The word in the desemantization process

The article deals with the phenomenon of desemantization that is actively manifested in modern speech. Particular attention is paid to the interpretation of the term «desemantization» because there are different approaches to both the definition of the concept «desemantization» and its objects - desemantised lexemes. Researchers usually call ‘desemantization’ either the process of loss of the lexical meaning in the word or the result of this process. The basis of the theoretical framework of desemantization phenomenon in this paper is the idea of V. G. Gak who understands desemantization as a process of semantic word devastation, the result of which is a desemantised word while an intermediate stage is a word with indistinct semantics. The scientific interest to the causes of words with indistinct semantics and what is more important to semantic transformations occurring on the main stage of the desemantization process described in detail by V. G. Gak allows to make an attempt in this work to describe the process of desemantization including its various stages: 1) polysemantic word 2) word with a indistinct semantics, 3) desemantised word as well as the analysis of the words that are in various stages of this process. As a result of the analysis there is a possibility to reveal a) the differences between the desemantised word and the polysemantic word (the absence of hierarchy and differentiation of meanings) and b) the differences between the desemantised word and the word with indistinct semantics. Different meanings of desemantised words are actualized only in speech and in real situations. Out of any situation or context the word appears in its basic meaning. Words with indistinct semantics do not have basic meanings; all their meanings are in a certain semantic microfield (for example, «positive evaluation»). The peculiarity of these words is that their semantic potential is limited only by semantics of the microfield, they may denote all sorts of objects, actions, states, etc., but in dictionaries we can find only those meanings (called conventional), which were fixed in the minds of speakers and now are often used in speech.