"Beginning" and "le début" in the Service Units of the Russian and French Languages

Surovtseva Svetlana Ivanovna ORCID: 0000-0001-6277-3031 PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages at South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University 69 Lenin Ave., Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk region, 454080, Russia svetlana_shok@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Kunygina Ol'ga Vladimirovna PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Russian Language and the MERL, South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University 69 Lenin Ave., Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk region, 454080, Russia dagmara74@list.ru

The novelty of the research undertaken lies in the fact that phraseological prepositions with the component beginning in Russian and the component le d?but in French represent temporal relations, in particular, the beginning of an action or phenomenon, limitation, following and preceding in time. Empirical material shows that the productivity of the formation of phraseological prepositions with the meaning of temporality is quite high both in Russian and in French. Having analyzed the internal organization of phraseological prepositions with the studied component, we come to the conclusion that the Russian language is characterized by a greater variety of structural organization schemes than in French, with all its analyticity.

Much attention is paid to the study of prepositions at the current stage of the development of the science of language ^{[1, 2, 3]}. Researchers of linguistic phenomena are aware of the difficulty and complexity of describing service words, in particular prepositions. Prepositions serve as a support for the expression of various relations, that is, they are a necessary tool of language ^[3]. The research is undertaken in order to identify both patterns and mechanisms of using prepositions as a means of communication. An attempt is made to more accurately describe each preposition with all its inherent features of the representation of temporal meanings.

Prepositions were the subject of research by such linguists as K.S. Aksakov, N.P. Nekrasov, F.I. Buslaev, A.A. Potebnya, G.K. Ulyanov, L.P. Razmusen, A.A. Shakhmatov, A.M. Peshkovsky, A. Mazon, V.V. Vinogradov, E.T. Cherkasov, R.P. Rogozhnikova, N.I. Astafieva, M.V. Vsevolodova, G.A. Shiganova and many others.   

   This article presents the results of a study of temporal phraseological prepositions containing the component beginning and le d' but on the basis of Russian and, respectively, French in a comparative way. Russian Russian has analyzed ten phraseological prepositions with the beginning component in more than 150 uses, which were taken from the National Corpus of the modern Russian language ^[9] and ten phraseological prepositions with the le d' but component in French in more than 120 uses, taken from the National Corpus of the French language ^[10]. 

In the meaning of the lexeme-component of temporal phraseological prepositions in Russian and French, there is a sema of "the initial stage of an action, phenomenon, event" ^{[4, p. 601]}. So the phraseological preposition at the beginning (of which) indicates ‘the initial moment, the starting point of any action, event’. For example: In the early autumn of 1941 she received a call (Manusevich). In early September, she joined the Warsaw Party Committee (Manusevich).  So, he left for his last business trip back in early May ... (Neznansky).

Due to the significant component, phraseological units acquire double the strength of their relative meaning, which is more specific compared to lexical prepositions. ^{[5, 6, 7, 8]}.

Phraseological units of this class are mostly unambiguous, characterized by certainty, therefore they make our speech understandable and unambiguous. According to V.V. Vinogradov, they (phraseological prepositions) double and strengthen the lexical and grammatical meaning of the preposition ^[1].

Let's consider the organizational schemes of the FP with the components under study. For schematicity, we introduce the following abbreviation: lexical non–derivative preposition – LNP, lexical derivative preposition – LPP, phraseological preposition - FP.

In Russian: 1) LNP + noun (in genitive, creative, accusative and prepositional cases); 2) LPP + noun (in genitive and creative cases); 3) LNP + noun (in genitive case) + LNP; 4) adverb + LNP + noun (in the genitive case); 5) LNP + …LNP + noun (in the genitive case); 6) LNP + noun (in the genitive case) + ...LNP + noun (in the genitive case). In French: 1) LNP + noun + LNP; 2) LPP + noun + LNP; 3) LNP + LNP + noun + LNP ^{[6, pp. 81-87]}.

         Thus, in Russian, as well as in French, there are LNP (in, with, to, on, before, for, vers, de, sur, avec, d?s, pour, en) and LPP (after, apr?s, avant) in the structure of phraseological prepositions. The process of studying the AF in Russian and French with the component beginning and le d' but in combination with lexical prepositions allowed us to identify their semantic classification. FP with an indication of the beginning of an action or phenomenon, of a time limit, of following in time and preceding in time ^{[6, pp. 179-183]}.

         So, the beginning of an action or phenomenon is observed in the following AF: Russian – from the beginning (of what), to the beginning (of what), from the beginning (of what), to the beginning (of what), from the beginning (of what), at the beginning (of what);

French – vers le d?but de, sur le d?but de, avec le d?but de, du d?but de, depuis le d?but de, d?s le d?but de, pour le d?but de, au d?but de, en d?but de. For example,Already at the beginning of the XX century, engineers from all over the world tried to build an airplane capable of taking off from water (Parliamentary Newspaper, 2021.12). So, according to the calculations of the department, producer prices for flour by the beginning of February may increase by 2.9 percent - up to 24.6 thousand rubles per ton (Parliamentary Newspaper, 2021.12). In the press service of the alliance clarified that the meeting is scheduled for the beginning of 2022. (Vedomosti, 2021.12). Since the beginning of autumn, there has been a decline, and in the first days of November, the daily increase in morbidity exceeded the bar of 300 people (Parliamentary Newspaper, 2021.11). Au d?but du mois de mai, je me suis rendue ? la banque et j'ai dit ? un homme qui avait une tache de vin sur (?. Turcotte: Le bruit des choses vivantes). De vraie honte. Apr?s leur d?part, Pierre nous dit ce qu'il avait gard? pour lui depuis le d?but de la semaine: il a trouv? une famille d'accueil pour F?lix (?. Turcotte: Le bruit des choses vivantes). Il a dit ?a en d?but de semaine, et il l'a fait (Les travaux parlementaires, 2006, N° 9). …et au parfum l?ger qui p?n?tre la pi?ce, une odeur de lilas, je crois, on est donc au d?but de l'?t? (A.A. Michaud - Portraits d'apr?s mod?les).

         The FP limiting an action or phenomenon in time include: Russian – from the beginning (what)...before the beginning (of what), from the beginning (of what)...to the end (of what), from the beginning (of what)...before (what), from the beginning (of what)... by (what);

French – jusqu'au d' but de.

For example, it usually takes about three and a half years from the start of vaccine development to the registration of the drug (Kommersant, 2020.02). Divide by five (the average number of years passes from the beginning of design to mass production), you will receive over $ 200 million per year (Behind the wheel, 2003.05.15). De janvier 2004 jusqu'au d?but du printemps, les partenaires du projet, soit le Fonds de solidarit? de la FTQ et Gestion Temrex (Les travaux parlementaires). On revient sur ses pas jusqu'au d?but du sentier Subway, qui longe le flanc ouest du Mont Mansfield (Blue Bonnets, Sports).

         Empirical material shows that in the Russian language such a phenomenon is represented by four FPS, whereas in French only one FP with such a meaning was identified.

The time precedence of the AF with the studied components is indicated in the following phraseopredlogs:

Russian – before the beginning (of what), before the beginning (of what), long before the beginning (of what), for (what)...before (what);

French – avant le d?but de.

For example, in defense organizations, the title "Voroshilov Shooter" was awarded until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (Parliamentary Newspaper, 2021). Based on the calculations of the regime-balance conditions performed with before the beginning of the autumn-winter period 2021-2022. (Vedomosti, 2021). Long before the start of the meeting, there were already several dozen people near the court, all of them were waiting for the verdict on the street (Kommersant, 2020). …une maladie pulmonaire, puisque probablement presque toutes les familles comptaient, avant le d?but des fortes campagnes contre la cigarette, au moins un des parents qui fumait (Commentaire, Jennifer Stoddart).

         Comparative analysis shows that in the Russian language the meaning of the precedence of the FP with the beginning component is achieved with the help of four units, whereas in French with the le d' but component only one such unit is identified.

The following phraseological prepositions belong to the FP with an indication of following in time: Russian – after the beginning (of what);

French – apr ?s le d ? but de.

For example: The USSR joined the organization in 1934, but after the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish war in December 1939, it was expelled (Parliamentary Newspaper, 2021). Or, dans ce dossier, o? en est-on, 10 ans plus tard et 30 ans apr?s le d?but de la cascade d'?tudes? (Renaud, Vi? le Sage).

         According to our research, the FP with the component beginning and le d' but the following in time is represented only in one unit in both Russian and French.

         Thus, as a result of the study of the AF with the component beginning and le d' but in Russian and French, it was revealed:

- there is a lexical derivative or non-derivative preposition in the structure of the studied FPS;

- the semantics of the presented OP reflects such time stages as the beginning of an action or phenomenon, time limitation, following in time and preceding in time;

- the realization of the valence of the studied phraseological prepositions reflects various spheres of real reality;

- the use of phraseological prepositions clarifies a particular time period;

- the beginning and le d'but components perform the main semantic role in the AF, being implemented explicitly in the entire construction of the AF.