The article presents the results of the research in the field of historical conceptology. The ways of occurrence of pervosmysl (primary sense, primus movens) are shaped in the form of a prototype and collectively referred to as the conceptum (lat. conceptum ‘grain, embryo’), as the initial concept (lat. conceptus ‘contains’), consistently forming a new form of image, symbol and idea. The author distinguishes between three levels derived from the Latin: concipio ‘to collect, contain, occur’ on the basis of pervosmysl the original proto-Indo-European “three-letter roots” (E. Benveniste); conceptum identified as ‘grain’ of pervosmesl, сonceptus as a concept (sense), conceptio as conception with the formation of the meanings of verbal signs, respectively prō > pra (pervosmysl), pra-v with the extension consonant distributor -v- (prototype), with the suffixes pra-v-ьd-a (symbol), pra-v-ьd-ьn with the final form pra-vьd-ьn-ost-ь, representing the conceptual structure of the concept, which thus completed its formation. In the result of phonetic transformations over the centuries, it is difficult to reveal the initial relationship, for example, English man and Russian муж, language and язык. Pervosmysl can already distort the perspective of understanding how this happened with the root prō > pra — change direct perspective on the back (прадед in the past). Pervosmysl of conceptum connects far divergent branches of the Indo-European languages, because only pervosmysl of conceptum is unchanging and eternal.
Translated title of the contribution“Pervosmysl” of the сoncept
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)438-452
JournalВестник Санкт-Петербургского государственного университета. Серия 9. Филология, востоковедение, журналистика
Volume15
Issue number3
StatePublished - 2018

    Research areas

  • Concept, conceptum, Conception, conceptual square, inner form, semantic constant

ID: 36502762