Neologisms in form

The radical changes in the Russian environment since the collapse of Soviet Union, the sudden great increase in exposure to Western influence, and the introduction of large numbers of new institutions, habits and concepts, have led to the flooding of the Russian language with neologisms. Examples can be found in Graph 5.3.1, which illustrate the usage frequencies for this category of business vocabulary retrieved from the RNC. A closer look at the data indicates that many neologisms in the Russian business vocabulary are derived from existing resources by various means, including compounds, composition of acronyms, affixation and polysemanticisaion on the basis of some foreign model. Such neologisms may also contain elements that were originally borrowed (e.g. “marketing mix”, “marketing research”). Due to the described features of such neologisms, they are referred as “neologisms in form” and represent the largest category among business terms.

Graph 5.3.1 Usage frequency change for terms tsenovaya politika (price policy - ценовая политика), struktura rynka (market structure - структура рынка), nalog na pribyl’

(income tax - налог на прибыль)

One of the most noticeable characteristics of neologisms in form is their fundamental importance for business. There are a remarkable number of business concepts in this category, which are essential for the market economy. To the extent that the term “market economy” itself also belongs to this group. Rynochnaya ekonomika (market economy) first appears in the Russian corpora in late 1980s. A soviet journalist was wondering “does a market economy require a democracy?” (Technika-Molodeji, 1989a). At the moment of publication the Soviet transition to market economy had just begun and it was unclear what kind of changes in political and economical life were about to happen. Another article utilised the term market economy in the context of an opposition to the existing Soviet system:

There is a new alternative way – the way of market economy, personal profit, entrepreneurship.

(Technika-Molodeji, 1989)

Another example from the corpus is a phrase by the Nobel prize-winning Russian novelist and outspoken critic of the Soviet system, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, who warned Russian people as early as 1990 about the introduction of the market economy:

Price policy Market structure Income tax

Of course, the stress, which millions of unprepared people will experience during the transition to a market economy should be softened. (Solzhenitsyn, 1990)

Among the other essential terms, which appeared in the Russian language in the early 1990s, a considerable number are related to stock and currency trading. Valyutniy rynok (foreign exchange market) was first mentioned in a Soviet newspaper in 1989 in regard that “…finally an effective foreign exchange market has been created as a result of the reformation of the monetary system in the USSR…” (Gorizont, 1989). Other noticeable examples include “stock market”, “financial market” and “interbank market”.

Obviously, the introduction of new business terms was a reflection of the current situation in the Russian economy. Many business terms confirm this. Begstvo kapitala (capital flight), antiinflyacionnaya politika (anti-inflationary measures), nozhnicy tsen (price scissors) were terms used to explain processes happening in a post-Soviet economy. One more example, potrebitelskaya korzyna (market basket) used as a concept required to track the progress of inflation in the economy first appears in the RNC in the late 1990s.

Newspapers and periodicals rapidly started to apply this term to reflect increased inflation risks in the Russian economy:

Last year, the market basket in Russia grew by 185 roubles (AiF, 2001).

Graph 5.3.2 Usage frequency change for the term potrebitelskaya korzyna (market basket - потребительская корзина)

Furthermore, the concept of a market basket was later institutionalised in the Russian legislative system as a Federal Law entitled “O potrebitelskoy korzine v Rossiyskoy Federatsyi” (About Market Basket in Russian Federation) in 2012.

Analysed neologisms can be easily grouped by their “semantic field”, which is a set of words grouped by their meaning and referring to a specific subject. The data appears to suggest that not only single lexemes were missing, but in some cases, entire fields of business vocabulary. For example, many terms from the semantic field “company type”

are discovered among the neologisms: auditorskaya firma (audit firm), strahovaya firma (insurance company), optovaya firma (wholesale company), konsultacionnaya firma (consulting company), brokerskaya firma (brokerage firm). Therefore, based on Graph 5.3.3 it is not a big exaggeration to say that these type of firms virtually did not exist in Russia before the 1980s. However, in less than 10 years, by 1996 the Russian business oriented newspaper Commersant reported “… some Russian audit firms are already giving

Market basket

guarantees of their responsibility for possible losses” (Commersant-Daily, 1996). This and the following examples illustrate how a new concept becomes integrated in Russian business. Another news article describes an ordinary business day in Russia:

The main demand for stocks yesterday continued to impose Russian investors and brokerage firms (Commersant-Daily, 1996).

Graph 5.3.3 Usage frequency change for the terms auditorskaya firma (audit firm - аудиторская фирма), strahovaya firma (insurance company - страховая фирма), optovaya firma (wholesale company - оптовая фирма), konsultacionnaya firma (consulting company - консалтинговая фирма), brokerskaya firma (brokerage firm - брокерская фирма)

It is also well-known that the Russian language was missing a lot of business terms in the field of marketing. There were a vast number of marketing-related terms among the neologisms, such as: bankovskiy marketing (bank marketing), pryamoy marketing (direct marketing), kompleks marketinga (marketing mix), programma marketinga (marketing program), servis marketinga (marketing service) etc. For example, a Russian newspaper introduces the concept of marketing mix as follows:

Audit firm

Insurance company Wholesale company Consulting company Brokerage firm

A company can preserve or increase sales by managing some elements of marketing mix: product, price, place, promotion (4 P: Product, Price, Place, Promotion [bold text was left in English in the source]) (Vitrina Chitayushei Rossii, 2002).

It is remarkable, that after the given definition, the English text in brackets (“4 P” and following “Product”, “Price”, “Place”, “Promotion”) is provided untranslated, assuming that a reader would be able to grasp the concept with that context. As a side note, English does not have an official status in Russia, “... neither is it developed to the stage of an institutionalised variety, nor is it used as a means of communication internal to the community” (Ustinova, 2005, p. 239). Thus, no laws are written in English and no public school instruction takes place in English. Foreign language learning in general is a mandatory requirement in public education, but it is not restricted to English. It has been suggested that “... of Russia’s estimated 150 million population, it is thought that over 81% speak the official language of Russian as their first and only language” (BBC, 2007).

There are millions of Russians who have never had any academic exposure to English.

Graph 5.3.4 Usage frequency change for the terms bankovskiy marketing (bank marketing - банковский маркетинг), pryamoy marketing (direct marketing - прямой маркетинг), kompleks marketinga (marketing mix - комплекс маркетинга), programma marketinga (marketing program - программа маркетинга), servis marketinga (marketing service - сервис маркетинга)

Neologisms from this category represent 43% of the analysed glossary and clearly illustrate semantic gaps, which existed in the Russian language after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Other notable fields of business terms which show a large number of neologisms are taxes (e.g. revenue-based tax, value added tax, wealth tax, income tax, dual taxation, securities transactions tax etc) and currency (e.g. exchange rate, currency difference, reserve currency, exchange controls etc). It is hard to argue that the introduction of basic business concepts like “consumer products” or “marketing mix” will instantly change the Russian mindset. However, there is no doubt that in a few years these terms have gone from absolutely unknown to becoming a part of the Russian vocabulary and thus will further facilitate the spread of these concepts among Russian speakers.