Abstract:

The article is devoted to the study of the motivation of the Russian and English argot on the material of somatic vocabulary. During the investigation, the types of motivation that prevail within this layer of the vocabulary were identified, the somatic components (foot, hand, head, hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, face, fingers, brain), characterizing each of the language subsystems, were revealed. The results showed that somatisms are actively involved in the derivational processes of both languages. It was determined that in the Russian and English argot there is a high frequency of the use of argotic units with such components as leg, hand and head. Also, somatic components are actively involved in the creation of long synonymic chains which confirms the anthropocentric worldview of the representatives of the underworld.

Keywords: