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THE RUSSIAN KAK BY: SEMANTICS, PRAGMATICS, AND DIACHRONY

The article considers the semantics of the Russian word kak by. It demonstrates that there are three main types of use of this word that are relevant for the modern Russian language: 1) as an approximation indicator, i. e. the marker of an approximative, indirect or metaphorical use of the linguistic unit it introduces (cf. lёd na reke sluzhil kak by mostom ‘ice on the river served as a kind of bridge’; on kak by veduschij specialist v dannoj oblasti ‘he is sort of leading specialist in this field’); 2) as an indicator of epistemic indefiniteness (cf. infljatsii kak by net ‘there is <kak by> no inflation’); 3) as an illocutionary operator (“illocutionary mitigator”), mitigating the illocutionary force of the assertive speech act (cf. Ja kak by ispolnitel’nyj director kompanii ‘I am <kak by> the chief executive officer of the company’, uttered by the actual CEO of the company). We suggest that the initial meaning of kak by is that of a marker of descriptive indefiniteness (in an outdated use after the verbs of fuzzy perception), which has served as a source for