Lexeme belosvetnyy in Russian dialects: the structural-semantic characteristic

The article discusses the meaning of the lexeme belosvetnyy. The lexeme is found in several, mostly North Russian, dialects. The lexeme has different meanings and in Pechora dialects it is used in the meaning that is not reflected in the dialect dictionaries. The author describes the morphemic and word-building structure of the adjective belosvetny; gives a semantic characteristic of its core component word svet, which acts as a basis for the described adjective (the basic meanings are described - physical (optical), temporal, spatial and estimated). Finally, the adjective reflects both the history of its appearance and the semantic content of the word combination belyiy svet in Russian. The analysis of the inclusion of the time meaning phrase belyiy svet into the stable expression ne vide(a)t’svetu belogo is an important part of the discussion. As a result, the author comes to a conclusion that the difference in the meaning and the use of a compound adjective belosvetny, according to the data of different dialects, is explained by the temporal or spatial meaning of the base word combination belyiy svet.