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Background. The Old English poem Beowulf known to us in the manuscript of the X-XI centuries embodies the epic world picture of the Anglo-Saxons, idealized past time. With the changing of scientific paradigms, the methods of analyzing the text of Beowulf have also been modified in different fields of science particularly in linguistics. Semantic units description has been held with the considering of etymological reconstruction as well as development of lexical systems. The article of J.R.R. Tolkien (1936) started to form the trend towards literary interpretation of the text. Lexicographical works can also be a valuable source of information on semantic scope of lexical units. Purpose. The article considers the semantic scope and the shades of meaning of the Old English lexeme beorn. Materials and methods. The research material comprises the text of the Old English poem Beowulf, glossaries by J. Kemble (1837), B. Thorpe (1855), W.J. Sedgefield (1913), F. Klaeber (1950), A. Wyatt (1898), the glossaries to online projects Beowulf on Steorarume, Gutenberg, online etymological dictionary by D. Harper, University of Glasgow online Thesaurus of Old English, J.R. Clark Hall amended Anglo-Saxon dictionary (1916). The continuous sampling, contextual analysis, dictionary criticism methods were used. Results. The article considers the etymology of the Old English lexeme beorn, and its etymological parallels. With the help of continuous sampling the lines with the noun were found in the text of the poem. On this basis the meanings of the noun and the shades of its meaning were determined, i.e. “man”, “warrior”, “hero”, “noble man”. The analysis of the dictionary entries proves the extension of their interpretation from 19th to 21st centuries, the scope of the meaning of the noun and its shades. Practical implications. The results of the research can be used in teaching students history of the English language. The findings can be used to enlarge the dictionaries to the Old English poem Beowulf.
Ekaterina A. Krupina (Sun,) studied this question.