Suffixal nouns in the Erzya language: semantics and functioning
Renewal of the vocabulary of any language is an essential process of its development. Due to advancements in science, many word-building processes can be considered from a new perspective, therefore their study is of relevance at the moment.Objective: to study the substantival suffixal word-formation in the modern Erzya language by describing the core word-formation characteristics, such as the underlying stem, structure and meaning of derivatives, their productivity and functional and stylistic attributes.Research materials: the material of the study was drawn from the encyclopedia «Mordovia», published in the Erzya language.Results and novelty of the research: it is revealed that the current Erzya language actively employs suffixes - ma/-mo (-ма/-мо), -ks (-кс), kа (-кa) to form nouns. Most frequent in the encyclopedia are the nouns produced by the suffix -ma/-mo. But, if other synonymous morphemes are attached to a certain type of underlying stems, it can join nouns, adjectives, verbs. With its help, words with abstract (for the most part) and particular semantics are mainly formed from verb stems. The suffix -ks is productive when scientific terms are generated; it mainly accompanies the substantival stems.Currently, the traditional methods of word-formation in the Erzya language are still in demand; productive suffixes are actively involved in the formation of new nouns, which is proved by the research findings. Each of the considered suffixes manifests a certain “specialization” either from a structural point of view or from a semantic point of view, each has separate attributes.