DOI 10.51955/2312-1327_2024_2_178

Klementina V. Metelkova 

Abstract. The main idea of the article is devoted to the problem of reflecting in language the processes associated with changing human attitudes towards animals in modern society. The focus of the research is on the zoomorphic lexical unit “tierfrei”. The research was based on 130 examples of the use of the “tierfrei” token in the DWDS corpus. On the basis of several discourses, 4 main meanings of the declared lexeme were identified and systematized in terms of its pragmatic function. Based on the linguistic material obtained, the authors can draw the following conclusions that take place in modern German society and influence the formation of the German national picture of the world: 1) the “tierfrei” lexeme is a neologism and has been actively used by native German speakers only since 2007; 2) the “tierfrei” lexeme can have four main meanings: “without the presence of animals”; “without the content of animal products”; “without elements of animal origin”; “without experiments on animals”; 3) the “tierfrei” lexeme can be found in such discourses as culinary, medical, advertising, in each of which it performs its pragmatic function; 4) the appearance and active use of the word “tierfrei” in the texts of the German-speaking space indicates that changes are taking place in modern German-speaking society associated with a rethinking of the role of animals in a person’s life.

Key words: zoomorphic lexical unit, German language picture of the world, corpus, meaning, pragmatic function, culinary discourse, advertising discourse, human attitude to animals.

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