Adjective “blagonadezhnyy” (‘trustworthy’) in modern Russian language

The semantics of the word “blagonadezhnyy” (‘trustworthy’) is structured in the article taking into account its current use. The research is conducted using the texts of newspaper subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. The analysis of the word compatibility with the use of the method of contextual analysis let revealing the meanings not fixed in the diction aries. The author also fin ds out relevant semes in th e str uctur e of the word’s meanin gs based on the obtain ed data and lexicographic information. The author proves her hypothesis on localization of the meaning “a person who may be relied on and trusted” in presupposition part of polisemantic unit “blagonadezhnyy”. According to the author, this semantic element, common for all meanings of the studied adjective, is an interpretative as it r efle cts the evaluation of the quality which became the object of nomination. This element ensures the common character of presupposition for communicants using and comprehending the word “blagonadezhnyy” in any of its meanings. It is affirmed that in the assertive part of the meaning of the given adjective, the semes act as the nuclear ones: ‘potentially’ + ‘unchangeable’ + ‘in the manifestation of a positive property’. The circumnuclear semes “profile” the quality by the feature of environment; and the semantic periphery is characterized by the feature, which is optionally actualized in the context.