Security in Slavic: a linguistic approach

Does the word for ‘security’ mean exactly the same across languages? How can we identify cross-linguistic similarities and differences in word meanings? In this study we carry out a corpus investigation of the words corresponding to English security and safety in the Slavic languages. While our analysis identifies numerous cross-linguistic similarities, we argue that there are differences. Three parameters capture relevant differences: transparent vs. opaque, negative vs. positive, and external vs. internal. With regard to semantic fields and metaphorical uses, we find considerable overlap, but also some differences among the languages under scrutiny. Employing a variety of methods from corpus linguistics, we argue that this “mixed” methodology enables us to avoid the weaknesses of individual methods and to pinpoint both similarities and subtle differences among related languages.