SPELLING PRACTICE OF THE INDEPENDENCE ERA : “UKRAINIAN SPELLING” IN 1990

The given research is devoted to the formation specificity of the Ukrainian orthographic code during the Independence period. The methods of “Ukrainian spelling” of 1990 have been clarified in succession. We also logically elaborated the system of innovations within a projection on the developed tradition, standing on the basis that language changes, therefore the spelling code should adhere to the established norms, simultaneously reflecting its up-to-date condition. The focus lies in interpreting the spelling changes of 1990 and 2019, as the spelling code of 1993 did not involve drastic changes. The system of all the latest innovations is analysed in detail. They are classified according to such criteria as terms of the new spelling standards implementation (to be exact, the pronunciation and spelling of words proiekt, sviashchennyi, Sviatvechir, piv vidra, piv Kyieva, piv yashchyka, pivostriv, pivlitrovyi), alternative norms (kafedra / katedra, audytoriia / avdytoriia, Hete / Getu, Londona / Londonu, Ivanovi / Ivanevi, arkhymandryt / arkhimandryt, etc.). It is about non-alternative norms as well (they are related to spelling of parts of the word base, inflections of declension words, words of foreign origin and proper names, and usage of punctuation). Systematized material on graphics, spelling, and punctuation serves as a specific kind of guide for those who will study the dynamics of the newest spelling rules. It was proved that the spontaneous critique of the orthographic system gradually acquired a constructive point, relying not only on intra- but also on extralingual factors. The issue of the modern alphabet war in Ukraine as well as reasons for its occurrence and negative impact on the spiritual and cultural progress of our country have not remained outside the research. The “Project of the Latest Edition of the Ukrainian Orthography” was logically accentuated. It made a great impression on society, though was not legitimized. The emphasis is on the fact that one of the current priorities lies in creating a single spelling model for Ukrainians within mainland Ukraine and in the diaspora. We are confident on the point it will function as an important consolidating factor of the nation.

LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL SPECIFICITY OF EPISTOLARY ADDRESS (ON THE MATERIAL OF “LETTERS TO OLES GONCHAR” COMPILED BY M. STEPANENKO)

The article is devoted to the study of lexical and grammatical features of epistolary addresses (on the material of “Letters to Oles Honchar” compiled by M. Stepanenko). The address is interpreted as one of the manifestations of human communication needs which serves to establish and maintain speech contact, as well as to express the emotional and evaluative characteristics of the interlocutor. An epistolary address is a word or phrase by which the author of a letter nominates his addressee in the text of a written message to establish contact with him. We processed 895 letters to Oles Honchar, in which 1185 addresses in Ukrainian and about 200 units in other languages had been recorded. Lexical features of addresses represent their belonging to the following semantic groups: addresses-anthroponyms (name, patronymic and surname); traditional etiquette forms (пан, товариш); general addresses (names of persons by generic or gender feature; names of persons by kinship in the indirect sense; names of persons by friendly relations); special addresses (names by profession, type of activity, position, academic titles); occasional addresses. Most often, senders address Oles Honchar by patronymic or by name, using it in full or in short form, and sometimes by surname. The lexical and semantic content of addresses depends on the intention of the speaker, his politeness, knowledge of language etiquette and the peculiarities of the relationship with the writer. In order to strengthen the address, attributive distributors expressed by honorific and emotional-evaluative adjectives аre used. Honorific adjectives (шановний, високошановний, найшанованіший, глибокошановний, вельмишановний, високоповажний, etc.) convey a polite attitude and perform etiquette function. Emotional-evaluative adjectives (дорогий, славний, щирий, незабутній, рідний, любий, коханий, etc.) denote sincerity, friendliness, friendly affection and perform an evaluative function. We reveal a significant proportion of constructions in which adjectives of both groups are used. This causes a change in the tonality of the communicative situation and reduces interpersonal distance. Possessive pronouns мій, наш, which have partially lost the meaning of possessiveness, strengthen the intimacy, cordiality and sincerity of the relationship. Addresses in Russian, Belarusian, Polish and English are described. It is found that the grammatical differentiation of addresses directly depends on lexical and grammatical features (proper or common names and substantivized parts of speech) and morphological means of their expression. It is confirmed that the typical morphological form of addresses is the vocative case of the noun, as well as the homonymous nominative case in letters written during the Soviet period. Violations of morphological norms (different case forms of lexical phrase components, a non-normative form Олесе) and orthographic mistakes in spelling of the writer’s patronymic are revealed. The non-normative form of the nominative case as a means of expressing the address in letters dated 1990–1995 is substantiated. The results of the research show that the most frequent lexeme is Олесю Терентійовичу. Forms Олесь Терентійович and Олесю are less used. Quantitative indicators of addressing forms are summarized in the table. We see the prospect of further scientific research in deepening other vectors of analysis of addresses, in particular in the study of their functional and stylistic potential.

POSTMODERN POETICS OF M. ATWOOD’S NOVEL “PENELOPIADА”

Margaret Atwood is one of the most famous modern English-language writers. She has won numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize twice. Her novel “Penelopiada” (2005) did not attract the attention of researchers. Therefore, the purpose of this article is a detailed analysis of the main features of the poetics of the novel as a model of postmodern prose. The source of inspiration for the writer were the ancient myths and heroic poems “Iliada” and “Odyssey” by Homer. In ancient texts, Penelope is a minor heroine. She was the wife of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, who fought for ten years under the walls of Troy, and then travelled for another ten years. And all this time his wife has been waiting for him, so Penelope is a symbol of marital fidelity and patience. Canadian author Margaret Atwood rethinks this image. Without disturbing the plot of the ancient epic, she psychologically motivates the actions of Penelope, shows the image of a lonely strong woman who is trying to survive in a cruel male world. This text reflects the feminist views of the author. The article focuses on aspects of intertextuality, allusions, and creative dialogue with prototexts. The figurative structure of the novel, the semantic overemphasis of the images of Odysseus, Penelope and Elena, who fled to Troy, are analysed. The events of the Trojan War are considered from the point of view of a woman who was not directly affected by the hostilities, but whose life changed radically. Genre-compositional features of the novel are revealed. The originality of the narrative in the novel is clarified: the story is told on behalf of Penelope, which adds psychological credibility to the image. The article also notes the techniques of irony, parody, which represent the text as a model of postmodernism.

LYUDMYLA OVDIENKO: BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The publication presents the biography and autobiographical motives of the lyrics of the Ukrainian writer Lyudmyla Ovdienko. The purpose of the article is to present a biography and analysis of the poetic heritage of a fellow artist in the autobiographical aspect. We came to the conclusion that Lyudmila Ovdienko’s lyrical cycle is not only a specific type of context, but also a special form of creativity, a type of integrity that differs from the usual collection of poems and is a sequence of texts formed by the author. We are convinced that motives-images are significant for the poet’s autobiographical lyrics. Of the many motifs that sound in the poems, the most prominent is the autobiographical. The emergence of the genre of autobiographical motives in the creative work of L. Ovdienko is determined by a special type of thinking of the author, the national tradition. The leading place in the consideration of lyric poetry is given to the study of motives-images (motive-family, motive-village). These motives the most significant for the autobiographical lyrics of our compatriot.

FORMS OF OPPOSITIONS IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF “ANNE OF GREEN GABLES” BY L.M. MONTGOMERY

The paper aims to explore different forms of oppositions in the narrative structure of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s critically acclaimed novel “Anne of Green Gables”, which was first published in 1908. Because L. M. Montgomery’s works have not been sufficiently explored in the realm of narratology, the following paper seeks to begin covering this gap by analysing key oppositions in “Anne of Green Gables” while also taking into consideration their significance in terms of a broader cultural and historical context, as well as accounting for the changes introduced by L.M. Montgomery to the genre of the novel (specifically, Bildungsroman). Having analysed the original text of the novel, we have determined that the key oppositions in “Anne of Green Gables” (commonplace/romantic worldview, religion/godlessness, love/friendship, woman/man (girl/boy), childhood/adulthood, orphancy/family, loneliness/belonging, mercy/indifference, etc) play an important role in defining the conflict dynamic between characters. By opposing stylistic elements, thematic and plot formulae, the author is able to provide an in-depth perspective of her heroine’s experiences, as well as exploring various viewpoints (Anne Shirley, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, Rachel Lynde, etc) when it comes to the same events. L.M. Montgomery has also updated the genre of Bildungsroman by reimagining the conventional topics of “female” literature (raising girls to be future wives and mothers, their love afflictions and desire to get married) and replacing them with new and relevant issues (the influence of literature and culture on one’s personality, the role of friendship in a young person’s life, using creativity as a means to reinterpret one’s surroundings and overcome inner conflict, etc).

TEXT-CREATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF TOPONYMS ІN THE MODERN LITERARY DISCOURSE (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SOPHIA ANDRUKHOVYCH «AMADOKA»)

The need to develop a holistic linguistic vision of the functionality of toponyms in the literary discourse dictates the study of these units on the basis of broad artistic materials texts of different genres. The article is devoted to characteristics of toponyms, noted in the novel of Sophia Andrukhovych «Amadoka». The study has revealed that modern fiction manifests an abundant toponym system. The system of toponyms in the novel «Amadoka» is formed by horonyms, oykonyms, urbanonyms, hydronyms, oronyms, and so on. The toponyms carry out the following basic functions: nominative-localized, ideological, and symbolic. First, toponyms in a text actualize their toponymic meaning, structuring a text space. However, toponyms often become ideological-conceptual elements that gain a dominant role in the implementation of the author’s intention, function in the text as symbols, which enables the output of functions of this proper name beyond the limits of the traditional nominative-localization one. They become the means of the indirect features of characters of the novel that are one of the elements of text formation.

LOCATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN MODERN UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES: FACTS OF CONTRASTIVE ASYMMETRY

Closely related Ukrainian and Russian languages show similarities and differences that permeate different language levels. This problem, despite its long existence, is still relevant. Among the differences that relate to the compared languages, there are inconspicuous and contrasting. The object of the proposed study was the facts of contrastive asymmetry at the level of structures with a locative type of determination. Using the methods of synchronous descriptive, comparative-historical, comparative methods, as well as the method of complex analysis of semantic- syntactic structures, we stated the facts of contrastive asymmetry between Ukrainian and Russian syntactic structures with spatial meaning in four levels: 1) formal-grammatical, 2) semantic, 3) syntactic and 4) synonymous. The proposed division is somewhat conditional because semantics organically interacts with syntagmatics it is closely related to synonymy. The formal-grammatical contrastive asymmetry includes the same values of the construction V + PO + Nloc (Ukrainian language) and V + PO + Ndat (Russian language). Their functional possibilities, the lexical-semantic spectrum of verb, and adverbial placeholders are clarified. It is emphasized that the constructions V + PO + Nloc (Russian Ndat) enter into intra-singular synonymy in the Ukrainian language and inter-singular synonymy in the Russian language. It is proved that at the level of distributive possibilities contrastive asymmetry covers first of all the instrumental prepositional case as a representative of locativity. The differences also apply to the main carriers of valence (a specific feature of the Ukrainian language is that this function, along with verbs of purposeful, sometimes unfocused movement perform verbatives of specific semantics of physical and sound action), lexical and semantic composition of adverbial nouns (in Ukrainian, it is much wider), which is extrapolated to such semantic types as proper and common names of land routes, names of types of cover, areas covered with low vegetation, continents, states, geographical and administrative areas, devices and mechanisms that serve to transport something. It is established that the semantic asymmetry is manifested by the constructions V + Z-POZA + Ngen, V + Z-POPID + Ngen, V + Z-PONAD + Ngen, V + Z_POSERD + Ngen, V + Z_POMIZH + Ngen, V + POPID + Nасс, V + POPID + Ninst, V + POPERED + Ninst, V + POMIZH + Ninst, which actualize the shade of distributivity with the participation of the preposition component. Constructions with a specific semantic description are also recorded, which function in the Ukrainian language and are absent in the Russian language (V + POVZ + Nass, V + PERED + Nass, V + NAD + Nass, V + MIZH + Nass).

TRANSLATION PROCESS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF POLYVARIETY OF TRANSLATION

The research focuses on the process of translation in its psycholinguistic, cognitive and semiotic aspects. While observing students at the Institute of Translation and Interpreting at the Department of Russian language at the University of Heidelberg the author of this study came up with the idea to describe the process of translation, which consists of some conscious cognitive processes, in order to apply these to the translators’ and interpretors’ training. The theoretical basis taken for the concept of polyvariety of translation is the postulate under which essentially the entirety of translation and interpreting (T&I) theory can be subsumed – Roman Jakobson’s eminent postulate of “equivalence in difference”. This postulate firstly states the relation between source and target, which is based on a difference, i.e. on an implicative relation in the semiotic sense, and secondly equivalence consists in a diversity of translation variants which are in a relationship of difference to the original, since the translator understands partly unconsciously and partly consciously; always selectively and purposefully; partly cognitively and partly intuitively; always subjectively, which permits the availability of multiple translations of one and the same text by different translators with comparable translation competence which in their totality establish the polyvariety of translation. Such complex attitude at the process of translation opens a new sight on the theory of translation, builds a bridge between the theory and practice of translation and can be successfully applied to the didactic purposes.

SPATIAL-TEMPORAL SEMANTICS OF PREPOSITIONAL EQUIVALENTS

The article investigates the prepositional-temporal semantics of prepositional equivalents, determines the philosophical and linguistic interpretation of categories of time and space, distinguishes the lexical composition of those prepositional units that are carriers of locative and temporal semantics, establishes contextual conditions under which each of the that semantic nuance, it was found that the immediate environment (verb and dependent noun) significantly affect the content plan of the prepositional equivalent. The aim of the article is to elucidate the peculiarities of the functioning of prepositional equivalents with locative and temporal semantics. It was established that the prepositional equivalents immediately after, immediately before, immediately after, from the depth, behind the shoulders, on the way from, on the way from… to, on the way to, in place, in the interval from… to, in the interval between, in the middle can to be representatives of both locative and temporal significance. Their specific semantic nuance depends on the immediate context.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING LINGUISTIC CHARCTERISTICS OF UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN AND SURZHYK IN UKRAINIAN MEDIA DISCOURSE

This article examines the widespread social perception of the linguistic characteristics of Ukrainian, Russian languages and Surzhyk, which is commonly known as a mixed language of the two. The aim of this article is to establish a common interpretation of their forms and uses from a sociolinguistic perspective to clarify their perceived valuation in the situation of language contact. We rely especially on the theories of sociolinguistic representations and language majoration and minoration, elaborated in the French sociolinguistics, which allows us to have a clear view of the dynamic system within the multilingual communities. This study gives a detailed analysis of journalistic articles dedicated to language issues in Ukraine published on the internet, for gaining a broad and topical sets of data. Our results show that there exists a complex relation between the mixed language and the two languages, where on the one hand Surzhyk is interpretated to be constructed from the Ukrainian and Russian languages, while on the other hand, the illiterateness of its speakers is emphasized. Furthermore, we see that speaking Surzhyk could in fact be more negatively perceived than speaking Russian, since it has the potential to pose a threat to the existence of the Ukrainian language.