Depression, Melancholy, Spleen: a case Study of the Semantics of Synonyms Within the Framework of Moscow Semantic School

Student: Salmanova Anastasiia

Educational Programme: Philology (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2020

This paper is devoted to the study of the semantics of synonyms "depression", "melancholy" and "spleen" in Russian and English languages. The analysis given in this paper is based on the research methods of the Moscow semantic school and the Polish-Australian linguist Anna Wierzbicka, who is very close to this school. Applying the method of semantic combinability, scientists search for "subtle semantics" that distinguishes synonyms. This work likewise focuses on the identifying semantic differences between the above synonyms and defining their concepts in two languages - Russian and English. It should be noted that the main language of the the research is Russian; English is "superimposed" on it. This procedure helps to determine in what ways the understanding of the above words in the two languages is similar, and in what ways it is different.

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