THE PROBLEM OF CLASSIFICATION OF VOCABULARY LAYERS: THE MAIN WORD STOCK OF THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Ambiguity of opinions prevailing in scientific studies concerning the main word stock of
the Armenian language makes it difficult to describe the scope of its characteristics and
coverage. Traditionally, the scope of word stock is sometimes unnecessarily extended. We are
convinced that the main word stock of the Armenian language is characterized by very certain
features: etymologically, the word stock mainly includes native Armenian words or old
borrowings and their compoundings, it developed in Old Armenian and Grabar and has
undergone few changes during the historical development of the language; morphologically, it
mainly consists of simple words or word stems; in terms of communicative function it is vital,
widely used, and has polysemic characteristics; with some phonetic and pronunciation changes
it has been preserved in all manifestations of the Armenian language. Due to changes in public
life or other factors, active vocabulary changes may be included in the main word stock
conditionally and within certain scopes. The main word stock of the language and the general
word stock do not have strictly defined boundaries