The word 'samyj’ as an optional component of Russian set expressions

The article examines the functioning of the word samyj as an optional component of Russian set expressions. Comparison of different dictionaries sometimes reveals differences in descriptions of both individual words and set expressions. For example, a situation is possible when the optional component of a set expression present in one dictionary is absent in another one. Compare: popadat’/popast’ v (samuju) zhilku in the Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language → popadat’/popast’ v zhilku in the Small Academic Dictionary. It is not infrequent that definitions given to a set expression in dictionaries do not agree with its actual use in oral speech. A set expression can be used in colloquial speech both in its full and incomplete versions, i. e. in some cases, some component is omitted, while in others it is preserved. Many set expressions with the word samyj contained in dictionaries are not used at all or rarely used in everyday speech, or have forms that differ from those provided in dictionaries. In this study, we examined the optionality of the component samyj in set expressions in the modern Russian language and speech, with the Small Academic Dictionary and the Corpus of Spoken Russian being the tools for such examination. The Corpus of Spoken Russian, which is part of the Russian National Corpus, includes transcripts of public and private oral speech, as well as movie transcripts (‘imitation of oral speech’), but the focus of this study is on everyday oral speech. For collecting and interpreting the data, we used qualitative and quantitative analysis of the material independently and simultaneously. The cognitive approach to the study of the linguistic unit samyj as an optional component of set expressions can contribute to the creation of a lexicographic portrait of the word samyj in the Russian language/speech.