The Word “Yeghern” and the Semantic Field of Its Equivalence in English

Abstract

The present article examines the translated versions of the Armenian word yeghern in English and the semantic field of its equivalence. Based on the well-known speech/language dichotomy which is of fundamental importance in linguistics, the author examines the word as a unit of the language system and as an element endowed with a certain amount of dynamism and stylistic and pragmatic nuances in speech. The study of the word yeghern at the linguistic level is based on numerous data provided by explanatory, terminological and synonym dictionaries.
The study of the speech peculiarities of the use of this unit is carried out from the point of view of the horizontal and vertical contexts based on the appeal to the Swedish parliament of 68 specialists of various fields.
The investigation confirms that despite the broad semantic field of the unit both in Armenian and in English, the English equivalent for the word yeghern is genocide – the only equivalent which was internationally acknowledged back in 1948.