The relationship between the concepts of extreme and limit
The study of semantics is an actual direction of linguistics of the XX-XXI centuries. The present work is devoted to the correlation of the concepts of extreme and limit, which is relevant for the author's research in line with the study of the semantics of extreme. The purpose of the article is to prove that the extreme is a linguoculturally marked concept in contrast to the concept of limit. The research is based on the material of lexicographic sources and scientific papers on the research topic. The differentiation of the extreme and limit lexemes is carried out within the framework of three aspects: (1) semantic, (2) etymological and (3) word-formation. (1) The lexico-semantic variant studied by the author ‘extreme degree, highest degree, excessive degree’ is the first when presenting the lexical unit extreme in explanatory dictionaries, and the second and subsequent when describing the vocabulary limit. (2) Etymological dictionaries record the origin of the lexeme extreme from the Old Russian and Proto-Slavic languages, and the lexical unit limit - from Church Slavonic, which brings a special shade of the meaning of historical color and high book style in the use of the vocabula limit. (3) The word-formation aspect also serves as a justification for the use of the concept of extreme. The abstract affix -awn adds the meaning of ‘manifestation of a property’ to the lexical unit extreme, and the word limit has only a specific meaning of ‘border, line, boundary’. The scientific results of this article allow us to justify the choice of the author's research object - the semantics of the extreme, not the limit. The lexicographic method of research leads the author to the conclusion that the lexical units extreme and limit are synonymous in one lexical and semantic variant, however, the vocabula extreme can be considered a linguocultural-labeled concept that conveys a characteristic feature of the Russian mentality.