In this paper, we present the results of our study of gradual substitution of some Russian nouns like внука («a granddaughter»), зябел («a finch») by diminutives like внучка, зяблик in different periods. We give a full list of the words which were previously used as expressive diminutives and which have become neutral in today’s Russian language and analyze such words. The research shows that this part of vocabulary most often refers to nature, especially to birds, e.g. ласточка («a swallow»), зяблик («a finch»), птица («a bird») etc. There are also words of this type referring to foods, small objects, relatives, young people, parts of the body, etc. We have identified a long time trend of intensive use of expressive diminutives in the same semantic fields.
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