We are used to the fact that all relative adjectives in Russian are formed from nouns: city - > city, song - > song, etc. However, nouns are not always primary and adjectives are secondary in the formation of word-forming pairs. The history of a language knows exceptions when an adjective is used first, and then a related noun appears. This was the case with the adjective dramatic.

In the Dictionary of the Russian language of the XVIII century, the adjective dates from 1735, and the noun drama-1738 (SLRYA XVIII v. L., 1991. Issue 6), that is, the adjective dramatic began to be used earlier than the noun drama. This paradox is observed not only in the Russian language. "Almost everywhere in European languages," notes R. A. Budagov, "the adjective dramatic begins to be used before the noun drama" (Budagov R. A. Istoriya slov v istorii obshchestva, Moscow, 1971).

The adjective dramatic and the noun drama come from the Greek pair drama-dramaticos, where the adjective is formed using the suffix-icos from the noun base in kos-

page 103

in some cases, dramat-. Let us explain the features of this phenomenon. The fact is that in Greek, the basics of drama- / dramat-represent the basis of different case forms: in the original form (im. case) - drama; and in indirect cases-dramatos, the consonant of the base - t appears . Changing the word drama in Greek can be compared to changing different declensions of words like time, seed, tribe, etc. in the Russian language, where the Old Russian basis is preserved in the indirect cases of such nouns: time, seed, tribe, etc. Derivatives of these nouns often retained the basis of indirect cases: temporary, seed, tribal. Similar processes in different languages should be considered as phenomena of the same order.

In the Russian language, the adjective dramatic came from European languages, judging by the stress on the last syllable, it is associated with the French dramatique (dramatique), the basis of which on Russian soil acquired the suffix-esk - with alternating k/h.

The English borrowing of the dramatist, known since 1766, has not been widespread. Drama writers were called dramatic writers or dramatic authors until the mid-19th century. Such phrases are found in critical articles by A. S. Pushkin. And only since the second third of the XIX century, the meaning of" author of dramas " was successfully fixed by the noun playwright, which has survived to this day, which dates back to the Greek language.

It is interesting that in Greek the word dramatourgos represented a complex word from the base of indirect cases of words with the meanings "drama", "work, work". In Russian, the final part-urg-is isolated in another Greek word metallurg.

In the 19th century, other words with the basis of drama were borrowed from European languages: dramatic, dramatize, dramatist (ironic for the word playwright). The Russian word dramatism itself (1895) was formed with this basis, as well as many secondary derivatives: dramaturgical, dramatic, etc. In the end, both in European and Russian languages, they are perceived as borrowings from Greek.

Complex abbreviated words that appeared in the XX century, although they contain the basis of drama -, however, the coincidence with the basis of the word drama is accidental, since this basis is extracted from the basis of the adjective drama-: drama  drama[atic]circle, drama  drama[attic] theater.

Thus, the presence of single-root words with the generating basis dramat -, formed in Russian independently of the word drama, allows us to distinguish the variant basis of dramat - and drama-.

In the history of the formation of a word-forming nest with these words, we observe that the initial ratio of pairs of roadst-

page 104

in the list of words dramatic - drama, respectively, the root drama-was highlighted, but with the appearance of other single-root words, the variant root dramat-is revived and functions in parallel with the root drama-. It is interesting that in Polish, the basis of indirect cases of the Greek language also becomes the form of the im. case - dramat (Russian drama).

The history of variant roots of dramas - and dramats-differs from the history of other variant roots in borrowed Greek words na-ma, in which variation was represented in the non-derivative basis of nouns: dogma, dogma-dogmas (variant forms of singular and plural numbers were used at the end of the XVII century), etc. In the modern language, the words dogma and dogma with the meaning "position taken on faith" have diverged in their spheres of application: the noun dogma is used only in religious teaching. All derivatives in modern Russian have the basis of dogma -: dogmatism, dogmatics, dogmatic, dogmatic, dogmatize, etc.

In Russian synchronous word formation, the division of the word dramatic, motivated by the word drama, caused difficulties, since the historical processes that occurred with words of this type were not taken into account. For example, in the School Word-forming Dictionary of the Russian Language, A. N. Tikhonov singles out the suffix in the word drama-atic (Tikhonov A. N. School Word-forming Dictionary of the Russian Language, Moscow, 1978), and in the Word-forming Dictionary of the Russian language, the same author singles out the element-at - and the suffix-ich-: drama-at / historical (Tikhonov A. N. Word-forming dictionary of the Russian language: In 2 volumes, Moscow, 1985, Vol. 1).

Identifying variant morphemes as generating bases solves the problem of the repeated element-at - in derived words and allows you to correlate these words with single-structure ones, for example: dramatic, artistic, scenic, etc.

Permanent link to this publication: