Классификация субстандартной лексики англоязычного и русскоязычного семантического поля «Medicine»/«Медицина» в сравнительно-сопоставительном аспекте

The semantic field of medicine occupies a leading position in the modern linguocultural space. A significant number of studies considering this topic in various aspects have been done recently. Despite the increased interest in this issue, the layer of substandard lexical units relating to the semantic field of medicine remains insufficiently explored. This article presents the author’s classification of substandard lexical units of the semantic field of medicine in English and Russian. The classification was developed according to the results of the distribution of substandard lexical units by lexico-semantic groups at the first level and semantic subgroups at the second level. To determine whether the substandard lexical units belong to the subject area “Medicine”, the author turned to the standardized nomenclature groups of the medical terminological system. The material was obtained using continuous sampling of lexical units from the most authoritative English-language and Russian-language dictionaries of substandard vocabulary. The selected lexical units were ranked according to the basic semantic characteristics underlying the naming of a particular substandard lexical unit. With the help of the lexico-semantic analysis, this approach allows us to identify lexico-semantic groups whose meanings fit into the semantic field of medicine. As a result, 12 English and 11 Russian lexico-semantic groups were updated. Then, within these lexicosemantic groups, semantic subgroups were determined, whose basis is additional semantic characteristics. Using the results obtained, a quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (presence/absence of semantic characteristics) composition of substandard lexical units within the English- and Russian-language semantic field of medicine was analysed, their similarities and differences were identified.