Lexical Expression of Sadness: from the Homeric Language to the Modern Bulgarian

Bilyana Mihaylova, Ekaterina Tarpomanova, Albena Mircheva
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski

Abstract

The paper aims at comparing the lexical items expressing sadness in Homer’s poem Iliad and one of its translated versions in Bulgarian. Our approach
comprises the following steps: compilation of synonym sets with the meaning ‘sadness’; contextual analysis of the identified words in order to disambiguate them and to detect their relevant uses; etymological analysis and explication of the semantic development of each etymological group.

Keywords: etymology, lexical semantics, Homeric language, Bulgarian language