The active dictionary of lexical combinatorics as a means of optimizing language learning

An important element of language competence is the knowledge of different features of lexical combinatorics. This article describes the structure of an Active Russian-Ukrainian Combinatory Dictionary of Nouns. The main goal of the Dictionary lies within the systematic representation of lexical combinatorics of a particular entry keyword along with its translation equivalent. A keyword is a Russian noun which designates such situations as an action, activity, process, pro-perty, state, or an event. Each lexeme which denotes a situation usually relates to a number of other lexemes that denote correlation between the participants of a situation, its variable signs, typical impacts, e.g., beginning or terminating a particular situation, its creation or ending, and other impacts constrained by its specifics. It is essential that different names of situations relate to different sets of lexemes attached to them. A combination of words with the name of a situa-tion and a lexeme that this name relates to is called collocation. In corpus linguistics, colloca-tions are described by means of apparatus of lexical functions (LF). Thus, the accompanying lexeme of the word combination conveys the meaning of LF for which the name of situation serves as an argument. In the Dictionary, eасh entry involves not only a Russian noun naming situation and its Ukrainian translation but also a set of collocations that correlate with the noun. Each Russian collocation is accompanied by its Ukrainian equivalent. The use of such a dic-tionary furthers the knowledge of the user’s native (first) language (Russian or Ukrainian). The Dictionary is especially important for learners of Ukrainian as a second language. It contains information about “paradigmatic syntagmatics” in Ukrainian yet not fully represented in bilin-gual dictionaries. Keywords: dictionary, noun, combinatorics, collocation, lexical function, predicate, actant.

The Ukrainian language in the polylingual space of Transcarpathia

This article explores trends in language policies in the Transcarpathian region during 1991–2020 within the general Ukrainian sociopolitical context. It is argued that the status of the Ukrainian language as the state language in the region has become strengthened as evidenced by recent developments in language planning and language policy, including the adoption of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Lan-guage as the Official Language”. However, the manipulation of the language question in Ukraine, especially in the border regions, has taken on a political character, spreading beyond the borders of the state, threatening the constitutional order and the state sovereignty of Ukraine, in particu-lar in education, economics, and legal sphere. In Transcarpathia, a multi-ethnic border region in the extreme west of Ukraine, warrants attention of both scholars and politicians. This article looks into the changes in the Ukrainian language policies in the local state administration, and the importance of the Ukrainian president office in this regard. Specific features of the linguo-political situation in Transcarpathia, viewed at different periods of its development from the independence of Ukraine in 1991 on-ward, are presented. This study determines the role of the media in shaping a regional linguo-political situation, including the Internet media language space. The paper provides data of a comprehensive analy-sis of the results of the 2017–2019 external independent evaluation as an indicator of language competence of the participants of EIE, the results of research on the perception of educational language innovations in the region through a survey of different categories of respondents during 2018, the monitoring of experimental experience in implementing elements of multilingual edu-cation in educational institutions in Ukraine, particularly in Transcarpathia. The author outlines prospects for continued research in the framework of the project “Debat ing Linguistic Diversity: Managing National Minority Languages in Ukraine and Russia” (2020–2023). Keywords: language policy, language situation, state language, mother tongue, minority language, multilingual education, mass media.

Verbal and linguocultural content of a text

This article gives a detailed account of one of the topical issues of modern integrative linguistic stylistics, i.e., substantiation of the content of the latest concepts that are formed within the interrelated disciplines. Attention is specifically paid to the terms media stylistics, verbal and linguocultural content of the media. The author elaborates on the concept of linguocultural content of the media text interpreting it as linguistic and aesthetic signs of culture, components of linguistic and informational pictures of the world, i.e., a value-content meaning of the mass media which unfolds and concretizes the general and nationally marked concepts, and as a regular manifestation of the language norm. The data of the magazine A Woman shows that the verbal content is a significant, specific segment of the functioning of the modern Ukrainian literary language in the media space. It reflects the universal stratification of the language of national professional, social, every day, and artistic culture, the synergy of its mediatopes and media genres, broadcasts a hierarchy of social (socio-political, gender), psychological and economic stereotypes, and human needs. They are all united by the Ukrainian-centric linguocultural platform which consists of both value-semantic signs of culture and structural-level units of the literary-linguistic continuum. In terms of media stylistics, the language of Ukrainian-language media is analyzed in two complementary perspectives: 1) via metaphorical-associative field structures with specific core nominations; 2) via the principles of realization of the media structural-level norm in the mass media. Keywords: media stylistics, verbal content, linguocultural indicator of value, metaphorical-associative field, language norm, sign of culture.

Paradigm of passive constructions in the Ukrainian translation of the Bible by Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko)

This paper investigates how passive constructions are used in Filaret’s translation of the Bible from Standard Russian (Russian Synod’s translation, 2002) into Ukrainian, not from biblical languages, e.g., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. It specifically argues the nuclear position of the Ukrainian passive constructions paradigm formed by passive constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyi, circumnuclear position of constructions with predicative forms in -no, -to, and peripheral position of constructions with passive verbs in -sia. Ranking of passive constructions with predicative participles over constructions with forms in -no, -to neutralizes syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian, i.e., a focus on predicativity in finite verb forms and forms in -no, -to. The peripheral status of passive verbs in -sia shows a positive tendency for Filaret’s translation of the Holy Writ to distance from the Russian translation succeeded to passive constructions with predicative participles from Old Church Slavonic. The Ukrainian translation is often marked by active constructions (a mononuclear or two-member sentence) which are the authentical feature of the Ukrainian syntax. Simultaneous synonymous usage of active and passive constructions, particularly in the same environments, however, is largely triggered by a lack of distinction between syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian and Russian, and, therefore, provides a syntactical variety. In the Ukrainian translation, usage of active constructions and different types of passive forms almost always intersects with the Russian Synod’s version. Keywords: Ukrainian translation of the Bible, paradigm of passive constructions, constructions with predicative forms in -no, -tо, constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyj, sentences with passive verbs in -sia.

Polysyndeton in Ukrainian poetry language of the second half of the 20th — begining of the 21st century: Typological characteristics and functional load

Polysyndeton may be seen as not developed properly in the Ukrainian linguistic style, although it has been vastly applied in the language of poetry of Ukrainian artists in the second half of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century. The aim of this article is to reinterpret polysyndeton as a stylistic figure based on the rhythmic repetition of the same conjunctions, prepositions, and par ticles which help to achieve a harmonious structure of the poetic text. Rich data collected have allowed distinguishing varieties of polysyndeton due to the following criteria: 1) word class membership of a repeated unit, e.g., conjunctive, prepositional, and partial; 2) placement in contact, e.g., contact, distant; 3) the nature of ‘grammatical registration’ (for sentences of different grammatical structure). Moreover, all varieties of expressive means of a language are significant for the formation of the linguistic units of the poem: they perform pictorial and compositional functions and functions of accentuation, metaphorisation, the actualization of the emotional component of the expressed and harmonious organization of poetic text’s space. This indicates the multifunctionality of polysyndeton as a stylistic figure which contributes to the harmonization of a language and poetic narrative. Keywords: stylistic syntax, language and poetic narrative, multifunctionality, polysyndeton.

Linguosophy of war and man in works of fiction by Borys Humenіuk

This article investigates the wartime poetry and prose by Borys Humenіuk dedicated to the current war in Eastern Ukraine started in 2014. Being of different genres, his works are marked by common through associative and figurative lines. Emphasis is placed on the ways of verbalization of the philosophy of war as an author’s interpretation of concrete sensory images provided by the artist as a direct participant in hostilities. There are two main associative and figurative lines, i.e., war — man — nature and life — death. The actualization of the military lexicon in the Ukrainian writing style is emphasized. Emphasis is also placed on the stylistic functions of a national and general cultural set of symbols (words) which reveal archetypal semantics in the structure of metaphorical and epithetical images. This article discusses such individual features of Humeniuk’s language creativity as an actualization of stylistics of a numeral, number, and digital code. Humeniuk’s poetic and prose language contains lyric-epic characteristic features. The epithets and metaphors of end-to-end associative image lines have been imprinted by the sublingual stylistic category of subjectivization. Linguosophy of man and war actualizes archetypal associative and figurative components, sacred, folklore, and surrealist (mythogenic) semantics of real phe nomena. The epithets and metaphors of Humeniuk’s Poems from the War and 100 Short Stories about the War created and united the military, socio-political, and intimately lyrical segments of the Ukrainian language picture of the world. These verbal and figurative mechanisms actualized the concrete sensory content, semantic, conversational casual and ironic, filling of certain cross-cutting lines. Humeniuk’s language attracts attention by expressive individual worldviews, the characteristic structural diversity of epithetics, intellectualized metaphors, which interact comprehensively and create deeply psychologized pictures of life during the war. Keywords: language of fiction, through associative-figurative lines, metaphor, epithet, numeral, wordsymbol, archetype.

Achievements of the academic grammar school

This study aims at investigating the development of grammatical theory at the Institute of the Ukrainian Language for the last 30 years. The paper summarizes achievements in grammar theory from applying the functional, i.e., semantic and grammatical, approach developed by I.R. Vykhovanetsʹ to differentiating units into word and nonword classes and distinguishing morphological categories of major word classes. This facilitated the establishment of the theoretical basis of functional and categorical morphology. The author analyses studies in formal grammatical, semantic, functional, categorical, deri vational, and anthropocentric syntax that attest to the multidimensional growth of a syntactic theory and main aspects of the Ukrainian word formation on the basis of semantic and categorical syntax and a formant- and stem-based derivatology. Some of the latest multi-pronged processes in word formation reflect dynamics of word formation rules, the replenishment of word formation resources, and the development of the word-formation system of Standard Ukrainian. The solving of a complex set of theoretical issues in the modern Ukrainian word-formation introduced the methodological foundations for the recent normative description of the word formation system of Standard Ukrainian. The article addresses issues in studies on applied grammar determined by the process of glo balization and democratization of the Ukrainian society and the needs of Modern Ukrainian language practice to be met. Particular importance is attached to the grammatical prescriptive norms in the professional use, the actualization of case forms appearing in the passive vocabulary, and the dynamics of morphological and syntactic norms in various functional and stylistic dimensions of Standard Ukrainian. Keywords: functional grammar, functional morphology, functional syntax, categorical grammar, categorical syntax, categorical word formation, classification of parts of speech, morphological categories.

Description of nouns with parametric semantics in an active explanatory dictionary: The lexicographic experiment

This article provides an overview of an active type dictionaries in Ukrainian and foreign lexicography. It examines the peculiarities of the structural organization of dictionary articles, presenting of words in a paradigmatic relationship with registry units, displaying the typical syntagmatic properties of units, and case forms. Relying on a wide range of texts in the Ukrainian language corps, the paper describes the words with parametric semantics dalekist’ (farness) and blyz’kist’ (closeness) with respect to the anthropocentric approach. The applied lexicographic experiment is a practical part of studying the topic of compiling an active type explanatory dictionary of the Ukrainian language. This lexicographic experiment was verified on the texts of the corps of semantic paradigms of words presented in the dictionaries of the 20th—21st centuries. It offers checking procedures and vocabulary and text filters. In contrast to the published explanatory dictionaries, the modeled description of language units provides a more complete picture about the functioning of the examined words in texts of different genres, their semantic potential, and stylistics. Keywords: anthropocentric lexicography, active type of dictionary, parametric noun, dictionary entry, text corpus.

Ukrainian academic lexicography: Achievements and prospects of development

This paper offers an overview of dictionaries of Ukrainian complied by lexicographers of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since the Institute’s foundation; it is devoted to the Institute’s thirtieth anniversary. The article addresses a question as to whether modern Ukrainian academic lexicography is ready to meet the public life needs in independent Ukraine testifying to the devotion to tradition. The Slovnyk Ukraїnsʹkoї Movy (Ukrainian Dictionary, 1970—1980) in 11 volumes served as the basis for both the Slovnyk Ukraїns’koї Movy (Ukrainian Dictionary, 2012) and Slovnyk Ukraїnsʹkoї Movy v 11 Tomakh: Dodatkovyi Tom (Ukrainian Dictionary in 11 Volumes: Additional Volume, 2017) in 2 books, which reflects continuation of tradition of the academic explanatory lexicography. In 1999—2000, the academic edition of the Slovnyk Synonimiv Ukraїnsʹkoї Movy (Ukrainian Dictionary of Synonyms) in 2 volumes was published. It became a valuable reference publication in the national monolingual lexicography. In phraseography, the latest achievements are represented notably by the Frazeolohichnyi Slovnyk Ukraїns’koї Movy in 2 volumes (Ukrainian Phraseological Dictionary, 1993) and the Slovnyk Frazeolohizmiv Ukraїnsʹkoї Movy (Ukrainian Dictionary of Phraseologisms, 2003). The neographic direction is represented by dictionary materials Novi i Aktualizovani Slova ta Znachennia (New and Updated Words and Meanings, 2002-2010), whereas the Rosiisʹko-Ukraїnsʹkyi Slovnyk (Russian-Ukrainian Dictionary, 2011—2014) in 4 volumes covers the field of the translated academic lexicography. The two dictionaries are of great importance to the Ukrainian academic lexicography in general, namely the combined dictionary of the Ukraїnsʹkyi Leksykon Kintsia XVIII — Pochatku XXI Stolittia (Ukrainian Lexicon of the Late 18th — Early 21st Century: Dictionary-Index, 2017) in 3 volumes and Slovnyk Movy Tvorchoї Osobystosti XX — pochatku ХХІ Stolittia (Dictionary of the Language of Creative Personality in 20th — early 21st Century). The latter contains references significant for reflecting the lexical and phraseological structure of Standard Ukrainian. Finally, reestablished in 2003 the annual Lek sy ko hrafichnyi Biuletenʹ (Lexicographic Bulletin) covers issues related to the history of lexicography, making of dictionaries of different types, and the Ukrainian vocabulary, lexicology, and phraseology. Keywords: explanatory lexicography, source basis of lexicography, synonym dictionary, phraseological dictionary, combined dictionary, author’s lexicography, neography, linguopersonology.

The Pokuttia dialect on the background of the literary standard

Pokuttia dialect comprises a small area transit to the adjacent Bukovyna, Hutsul, and Dniester dialects, its nature is less discussed if compared to other Southwest Ukrainian dialects, and, therefore, its status is not properly defined so far. The most important studies on the topic were made by Kost’ Kysilevs’kyi, who provided a detailed description of Pokuttia dialect data gathered in the early 20th century. His evidence along with our audiorecords of Pokuttia dialect in 2009—2018 allowed us for a contrast-comparative analysis of the dynamics of the dialect. It shows that not only striking phonetic features of Pokuttia dialects are actively present in speech of the older and middle generation, but also unique phonetic phenomena previously noted by Kysilevs’kyi have been preserved, e.g., in the Sniatyn region area. An interaction of the Pokuttia dialect, one of Southwest Ukrainian dialects, and Standard Ukrainian is one of the main issues of this article. It manifests itself as in the analysis of those features of the dialect that contrast it with the literary language and distinguish it from other dialects of the Ukrainian language (primarily phonetic and grammatical features), and in the description of phenomena that support the modern literary norm (however, fewer of them were observed). The paper states the following grammatical features of the Pokuttia dialect: archaic pronouns, a number of phonetic variations in numerals and the most used adverbs, special forms of a verb paradigm and remnants of double plural, examples of “honorable” plural (in oral speech and written text), and forms of plusquamperfect previously used in Common Slavic. This set of features opposes the Pokuttya dialect to the other Ukrainian dialects and distinguishes it from Standard Ukrainian. The main feature of the Pokuttya dialect is resistance to leveling, despite the significant authority of the literary Ukrainian language for speakers. Keywords: dialect, literary standard, Pokuttia dialects, language dynamics.