Prefixes with THE meaning «circle» in the Russian language

The article deals with means of representation of the concept of «circle» in the Russian language picture of the world and poses a question on incorporating prefixes with the meaning «circle» in these means of representation. Most scientists consider only lexical and phraseological units to be the means of verbalizing the concept, but some concepts (as seen, in the first place are space concepts, geometric concepts) can also be embodied by word-formative formants. Prefixes vokrug-, okolo-, derived on autonomous words with roots -krug- and -kol- (on the prepositions vokrug and okolo, formed from adverbs vokrug and okolo), underived prefixes o- / ob, pri- and foreign language prefix peri-, which is often allocated only etymologically (see the words period, periphery, pericardium, etc.) are analyzed. The relationship with the concept «circle» is most clearly seen in the derivative prefixes vokrug- and okolo-, moreover the following dependence is detected: the less defined this relationship in the corresponding prefix (in particular, the prefix okolo-), the wider its semantics and wider lexeme’s complex, to which it is able to join. Between primitive prefixes the most diverse circular conveys the semantics of the prefix o- / ob-. Prefixes with meaning «circle» embody one of the image-schemes of the concept «circle», namely «the ratio of the center and periphery», which is expressed in terms of meanings «to do something around something» / «to be around something», «to be near something», «to be joined with something» or «to be beside something», «in circumvention of something». Prefix’s meaning «circle» is often supported by word root or a context, but prefixes can express this meaning by combining with other word roots, in other words, can express the circle meaning in standalone mode. So means of representation of the concept «circle» must include prefixes with the same semantics.

concept, circle, means of concept representation, prefixes, meaning.