Uteniškių sudurtiniai pejoratyvai

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Rytų aukštaičiai uteniškiai; Uteniškių patarmė; Uteniškiai; Pejoratyvai; Sudurtiniai pejoratyvai; Pejoratyvinė leksika; Eastern Aukštaitian subdialect of Utena; Subdialect of Utena; Pejoratives; Compound pejoratives; Pejorative lexicon.

ENThis article is devoted to compound words of the Eastern Aukštaitian subdialect of Utena, which define various internal and external features of a person pejoratively and are notable for their negative connotation. The material for this investigation was collected from all twenty volumes of the "Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language". The above source contained more than two and a half hundred lexical items, which account for about 14 per cent of all the compounds of this subdialect presented there; a total of 1,800 of them were found. Most often the first component of the compounds under consideration defines the second one: they are the so-called determinant compounds (arkliagalvis 'dummy', kiaurapilvis 'greedy-guts', išverstalūpis 'blobber-lipped'). According to the relationship between the lexical and derivational meaning, compounds having a figurative meaning are metonymic (gaidžiakojis 'long-legged', bobaliežiuvis 'chatterbox') or metaphoric (žabagraužys 'misser', šlapadraila 'loser'). Residents of Utena region most often characterise a person in the negative using metonymic compounds.According to the type of meaning, compound pejoratives in the Utena subdialect are divided into several lexical-semantic groups: 1) features of negative appearance (leanness, too short stature, scruffy clothes, dirtiness, features of separate parts of the body); 2) other physical flaws (weakness, sluggishness, short-sightedness, old age ailments); 3) different vices of character, disposition (laziness, stinginess, shamelessness, cruelty, garrulousness, stupidity, rudeness, too great slowness or excessive energy, propensity to curse, to slander, to have a sweet tooth, to sleep long, to boast immoderately, to ingratiate oneself with someone who is superior, etc.); 4) social vices (inclination to steal, to bribe, to kill, poverty). Compound pejoratives are especially often used by speakers of the Utena subdialect to mock different evil sides of human nature: it is the most numerous lexical-semantic group of this kind. [From the publication]