Semantics of verbs of thought in the Ob-Ugric languages

Introduction. The article describes the semantics of verbs of mental activity in the Mansi and Khanty languages. The relevance of the topic is determined by the lack of research devoted to the analysis and semantic classification of verbal lexico-semantic groups, primarily in comparative terms. The purpose of the work is to reveal the internal organization of the verbs of cognition and understanding “to know”, “to understand”, “to learn”, “to notice” in the Ob-Ugric languages and to characterize the semantic relations between their members. Materials and Methods. The article is based on the verbs of mental activity of the Mansi (Sosvinsky dialect) and Khanty (Kazim dialect) languages received by the authors from informants and extracted from dictionaries of the Khanty and Mansi languages and texts. When working on the material, component analysis, the method of contextual (distributive) analysis were used. Results and Discussion. For the first time, the lexico-semantic group of the verbs of thought (“to know”, “to understand” and their analogues) of the Ob-Ugric languages was studied; differential signs of the semantics of the verbs under study were revealed, the relationships of these verbs and the peculiarities of their compatibility, primary and derived lexico-semantic variants of the meanings of these verbs were determined, their aspectual variants were partially revealed. The main verbs of the group are described and their signs are indicated; the semantic structure of polysemous verbs is determined. Conclusion. Comparison of the semantic structures of similar words in the Ob-Ugric languages allows us to conclude that the main distinguished meanings of the verbs of knowledge and understanding coincide in the studied dialects, however, each language has specific meanings and special semantic shifts in meanings.