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Abstract: The article analyzes the genesis of the terminology of the Stanislavsky acting method, known also as Stanislavsky System. It is a unique example of how an authorial terminological system created by one person became a basis of the whole branch acting terminology and is still used as a foundation of the professional actors’ language a century after its creation. Stanislavsky became the author of the first scientific approach to teaching dramatic art and the creator of the corresponding language – a logico-categorial system and a system of terms. The aim of the article is to analyze the origin of special vocabulary by constructing a classification of terminological units of acting. The practical research material comprises terminological units from the corpus of works by Stanislavsky. The analysis showed a significant variety of source domains for Stanislavsky’s terminology, from notes by Russian writers on drama to yoga and European psychology. Borrowings are not limited to lexical units; they reach the level of ideas and conceptions. In his creative quest, Stanislavsky is guided by stage practice. From disparate elements, he creates a unique method of educating an actor, subordinating the nomination to the tasks of his System. A consistent examination of the groups of vocabulary of acting, identified in accordance with the nature of their genesis, allows distinguishing: (terminologized) vocabulary of common use, general humanitarian terms, general theatrical terms, “precedent” terms, author’s neologisms. The article briefly analyzes the selected groups in terms of the mechanisms of semantic and morphological derivation. The combinability of common vocabulary and general humanitarian terminology, specific to the literary language, contributed to the emergence of new meanings in a number of words as a result of such semantic derivation mechanisms as narrowing (specialization) of the meanings of common words, semantic compression (contraction), in which the noun takes on the meaning of the entire phrase, and semantic adaptation. When creating author’s neologisms, Stanislavsky widely uses morphological and morphological-syntactic methods of word formation.

About the author(s) :

Ilya I. Krivonosov

Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

ORCHID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8920-7596

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 11.01.2025; date of publication: 31.10.2025

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