The word pearl in Russian poetry and its Chinese roots

The object of the analysis is the word pearl in the Russian language. The subject of the study is to consider the functioning of this lexeme in Russian poetry. The analysis uses descriptive, comparative, and stylistic methods. The word pearl was borrowed by the Russian language from Chinese through the Turkic mediation in the 12th century. The Chinese word 珍珠 [zhēnzhū] consists of two syllable morphemes 珍 ‘rare, expensive, valuable’ and 珠 ‘glob, bead’. We examine the appearance history of this lexeme in the Russian language, reveal the original and figurative meanings of the word and its word-forming and combinative activity. Lexeme pearl is entered the active vocabulary of the Russian language, became widely used in the speech of Russian people, acquired a large number of derivatives and stable phrases with them. We analyze the functioning of the word pearl, the lexemes formed from it, and the stable phrases containing these units in Russian poetry. Pearls have become a favorite means of expressing ideas about beauty, value, love, and emotions among Russian poets. The word pearl, its derivatives and phrases with it are found in the works of most Russian poets, they are noted in the poems of A.S. Pushkin,  M.Y. Lermontov, M.I. Tsvetaeva, V.Y. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont and many others. We found that in the works of poets of the 18–19th centuries, the word pearl is regularly found in the singular with an oxytonic accent, and in the twentieth century, the accentuation becomes penultimative, transferred one syllable forward. The perspective of this research is to study the use of the pearl token in translations into Russian of works by foreign authors, including Chinese ones.