Zchernovei E. Religious terminology of modern French: genesis, semantics, functioning.

The dissertation deals with modern French religious terminology, its genesis, semantico-thematic structure and functioning. The problems of etymology, motivation of the meaning of terms, the semantic changes and frequency are analyzed. Units from Latin and Greek languages and derivative French terms form the basis in the system of modern French religious terminology. The number of loan-words is less important. It's semantics has some specific traits: categorical polysemy, homonymy, doublet synonymy. The main body of sacral field consists of biblical terms, which function in the Bible and other texts, the centre - of Christian terminology, the periphery is formed of general religious terms. Latin and derivative French terms are most frequent in texts.