A word combination and a composite as the components of complex-type nominathemes in the Russian language

Abstract

A nominative unit of any language should be considered as a certain invariant capable of containing characteristics of a word and its forms or characteristics of a word combination and its forms respectively. The purpose of the paper is to analyze features of composites as one of speech implementations of the complex-type nominathemes. The purpose has stipulated following tasks: 1) to consider motivational relations established between a word combination and its equivalent; 2) to describe criteria of identity of a nominatheme with its modifications – word combinations and composites. Methods. The research has involved a series of methods according to its topic: a method of continuous sampling to accumulate factual material; a method of distributive analysis to differentiate the concepts; a descriptive method to describe and generalize the status of the units under consideration. Conclusions. A nominatheme, being capable of containing characteristics of both word combination and its forms, is the basic linguistic unit under consideration. Eight structural varieties of complex-type nominathemes have been singled out; they are a part of 14 varieties of such kind. Composites of different types, as the units where nominathemes with a complex-type dominant-word combination are implemented linguistically, make up a considerable number of structural varieties of those invariants, i.e.: 1) word combination + composite + elliptic univerb; 2) word combination + composite + elliptheme (main word); 3) word combination + abbreviation-type composite + abbreviation + elliptic univerb; 4) word combination + abbreviation-type composite + elliptic univerb + elliptheme (main word) + abbreviation; 5) word combination + abbreviation-type composite + elliptheme (main word); 6) word combination + elliptic univerb + abbreviation-type composite + elliptheme (main word); 7) word combination + elliptic univerb + abbreviation + compressive univerb.