ON THE OWL, WHICH IS FINE, AND THE NIGHTINGALE, WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

In the dictionaries of the East Slavic languages, the continuations of the Proto-Slavic verbs *sověti and *solvěti (imperfect) and their prefi xes *obsověti and *obsolvěti (per fect) are often interpreted in mutual correlation (Ukr. совiти ‘the same as соловíти’; осоловéть ‘the same as осоветь’), although the motivation of both single-root verb pairs is different. This careless correlation inspires an inattentive reader with an unjustified idea of word-formation and semantic parallelism between the generating verbs themselves. The article shows the dissimilarity of the *sov- and *solv-nests, the lack of parallels in the combinable characteristics of the designations ‘owls’ and ‘nightingale’ in folklore and paremiology (unlike, however, the author’s poetry). Verbal derivatives of the color designation соловый, which is associated with the ornithonym соловей, and numerous derivatives from names of other horse colors provide vivid examples of com plete desemantization of the root in expressive word formation. According to the author, the phenomenon of desemantization (and transemantization) of the root, underestimated by descriptive grammars, should be the subject of a more careful and comprehensive analysis.