“Слова року” в українській літературній мові ХХІ століття як репрезентанти змін у мовній картині світу українців

Abstract

The article attempts to identify changes that have occurred in the lingual world model of Ukrainians in recent years. The results of the “Word of the Year” contest in Ukraine served as the material for observation and analysis. Every year the online dictionary of neologisms and slang of the modern Ukrainian language “Myslovo” declares the “word of the year” – the most socially significant, popular and used word. Other nominees in the short list for the award are also important words to indicate current phenomena, events, concepts or persons. Usually, “modern” words fall into the nomination. Such lexemes are contemporary (reflect current events in the society), universal (formed by the new-fashioned trends), popular (are in the center of public thought and debate). Thus, in 2013 the “word of the year” became “Euromaidan”, in 2014 – “cyborgs”, in 2015 – “blockade”. In 2016, “corruption” became much more relevant, in 2017 the most popular was “bezviz” (visa-free regime), and in 2018 originally Greek word “tomos” became widely used. Therefore, the chosen “words of the year” (and nominees for this award) act as lexical representatives of those phenomena and events that are of the most concern for the society, and consequently have impact on the lingual world model of Ukrainians. The results of the Ukrainian competition were compared with the results of the similar contests in other countries, in particular, Belarus and Russia. Using comparative analysis, the common features of the Ukrainian and Belarussian lingual world models of XXI century were revealed as well as the opposite views of Ukrainians and Russians on important socio-political phenomena. For example, Belarusians use the loanword from Ukrainian “vyshyvanka” (‘colloquial name for the embroidered shirt in Ukrainian and Belarusian national costumes’) from which the derived word – neologism “vyshymaika” (‘colloquial name for the t-shirt that combines tradional embroidery with the modern design’) was formed. The imperial ambitions of Russians were verbalized in the politically motivated neologism-hashtag “#krymnash”(Crimea is ours), which became the “Word of the Year 2014” in Russia. Therefore, it can be claimed that the XXI century Ukrainian standart language is being enriched with new lexemes that are gradually being used by Ukrainians, becoming part of their lingual world model. These words may be partially (see “Euromaidan”, “bezviz”) or completely (see “tomos”) adopted from the other donor languages, but, as practice shows, they are being organically incorporated into the Ukrainian usus.