VOCABULARY OF YAMSKOY [COACHMAN’s] AND IZVOZNY [CABMAN’s] CARRIER’S TRADE: HISTORICO-DERIVIATIONAL ASPECT

Abstract

Based on the material from the Russian commercial written records of the XVI-XVII centuries, this article examines semantic and derivational features of the vocabulary of the yamskoy [coachman’s] and izvoznyi [cabman’s] carrier’s trade. In terms of content, the words of these two professional spheres have much in common since the main occupation of yamshchiki [coachmen] and izvozchiki [cabmen] was transportation of people or goods by horse; here are used the names of characters, vehicles, travel modes, types of transported objects. The history of fixing of the words yamshchik [coachman] and izvozchik [cabman] in the Russian language reflects the universal pattern of changing the names of persons ending in -nik by the nouns ending in -shchik /chik ( yamnik - yamshchik [coachman], izvoznik - izvozchik [cabman]). At the same time, the categorical difference in the original names that were at the beginning of the word-formation chains caused a difference in the semantic development of the names of doers: in one case, this is a spatial nomination of yama [Russian word for a ‘pit’] denoting a "station on the road" (> yamchi, yamskoy > yamshchik [coachman]); in another one it is a designation of a movement in space izvoziti [Russian obsolete word for ‘to carry’] (> izvoz > izvozchik [cabman]). In this regard, the names of persons right from the beginning differed in their conceptual representations of the doers: yamshchik [coachman] is the one who moves along the road, and izvozchik [cabman] is the one who “carries” something both on land and on water (like a carrier). Different communicative spheres of yamskoy [coachman’s] (gonny [riding fast] ) and izvozny [cabman’s] carrier’s trade gave birth to specific names of transportation: gon’ba [fast ride] and izvoz [carriage], which had clear internal forms: the first one was motivated by the verb gonyati [Russian obsolete word for ‘to ride fast", and the second one - by the verb izvoziti [Russian obsolete word for ‘to carry outwards’] (cargo, goods).