SEMANTIČKA ANALIZA LEKSIKE IGARA NA SREĆU U DELIMA JAKOVA IGNJATOVIĆA

Abstract

The paper aims to classify gambling lexis in the literary works of Jakov Ignjatovic according to the lexicosemantic criterion. The phrase ‘gambling lexis’ in this paper encompasses all those lexemes that refer to various gambling games and the participants in them, places where such games take place, as well as the manner of playing. The corpus comprises Ignjatovic’s novels (Večiti mladoženja, Vasa Rešpekt, Trideset godina iz života Milana Narandžića, and Čudan svet), and the novellas (“Jedna ženidba”, “Uveo listak”, “Večera na parobrodu”, and “Pita hiljadu forinata”). Given that gambling is one of the frequent passions of many literary characters of Serbian realism, the main goal of this paper is to examine this aspect of the selected corpus from the lexicosemantic point of view. Gambling has been mainly approached from a literary theory standpoint so far. All the excerpted lexemes have been divided into nine lexicosemantic categories. The same method was used for the categorization of the lexemes according to their origin. Lexicosemantic analysis has shown a significant diversity in gambling lexis in the literary works of Jakov Ignjatović. Furthermore, the corpus comprises words of foreign origin: specifically from Italian, French, and German languages. Considering that gambling is frequently depicted by Serbian realist writers, the importance of continuing the research in this field is emphasized. Further research is recommended to include the literary work of other Serbian realists.