RESTRICTED LEXIS: MAIN THEORETICAL APPROACHES IN ITS STUDY

Abstract

In this article, the concept of restricted lexis in a language is examined from various theoretical perspectives, drawing upon scholarly works published in Sweden, England, Russia, France, Turkey, and Germany. The author emphasizes that restricted lexis differs from the general lexical stock by virtue of occurring in particular spheres (professional jargon, specialized fields, subcultural or colloquial speech). The main theoretical approaches—terminological (focus on domain-specific terms), stylistic (emphasis on functional styles), semiotic (symbols and coded signs), translational (functional adaptation in other languages), sociolinguistic (group-based lexicon), and cognitive (mental categorization)—are reviewed in detail. The paper also addresses the expansion of restricted lexis in the digital era (e.g., slang on social media, internet jargon), the importance of corpus linguistics, interviews, and contextual analysis for research methodology, and highlights the practical significance of studying restricted lexis for translation, lexicography, marketing, and other domains. Ultimately, the author concludes that restricted lexis proves to be a critical object of inquiry for modern linguistics, stylistics, translation studies, and sociolinguistics, particularly as globalization and digital communications continue to generate new subvarieties of vocabulary.