Emancipation of affixes in modern literary speech

Abstract

   The article examines the emancipation of affixes, i. e. their separation from the morphemic composition of a word and their isolated use in context, using poetic and prosaic texts of the 19^th–21^st centuries.

   The article aims to identify the main stages of this process characteristic of Russian literary speech and to trace its history.

   The study uses descriptive and structural-semantic methods as well as word-formation analysis of lexical units. It is noted that emancipation in literary speech can be observed in different types of morphemes, primarily prefixes and suffixes. We have identified the types of affixes that are most frequently emancipated and lexicalised in texts. The paper concludes that morpheme emancipation in Russian literary speech has a long history: its examples are found in texts as early as in the first half of the 19th century. In modern literary speech, the use of emancipated affixes is becoming more extensive. We have identified several stages of morpheme emancipation, the last being morpheme lexicalisation, i. e., the final transformation of an affix into an independent lexical unit. It is shown that emancipated affixes can be combined in a text and form the basis of its composition, perform a text-forming function, and serve as a literary work title.