On the Emotional and the Rational in the Text of Russkaya Pravda

The article deals with analysis of the functional-semantic features of formation of the terminological meanings of emotive lexemes, which are used in one of the oldest original legal Ancient Russian text – Russkaya Pravda. Special attention is paid to interaction of emotional (subjective, reflecting the domestic vision of a subject matter) and rational (objectified, terminological) meanings in the word's semantic structure. It was found that all the emotive lexemes in the text of Russkaya Pravda were subjected to rethinking manifested in the formation of new meanings and / or functional limitations. The author allocates three groups of lexemes, depending on correlation of rational (terminological) and emotional (common language) elements in their meanings: 1) words that retain the value of emotional experiences; 2) emotive words, which developed additional terminological content and which are characterized by a certain syncretism of values; 3) terms-homonyms formed as a result of semantic derivation on the basis of emotive lexemes. The obtained information is supplemented with ideas about the possibilities of the semantic development of the vocabulary of emotions, which are implemented already in the oldest texts and, being associated with business writing, are characterized by a certain dependence on the genre of the text and its field of application. Using data of later sources showed that the model of terms derivation on the basis of emotive lexemes was unproductive.