NEAR-SYNONYMS OSNOVA AND TEMELJ AND METHODS OF THEIR SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION

Abstract

The ability of individual lexemes to appear in different contexts, providing variable semantic realization, is often a result of their insufficiently specified semantics, and for this reason they are called semantic underspecified lexemes. Given the fact that the meaning of underspecified lexemes is determined based on the immediate environment in which they appear, collocations are a worthy minimal context to explore their meaning. In this paper we will examine the examples of collocations with lexemes osnova and temelj, in order to determine their meaning, the degree of matching of their semantics and a conceptualization of terms denoted by these nouns. Before proceeding to the study, we will present the results of earlier research on this topic – research of Milka Ivić on semantic underspecification of lexeme thing and the research of Rajna Dragićević of lexeme osnova. Unlike the Rajna Dragićević who examined semantic underspecification of lexeme osnova using a conceptual analysis, in this research we will primarily use collocation method, which is developed in Serbian linguistics by Boris Hlebec. A basic hypothesis is that the results of the use of these methods will coincide to a large extent, and that is an assumption which R. Dragićević states in her study. Corpus research represent collocation with lexemes osnova and temelj, registered in the Corpus of Contemporary Serbian language made at the Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade.