Integrated approach to an Epistolary text: from text theory to pragmatics
It was made an attempt in the article to detect and describe some peculiarities of English single-word euphemistic nominations concerning pregnancy theme in the diachronic perspective. The article determines the structure of the euphemistic vocabulary correlated with the mentioned sphere in the V-XVIII centuries. It was concluded that most of the euphemisms in the article were formed as a result of metaphoric derivation on the basis of motivation meaning. Moreover such a fundamental feature of linguistic units as regular lexical combinative power also influences new meaning development and its consolidation. The article shows that territorial marking and style factor are typical of some euphemisms under study. It was found out that the role of borrowings as the means of euphemisms formation is insignificant at the said period of time.