them are formed by suffix derivation and morphological combination, and rare root words appear independently. Adjectives can belong to different synonymic series and acquire the lexicalsemantic meaning of “small size” only at a certain stage of development. The motivation for the form of such adjectives is transparent in some cases, while in others it is complex or uncertain, which is characteristic of the most ancient root words. Borrowings from Scandinavian, Latin, and French languages, which make up 64.3% of the adjectives studied, play a significant role in replenishing the group. The time of appearance of individual lexical-semantic variants is determined according to The Oxford English Dictionary. The results show that the development of this group is the result of historical processes, active word formation, and language borrowings, which allows us to trace the patterns of formation of adjectives of dimension in English. The study refines the criteria for including adjectives in the relevant lexical-semantic group, taking into account their lexical-semantic variants. It analyses the relationship between the etymological origin of the lexemes and their functioning within synonymic series. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of the systemic organisation of adjectives of dimension in modern English.