Some Features of the Use of Lexical Units Palliative and Palliative Means in Russian Speech Practice

The article is devoted to the analysis of the word palliative and the phrase palliative remedy in diachronic and synchronic aspects. To identify the specific semantic characteristics of these units in lexicographic sources, their connotations in oral and written journalistic speech, the existing lexicographic publications, the National Corpus of the Russian language were studied. Based on the analysis of the data of the National Corpus of the Russian language, the time of borrowing of these units (1776), their distribution in various genres and in the gender aspect is determined. It is established that when functioning in a particular genre, these lexical
units receive specific semantic increments, which are not always fixed in lexicographic sources. It is shown that the word palliative and the phrase palliative means in the Russian language have passed a rather long period of development, while the activity of their use in speech practice is associated with the socio-political situation in the country, characteristic of a particular period of history.