LACUNAE AND NON-EQUIVALENT UNITS IN THE LEXICAL SYSTEM OF A LANGUAGE (ON A CORPUS OF RUSSIAN AND SERBIAN LANGAUGES)

Abstract

The first part of the paper deals with the phenomenon of non-equivalent lexis as a very interesting and significant linguistic phenomenon, but also a problem. Theoretical papers up to the present day have mostly dealt with the observation of non-equivalent lexis and lacunae as synonyms. However, studying lacunae (primarily in the Russian and Serbian languages), we have noticed that non-equivalent lexis and lacunae are not completely identical lexical units, and that lacunae actually represent a
specific kind of non-equivalent lexis. The main part of the paper deals with different issues which result from the following: whether we should treat lacunae and non-equivalent lexis as equivalents, whether they intertwine and to what extent, and what is the difference between them. We try to answer these questions by drawing on the national characteristics of
the culture of the respective nation (mostly Russian and Serbian cultures), and therefore on their respective languages.
In the last part of the paper we try to emphasize the significance of the national and cultural components during the analysis of non-equivalent lexis in general, including lacunae, since it is these components that represent the essence of lacunae,
although it originally seems to be only the question of terminology use.