Немич Н.Н. Изучение категории несуществующего в лингвистике: теоретико-аналитический обзор

Аннотация

The article deals with the conceptual category of the non‑existent as a significant fragment of the linguistic worldview. The aim of the paper is to review current linguistic studies of the category of the non‑existent, to identify the main approaches to its investigation, and to outline promising directions for further research. The author justifies the relevance of a linguistic study of how language encodes not only real but also fictional entities that are absent from objective reality. In the course of the study, scholarly works by Russian and foreign linguists were analysed. These works address the category of the non‑existent through various research perspectives, including the semantic‑referential, grammatical, onomastic, word‑formation, and cultural dimensions. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of linguistic representation of the non‑existent, among which are as follows: the role of modality, subjunctive mood, negative pronouns, prefixoids (such as quasi‑, pseudo‑, false‑), the zero sign, and other means. It is noted that the non‑existent is not merely a negation of reality but an independent functional‑semantic category with its own plane of content and expression. In the conclusions, prospects are outlined for studying the ontological status of the non‑existent and its role in various types of discourse.