2018 # 2 (28)
Bobrova A.V.
A History of -инг (-ing) Suffixation in Russian
Abstract
The article discusses the English derivational suffix -ing and borrowings and derivatives with -инг in Russian, tracing them back to the time before Peter I (e.g., стерлинг / sterling, шиллинг / shilling) up to the turn of the 21st century. Suffixation is regarded as a three-facet phenomenon: foreign-borrowed-adopted, suggesting that a foreign suffix can be borrowed by a language and later adopted by it. It is argued that at all times the derivational suffix worked intensively, producing a variety of thematically-bound words. The impressive number of derivatives shows that the -ing suffix has become an integral part of the Russian derivation system.
Key words
borrowings, borrowed suffixes, adopted suffixes, Russian word proper