Gurevich P.S. Nikolay Karamzin's Language

Abstract: The article is devoted to the great contribution of Nikolay Karamzin to the reformation of the Russian language. Many words created by Nikolay Karamzin are now commonly use4d. However, the process of their creation was not so easy or socially recognized. It is partly due to the competition in word invention that was famous in the 18th - early 19th centuries and performed by not only poets such as V. Grediakovsky or M. Lomonosov but also historians and literary critics. Each word-forming experiment was based on a certain ideological or philosophical tradition. It was rather difficult and risky to look into the future of the langauge and linguistic tendencies under the conditions of ideological disputes of those times. Nikolay Karamzin's achievements were faultless from this point of view. Certain words used by him did not only enrich the Russian language but also promoted serious philosophical research. The author of the present article uses the principle of historicism that allowed to demonstrate not only the results of the word polemics of those times but also the process of their painful and difficult development. Analyzing Nikolay Karamzin's achievements in the Russian langauge reformation, the author tries to show the change in linguistic preferences of Nikolay Karamzin, to reveal failures of some experiments and define general cultural attitudes and trends in the Russian language improvement typical for that time. According to the author of the article, due to Nikolay Karamzin's 250th jubilee many his achievements in the spheres of philosophy, history and literature have been finally appreciated and described. As for Nikolay Karamzin's language and linguistic tendencies, this part of his heritage still needs to be researched further. 

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