selection of a guardian.’ The etymological dictionary of the German language contains
the following information: the Middle High German vormunde meaning ‛protector,
defender, petitioner’, the Old High German foramundo meaning ‛protector’. This word
is a prefix-noun formation: the Middle High German, the Old High German munt
meaning ‛protection, screen’ [10, p. 904]. V. V. Levitskiy indicates the following
ancient forms: the Gothic munþs meaning ‛mouth; chin’, the Germanic munþaz
meaning the same [13, p. 396]. In this case, ‛mouth’ may be considered both as an
alternative to some semantic invariant of ‛a device for chewing’ and ‛a means of
protection’. The semantic meaning of Vormund (m) can be restored in stages:
‛guardianship’ ← ‛protection’ ← ‛mouth’. Consequently, ‛mouth’ is also a semantic
foundation for derivatives of the terms Mitvormund (m) meaning ‛co-guardian’,
Mündel (m, n) meaning ‛ward, charge; pet’, Bevormundete (m) meaning ‛ward’,
Entmündigte (m) meaning ‛a person declared legally incapable; a person taken in care’.
Wahrheit (f) means ‛truth’, ‛verity’ [8, p. 555]. Wahrheitspflicht ist die
Verpflichtung eines Beteiligten, seine Erklärung über tatsächliche Umstände
vollständig und der (subjektiven) Wahrheit gemäß abzugeben [9, p. 477]. ‛The duty of
the parties of or participants in a lawsuit is to appear before the judicial authorities and
to give true testimony. The obligation of the participant in a lawsuit is to give a full
explanation of the circumstances of the case and to do that in accordance with the
(subjective) truth.’ The following information is given in the Duden etymological
dictionary: the Old High German and the Middle High German word wār meaning
‘true’ is related to the Latin word verus also meaning ‘true’, and to the Old Irish word
fir meaning ‘true’ as well. The author compares this lexical unit with the Russian word
вера [10, p. 907].
Let us examine the root wahr-, where it is permissible to assume the variation of
the vowel a//e. A triple variation of the vowel a//o//e, according to N. Y. Marr, is
possible [14, p. 163]. So, var // ver can be correlated with the Russian верх, яр-кий [4,
p. 28]. The Russian word вера means ‘thought’, ‘conviction’. ‘Thought’, as a result of
the brain activity, is correlated with ‘mind’ / ‘head’. ‘Head’, in turn, is ‘top’, ‘light’; cf.
the expression свет правды. Consequently, ‘top’, ‘light’ is the semantic foundation of
the German term Wahrheit (f) (truth, verity).
CONCLUSION
The examining of the above material makes it possible to draw a conclusion on
the productivity of the process of forming terminological units by the de-symbolization
of the lexicon. This process is complicated and insufficiently studied. We rely upon the
approach to the word as a unit that is essentially conditioned by the act of predication.
Considering the processes of restoring the semantic foundations of terms allows for a
more complete, more detailed presentation of the process of forming terminological
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