The problem of word in the works of K. A. Timofeev

The problem of the word as a language unit is a relevant problem that is frequently discussed in works on General Linguistics and Russistics in particular. Various aspects of the problem of the word (its relation to reality, society, culture, people as language speakers, their mental and emotional activity, relevant traits of words separating them from other types of language units, word classifications, role played by words in building of communicative language units, etc.) have been discussed in works of W. von Humboldt, A. A. Potebnya, A. M. Peshkovskiy, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A. A. Shakhmatov, V. V. Vinogradov, A. I. Smirnitskiy, A. A. Ufimtseva, I. V. Arnold, N. M. Shanskiy, D. N. Shmelev, etc. The word is a language unit possessing multiple characteristics. There are hundreds of definitions of the word as a language unit focused on various real linguistic characteristics of the word. In a popular classification of words developed by V. V. Vinogradov, the word is defined according to its lexical meaning and grammatical characteristics: words-nominations (parts of speech), function words (particles of speech), modal words and interjections, which are separated from the grammatical semantics, are distinguished. In K. A. Timofeev’s classification, two basic characteristics of the word are also considered: the lexical characteristic (the word is a means of nomination) and the grammatical characteristic (the word participates in the building of communicative units - word-groups and sentences). K. A. Timofeev’s classification intersects partially with V. V. Vinogradov’s classification. Vinogradov only points out the special status of pronouns in the system of parts of speech, whereas K. A. Timofeev describes a bipolar ‘mirror system’: nominative (including nouns, adjectives, numerals, adverbs, verbs) and deictic (including nominative pronouns, adjective pronouns, numerical pronouns, adverbial pronouns, verbal pronoun делать ‘to do’). Aside from the category of words, K. A. Timofeev also distinguishes a category of non-words: ‘function words’, ‘modal words’, ‘sentence-words’ ( да ‘yes’, нет ‘no’), the category of state, and comments on the conventionality of the usage of the term ‘word’ regarding such language units.