Communication, “obshchenie” (being in contact), dialogue. To clarify the basic concepts of the theory of speech communication

Abstract

   The work aims to clarify the content of the terms communication, “obshchenie” (being in contact), and dialogue, which are often used as synonyms.

   The analysis of the origin of terms traces the history of concepts that entered the language through borrowed lexemes. The investigation is based on lexicographic materials and data from the National Corpus of the Russian language. The frequency, the main areas of use, and the terminological grade of these words are considered; it was found that the frequency of the lexeme obshchenie surpasses that of dialogue, the frequency of which turns out to be twice as high as that of the communication. The terminological grade is related inversely to the frequency. The lexeme obshchenie has acquired a common character, the terms communication and dialogue have expanded the scope of professional use. As a result of the study, the concept of “communicative activity” was assessed as more representative of the designation of various communicative practices than the terminologically stricter concept of “the activity ‘in contact’ (obshchenie)”.