INTRODUCTION

Word-formation, along with grammar and lexicology, has long proved its equal status as an independent branch of linguistics. Due to the relatively late allocation into a separate linguistic discipline, word-formation is still the most undeveloped aspect of russian studies in terms of a functional approach. In linguistics, the categorical approach is the main one, and it is carried out from content to form, however, in contrast to other aspects, word-formation was exclusively considered from form to meaning until recently. The example of the main description of the word-formation system of the Russian language, which has become paradigmatic, is presented in russian grammar (1980) as a combination of word-formation types and word-formation nests.

The relevance of the research is defined by the need to study the word-formation semantics of the Russian language, aimed at comprehension and systematization of word-formation categories as complex units of the derivational system of the highest level synthesis. In modern Russian studies, the number of studies devoted to the description of the Russian word-formation system and its units from the standpoint of system-structural, functional and cognitive approaches has significantly increased (Makleeva et al.: 2019, pp. 186-189; Matveeva et al.: 2018, pp. 166-169; Shchuklina: 2017, pp. 209-217; Ukhanova & Kosova: 2019; Yerofeeva: 2018, pp.251-261).

The purpose of the research is to study the features of the word-formation modification category of femininity in modern Russian, to generalize, systematize, and develop existing ideas about this word-formation category. Only through the prism of the categorical approach, the examination of consciousness and mentality is possible, which was and remains one of the Central tasks of cognitive linguistics. This approach corresponds to the spirit of the anthropocentric paradigm that prevails in modern humanitarian knowledge and is relevant from the applied application. A complete understanding of the system of word-forming categories of the Russian language will allow us to study the cultural, social, and mental specifics of the linguistic world-image of this speech community.

One of the most important cognitive categories for human consciousness is the category of sex. In Slavic languages, including Russian, the male-female dichotomy is expressed mainly using morphemic word- formation. It is known that the masculine gender of personal nouns is a universal explicator of the concept of a person in a universal sense when feminine nouns can only refer to women. At the highest level of word- formation categorization, femininity forms a hyped category, represented by the names of female animals and the names of women. The latter form the category of femininity, which, in turn, can have both a modification and a mutation structure.

METHODS

The analyzed language material is represented by 459 lexemes of the -чиц (а)/-щиц (а), functioning in the modern Russian language. Continuous sampling of feminitives was carried out based on Dictionary of Names of Women (Kolesnikov), Modern Explanatory Dictionary of Russian Language (Efremova) was used to check stylistic markings, some of the older dictionaries of the Russian language, Russian National Corpus (hereinafter RNC), the modern media and online publications, the blogosphere were included to study the functioning of feminizes in historical and contemporary contexts.

Traditional methods of the linguistic research were used: the descriptive method, which includes observation of language facts and their comparison, the method of system word-formation analysis, which allows defining word-formation types and word-formation categories, the method of field analysis, due to which the language subsystem is analyzed as a centre-periphery field.

RESULTS

The word-formation type with the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) is one of the most productive means of expressing the word-formation category of femininity in modern Russian. All derivatives with this formant have an exclusive semantic and word-formation meaning of femininity and name female persons who are characterized by an attitude to what is called a motivating word and determine their activity, character, craft, occupation.

The suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) is formed from the masculine suffix -чик/-щик as a result of joining the ending-a and the third palatalization of velar consonants (Shchuklina et al.: 2016, pp. 190-196). The origin of the masculine suffix remains unclear, but the name with the suffix -щик is already found in the texts of 1267 (Naccarato: 2019, pp. 1-30), respectively, this suffix can be attributed to one of the most ancient in the Russian language. Sheremetyevo et al. write: "The parallelism of male names with the suffix -ник and -щик/-чик in the Old Russian period caused the appearance of female correlates ending in -чиц (а)/-щиц (а)". Already at that time feminitives ending in -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) name women not only my husband but also by occupation: головщица, уставщица, челобитчица (Sheremetyevo et al.: 2020). Back then the masculine gender of personal nouns could not name a person regardless of sex yet, this linguistic trend will appear much later, closer to the 20th century, when the number of women participating in social and labour activities increases significantly, and at the same time, there is a desire to unify personal names to save speech resources. For the nomination of women in Old Russian and the period of the national language, special word-formation suffixes with the meaning ‘female person’ were required.

In modern Russian, the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) correlates with the suffix -чик/-щик. Word-formation isaccompanied by a truncation of the word stem so that the derived word is the same in complexity with the producing one: переводчик – переводчица, тестировщик – тестировщица. The correlation of the feminine noun ending in -щиц (а) with the masculine noun ending in -ец occurs in a modern language: продавец – продавщица is the result of the obsolescence of the masculine correlate in the продавщик – продавщица pair and the feminine one in the продавец – продавица.

The suffix was especially widespread in the Soviet era due to the growing involvement of women in labour activity. The word-formation type with the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) is actively used in socio-political vocabulary: аппаратчица, коммунальщица, учкомщица and in the names of professions: вагонщица, гвоздильщица, погрузчица, чистильщица. According to the conclusions of Protchenko, “Nouns with agentive suffixes -чик,-щик and correlative -чиц (а), -щиц (а) (in the form of feminine gender) are most widely used in agricultural terminology” (Protchenko: 1984, p. 222). Many of these names are becoming obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century because the professions to which they belong (теребильщица, etc.) disappear.

In Russian grammar (1980) derived names with the suffix -чиц(а)/-щиц(а) are not allocated to a separate word-formation type and are reviewed in the paragraph about the suffix -иц(а): "productivity of the type is shown in formations motivated by the words on -ик, -ник, -щик (new: визировщица, spec., одноклубница, sport.)" (Booij: 2012). this interpretation can be explained by the fact that the suffix -чик/-щик (-чиц (а)/-щиц (а), respectively) historically came from the suffix -ик (-иц (а), respectively) by complicating the formant.

According to the semantic structure of the names ending in -чиц(а)/-щиц(а) they are related to professional activities (гардеробщица, заготовщица, литейщица, оценщица, переводчица) and name a person by action (притворщица, зачинщица, рассказчица), a person about what is called a motivating word (кавээнщица, анонимщица, мусорщица). Seventy lexemes are formed using the suffix -льщиц (а), which arose as a result of the fusion of the suffixes -ль and -щиц (а). Vinogradov indicates that using the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а)/-льщиц (а) is "possible and immediate formation of the names of the female persons <...> from the verb stems and noun stems with the meaning of the subject, e.g., ватерщица, подавальщица" (Vinogradov: 2001, p. 720). Such names belong more to the field of mutational word-formation, although they are formed accordingly to the same word-formation models as modification correlates, and are relatively rare in the field of female nominations. Most of the derived names of women are feminine correlates to masculinepersonal nouns: красильщик – красильщица, болельщик – болельщица. The word-formation pair -чик/- щик – -чиц(а)/-щиц(а) is regular and stable: according to Yanko-Trinitskaya, "nouns with the suffix -тель is easier to part with the meaning of the masculine gender and more vividly displace the words of the feminine gender, than, for example, nouns with the suffix -щик (-чик)" (Yanko-Trinitskaya: 1966, pp. 167-210).

According to the stylistics, the feminizes on -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) can be characterized as rather neutral: only 153 of the 459 lexemes have the dictionary marks разг. /colloquialism, жарг. /slang, прост. /vernacular. Names ending in -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) are found in various styles of speech: from the colloquial speech (ахальщица, телевизионщица) and jargon (динамщица, халявщица) to the official style (налогоплательщица, квартиросъемщица).

The type maintains productivity in modern Russian: 1) in the formation of new generation professions: пиарщица, эсэмэмщица (SMM specialist – marketing in social networks), тестировщица, компьютерщица;2) in realizing the need for feminine correlates towards masculine correlates in connection with the entry of women into professions that were previously inaccessible to them: дальнобойщица, газо-, электросварщица; 3) in the process of nominating women by area of interest or occupation: яойщица – a fan of the manga and anime genre yaoi (masculine correlate яойщик), тиктокщица – an active user of video- sharing social networking service TikTok, ютубщица – an active user of online video-sharing platform YouTube, инстаграмщица – an active user of social networking service Instagram. By an active user, we mean a woman who creates and posts content (photos, videos, or posts) on the platforms listed above. Such names are realized by analogy with the already existing feminine names in the language, and not directly from the names of men: thus, male users of the above-mentioned Internet platforms are usually called тиктокер, ютубер, инстаграмер, although occasionally there are nominations ютубщик, инстаграмщик. Feminine derivatives of names on -ер, according to the "word-forming habit", are formed using the suffix -ш (а): тиктокерша, ютуберша, инстаграмерша.

DISCUSSION

The highly productive suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а), which correlates with the agentive suffix -чик/-щик, forms from the names of men the corresponding names of women by profession, occupation, character. It is also possible to form such nominations directly from the verb and noun stems, which has a mutational character.

The considered word-formation model is one of the oldest native Russian means of expressing the word- formation category of femininity: derived names of women formed by the model with the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) appears in the language in the Old Russian period. The productivity of the type increases significantly in the mid-20th century due to the emergence of many new professions and the entry of women into labour activity in the post-war period. Women's names ending in -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) still make up a significant proportion of Russian feminitives, most of them being in a stylistically neutral zone.

CONCLUSION

However, a certain pejorative nature of such names, most likely, forces native speakers to resort to a word-formation type with a suffix -щиц (а). The means of expressing the word-formation category of femininity often enter synonymy relations, which is due, first, to the spectrum of stylistic marking of feminitives of a particular word-formation type (инстаграмерша – инстаграмщица), and secondly, to the specificity of synonymous relations for russian word-formation: such facts are found both in verbal and adjectival derivation. The variety of means of the word-formation category of femininity opens up wide opportunities for word-making and a language game, following the speaker's expressive and communicative goals. Thus, it can be concludedthat the word-formation type with the suffix -чиц (а)/-щиц (а) belongs to the core of the femininity category, being a highly productive stylistically neutral means of its expression.

BIODATA

R.R. GUZAEROVA: Regina R. Guzaerova, Born in 1988. In 2010 she graduated from the philological faculty of Kazan State University, specialty: Russian language and literature. Qualification: Philologist. Teacher. Post- graduate student 3 years of study at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, direction:06.06.01 Linguistics and literary criticism, specialty: 02.10.01. The theme of the Ph.D. thesis is "Feminists inthe modern Russian-language media space: word-building aspect." Is Assistant of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language IFMK KFU. Research interests: word formation, cognitive linguistics, gender linguistics, sociolinguistics, Russian as a foreign language.

V.A. KOSOVA: Vera A. Kosova, Born in 1960, Doctor of Philology. In 1982 she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Kazan State University, specialty: Russian language and literature. Qualification is Philologist. Teacher. In 1996, she defended her thesis “Suppletivism in the system of the nominative derivation of the Russian language” and in 2014, her doctoral dissertation “The systemic significance of word-formation categories in Russian”.Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language IFMK KFU. Member of the Dissertation Councils of KFU 10.03 and KFU 10.05. Deputy Editor-in-chief of the journal "Scientific notes of Kazan University. Series Humanities".

L. GUZI: Lubomir Guzi, Born in 1972, Ph.D. Director of the Institute of Russian Studies, Prešov University (Prešov, Slovakia). In 1996 he graduated from the Faculty of Education in Prešov, University of Pavel Joseph Shafarik in Kosice (Slovakia), specialty: teaching general subjects (Russian, history). In 2014 he defended his thesis (Ph.D.) "The language of the revolution and the Soviet period as a structural-lingo cultural model." He is the author of the monographs “The Russian Language and Society in the Revolutionary Period” (2014), “Linguocultural Analysis of the Russian Historical Narrative” (2011), “Formation of Russia as a Multinational State” (2009), as well as a textbook on Russian morphology for Slovak students (2012). Research interests: morphology, word formation, historical and geographical realities of the Russian language.

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