STYLISTIC ROLE OF DETERMINED VOCABULARY IN PUBLICISTIC STYLE (Based on the material of Lina Kostenko’s article “The Humanitarian Aura of a Nation, or The Defect of the Main Mirror”)

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the stylistic possibilities of deterministic vocabulary in a journalistic style based on the material of Lina Kostenko’s article “The Humanitarian Aura of the Nation, or the Defect of the Main Mirror”. To achieve this goal, we have carried out a continuous selection of quotes from the analyzed article using lexical units that have undergone determination; described the thematic classes of deterministic lexemes, distinguished the decisions of the functional, lexical-semantic, and traced semantic-stylistic levels, the semantic modifications of the deterministic vocabulary; revealed the stylistic role of determinations for achieving a communicative goal. The article uses several linguistic and general scientific research methods: the continuous selection method that we used to single out quotes in which the author used deterministic lexemes; based on semantic analysis, we have carried out a thematic classification of the studied material; statistical methods made it possible to reveal quantitative parameters of thematic groups of deterministic vocabulary; with the help of structural-thematic and semantic analysis, we have classified selected lexemes according to the levels of determination; we have also applied the interpretive method to reveal the semantics of deterministic lexical units in specific contexts, of analysis. We have also used descriptive, comparative, component, and deductive research methods to accomplish the article’s aim. We have singled out 167 quotations with lexical units that underwent determination and were used for different stylistic or content purposes. We have identified 146 terms of twenty-one thematic groups. The most frequently presented general scientific terms (19.2%), political science (13.8%), psychological (9.6%), and historical (8.9%) terms, the dominance of which can be explained primarily by the content features of the analyzed work. Considering the degree of loss of the signs of the term by the lexeme, 67% of determined lexemes are functional determinations that belong mainly to the groups of general scientific terms and terms of the socio-political sphere. We have established that the functional determinations reflect the features of the modern communicative space, testify to the high intellectual level of the author, and are aimed at the same educated readers. Determinations of the lexical-semantic level arise due to the modification of term semantics and the emergence of a new, universal meaning of the lexeme, usually recorded in explanatory dictionaries. Thanks to the combination of language units from different thematic fields, seven intentions are actualized, additional common language connotations are superimposed, and original imagery arises – all this contributes to the emergence of a specific expression inherent in the journalistic style of literary language. We have revealed that the term gets the semantic-stylistic level of determination when it undergoes certain semantic modifications and becomes an element of an artistic device (trope, stylistic figure). The specificity of Lina Kostenko’s creative style determines the presence of complex artistic images in the analyzed work, which combine semantic transformations and stylistic means – figures, and tropes. Usually, artistic metaphors with antitheses, oxymorons, epithets, phraseology, etc., are intertwined in one quote. Determinations contribute to the semantic accuracy, exactness, and imagery of speech and reflect the author’s subjective perception of the corresponding subject or phenomenon, strengthen the author’s assessment of what was said, and contribute to the statement’s expression.

Keywords

• determination
• deterministic vocabulary
• lina kostenko
• semantic modification
• metaphor
• artistic metaphor