EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC THEORIES IN WORD-MAKING PROCESSES

This article analyzes the evolution of linguists' views on the psycholinguistic nature of the grammatical structure of language, in particular the word-formation system, from single observations and individual thoughts of scientists to specialized studies of monograph and dissertation level. The question of singling out grammar, including word-formation, as a self-sufficient object of research in the context of the formation of psycholinguistics as an autonomous scientific branch is considered. Attention is drawn to the fact that Ukrainian academic community is less interested in psycholinguistic aspects of word-creation of an individual than their foreign colleagues. The problem of analysis of word-formation innovations from the point of view of modern psycholinguistic concepts is touched upon. A special interest of psycholinguists to consider children's speech word-creation, as well as derivational features of an individual's speech during ontogenesis is highlighted. Mention is made of the empirical side of considering word-formation as a complex psycholinguistic process of verbal unit generation and reception. It is indicated on the remarkable promise and importance of this scientific field for further research, especially in the aspect of expanding the theoretical and methodological basis for further empirical study and description of the psycholinguistic nature of wordsmithing.

Axiological Component of Paroemias: Specificity and Role in Intercultural Communication

The article examines the axiological component of verbal units that comprise the paremiological funds in languages with different structure. The content of proverbs and sayings reflects cultural specificity along with the values adopted in a particular ethnic community. The analysis of 865 examples presented in the Russian, English, French and Latin languages has confirmed the hypothesis that the values of people are vividly reflected in paroemias. The author’s conception of “axiological component” has been clarified. Axiological component is understood as the value associated with the assessment included into the semantics of a paremiological unit. The semantic component of paroemias manifests itself in determining the value of an object or phenomenon in relation to other objects or phenomena. Also, it may reflect the work of categorization and classification mechanisms. The idea of axiological component correlation with the hierarchy of the value system (described by one of the founders of axiology H. Rickert) predetermines the novelty of this research. It is concluded that paroemias can be classified based on the content of the axiological component. The following groups have been singled out: behavioral instruction, basic life values, object assessment, subject assessment and assessment of the subject’s behavior. The didactics of paroemias can be expressed in explicit and implicit forms, but one way or another, it is present in every verbal unit. The value component is a serious obstacle in successful interaction; therefore, a projective analysis of the functioning of paroemias under the conditions of intercultural communication has been carried out.

Language attractions of the corporate website

The research is aimed at identifying the role and determining the function of the text message header of the university’s corporate website. The work purpose is to consider and describe linguistic features of the corporate website texts nomination not only as one of the main structural components of its content, but also as a verbal unit that performs an attractive function for the addressee and at the same time positioning function of the university in the educational market. We attempt to define the notion of “language attraction” and its pragmatic setting. The texts’ headlines are analyzed in term of grammatical diversity, lexical content, semantic positioning, emotive content and argue the point of view that they act as translators not only of information about the university’s activity content, but also attracts the university positioning in the segment of educational institutions.

History of study of the grammatical category of the voice in the Udmurt linguistics

Introduction: the article is devoted to the study of the concepts of voice’s issues in Udmurt linguistics. The author traces the history and development of the voice forms of verbal units. Objective: to systematize and summarize the historical process of formation and universalization of scientific research in the field of study of the category of the voice of the Udmurt language. Research materials: the empirical basis of the study was the variety of approaches to the study of the voice category in the scientific research of linguists of different eras. Results and novelty of the research: based on the peculiarities of the development of methodological principles and attitudes in the study of the voice forms of the Udmurt verb, it is proposed to distinguish three stages of the study: a) the first stage (from the second half of the XVIII century to 1851) is characterized by the definition of terminology for the voice forms and their grammatical expression. The second stage (from 1851 to 1957) is characterized by a closer attention to the semantic aspect of language phenomena and to the development of terminology in the Udmurt language. A deep scientific understanding of the voice forms of the Udmurt verb began at the third stage (from 1957 to the present). During this period the structural-semantic principle dominates in the study of the considered grammatical category, providing for equal attention to the structure and semantics of a verbal unit. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the first experience of description of history and current state of the study of the question of voice in Udmurt linguistics, which opens up new prospects for the study of subject-object relations in the speech activity of a native speaker

A description of the Xhosa construction ya ‘go’ plus subordinate imperfective

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of an aspectual periphrasis in Xhosa (Bantu S41). The construction in question consists of a form of ya ‘go’ plus a verb in the subordinate imperfective paradigm. It is argued that this construction works at the level of actionality (“lexical aspect” or “aktionsart”), rather than constituting an aspectual operator sensu stricto. The overall actional profile of this verbal unit is that of a degree achievement (Dowty 1979) or directed activity (Croft 2012), i.e. a process of change along a property scale. This change is construed as involving a plurality of successive steps. The contribution of the lexical item and its arguments is that of a property scale and/or target state. Throughout the description remarkable semantic parallels to a structure-wise comparable construction in Spanish (Romance, Indoeuropean) are pointed out. These structural and semantic parallels have implications for an oft-mentioned grammaticalization path leading from a motion-based construction to a marker of progressive aspect (Heine and Kuteva 2002, among others). The description of the construction is complemented by a note on a frequent collocation with an instrumental infinitive of the same verb stem.

Some Correlations of Images of Language and Non-Language Consciousness

The article is based on the interpretation of the results of two series of experiments conducted in order to obtain a more precise understanding of how creolized (illustrated) texts are perceived. The authors studied creolized texts made up of verbal texts of different styles and different manner of execution (realistic – unrealistic) and color scheme (black-and-white, natural, minor and major) illustrations. The research was done using the semantic differential method. The article considers the regularities of the ratio of verbal nominations and visual characteristics (for example, 10 scales: cold – warm, dark – light, pale – bright, unpleasant – pleasant, disturbing – calm, simple – complex, heavy – light, ordinary/usual – extraordinary/unusual, solid/hard – soft, weak – strong). Assessment scales correlate with optical parameters: realism of the image, non-triviality of the image; (non)compliance of the color range of the image with the content of the verbal text and the image; presence in the image of content and/or form that provokes hostility; presence of angular/rounded geometric shapes; presence of multiple components; presence of contrasts; usage of the black and white, minor or major color range; lightness and/or brightness of the image. The impact of different visual parameters of the image relates to the characteristics of the verbal text to varying degrees. There are visual parameters that affect the reader depending on the characteristics of the verbal text, and parameters that affect her to some extent autonomously, i.e. do not depend on the characteristics of the verbal text (and, accordingly, have a great pragmatic potential, allowing one to control the perception of any texts). The authors discovered a systematic correlation of verbal and visual characteristics and identified four mechanisms for correlating visual parameters with the meaning of verbal units: impressive, expressive, constructive/cognitive (intellectual and symbolic), and intersemiotic proper. Evaluations on a particular scale may be based on different mechanisms. Switching between mechanisms reflects the actualization of different components of the content of the image of consciousness behind the verbal unit: the name of the scale. The article raises a debatable issue as to whether all correlations of visual image parameters can be considered as the content side of verbal signs. The answer will allow us to determine the boundaries of the area of language consciousness more accurately.

Media phraseology and the category of expressiveness: stylistic interdependencies

The article describes one of the key categories of media phraseology – the category of expressiveness. The author analyses a media phraseological unit (idiom) as a verbal unit of a media text in the context of a media linguistic approach – an innovative direction of modern philology. The scientific article is a continuation of a series of publications about the categories of modern phraseology and stylistic functions that a phraseological unit (idiom) performs in different types of media (web and print). A media phraseological unit (idiom) is considered as a unit which has signs of evaluation, emotionality, intertextuality, structural integrity and idiomaticity, which gives media text figurativeness and expressiveness. The author focuses on the traditional and new phraseological units (idioms) that arise in mass consciousness under the influence of expression. The analyzed modern theories about a phraseological unit in the context of the functional approach – a broad interpretation of the language unit as universals of mass media communication – make it possible to objectify the stylistic potential of a phraseological unit (idiom) in media text using expressiveness. The material collected to “New words and phraseology in Ukrainian media” (2016–2018) professionally compares and interprets with attention to extra- and intralingual features of media communication. This helps the author to prove that expressiveness is one of the dominant factors for the entry of new words into the Ukrainian mass verbal reality. To objectify scientific proofs and their media linguistic interpretation we use illustrative material (advertising, television, radio, Internet), on the example of which we analyze a broad stylistic potential of expression in phraseology. We note that the category of expressiveness in research perspective should be regarded as universal in terms of phraseology, particularly, in media communication.

Esticomitia y esticomitia ampliada

La coincidencia del verso con una entidad sintáctica (esticomitia, gr: στιχομυθία) es procedimiento de empleo constante desde muy antiguo, en particular en las réplicas de los diálogos del teatro griego. Se admite que los hemistiquios de los versos compuestos pueden también coincidir con una entidad sintáctica. Este trabajo investiga otras manifestaciones de esa coincidencia (esticomitia en serie, en todo el poema, etc.) y propone pueda aplicarse el mismo concepto a versos aislados, a los que se componen solamente de una forma verbal y muy especialmente a los hemistiquios o componentes de los versos endecasílabos en todas sus variedades.End-stopping (Greek στιχομυθία), which occurs when a line of verse coincides with the syntactic unit, is a feature used constantly in poetry from ancient times, especially in rejoinders in Greek theatre dialogues, but it can also be found in verses characterized by caesura. This article studies other uses of end-stopping (in a series of verses, throughout a poem, etc.) and suggests that it may be applied to isolated verses, these may be composed of only a verbal unit but are mainly related to caesura or to the pauses in diff erent types of Spanish hendecasyllables.