ЛЕКСИКАЛНИЯТ КОМПОНЕНТ В СОЦИОЛИНГВИСТИЧНАТА КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТ: НАРОДНА ЕТИМОЛОГИЯ И НАРОДНА ДЕЗАМБИГУАЦИЯ

Abstract

This paper deals with some pragmatic aspects of so called mental lexicon and the word’s usage in social context. It is focused mostly on the semantic changes as a diachronic process, and not on scientific etymologies. It is well known that folk etymology is based on conceptual and sound analogies; however, the question how an individual creative process (often unconscious) spreads to a larger social context, remains open: it is a challenge for socio- and lexico-pragmatic research. The article presents only selected examples for illustration of lexical competence and language-in-use. Hypotheses expressed here are far from empirical proofs at this stage. A definition of a new term is introduced – folk disambiguation as a reciprocal phenomenon versus folk etymology.