Активний і пасивний словниковий запас та його роль у сучасній мовній ситуації в Україні

Abstract

The article deals with the concept of active or passive vocabulary of the speaker. It is asserted that this concept clearly reflects the level of active knowing of a foreign language as well as of speaker’s native language. As it is well known, fluent speaking prompts the speaker to have much more language practice than it is necessary only for understanding verbal information. The level of knowing a language depends on the type of lexical elements (adequate or non adequate) which dominate in speaker’s vocabulary. The main number of adequate lexical elements belongs to different variants of the literary form of language as well as to other subsystems of the literary form which usage is determined by a particular nature of communicative situation – the spoken language or professional slang as well as young people’s slang etc. Thus, valuable knowledge of a language has to provide simultaneous coexistence of several lexicons in speaker’s active vocabulary and in each lexicon the same concept must be adequately indicated in different ways. Each element of professional or young people’s slang represents a syncretic means for expressing meanings of two types: meaning that points out some object or a person or typical situation as well as a meaning that reflects the specificity of language register of communication. The non-adequate elements of active vocabulary relate to lexical units of the popular language. The author emphasizes the cardinal difference between the spoken language and different slangs on the one hand and popular language on the other hand. In the situation of Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism, the units of popular language are mainly presented as numerous elements of the so-called UkrainianRussian “surzyk” (the hybrid forms derived from Russian designations of this or that object). The wide usage of non-adequate elements does not mean at all that the adequate lexical equivalents are unknown to speaker. If he should hear these equivalents in someone’s speech or meet them in the text, he would understand their meaning perfectly well. The problem consists in the lack of speaker’s appropriate cultural and educational level. This grieved factor results in the fact that the adequate lexical units are not actualized in his everyday lexicon being located only in his passive memory. That is the reason why he is unable to use these regular forms in his speech or text formation automatically. Another type of non-adequate elements relates to the forms of obscene language. The author distinguishes different semantic functions of the four-letter words as well as different circumstances provoking their usage. The article brings to the point that the main effective method to overcome the negative phenomena in the language competence of Ukrainian speakers consists in enlarging their active adequate vocabulary since the early childhood. Key words: active vocabulary, passive vocabulary, literary form of language, spoken language, professional slang, young people’s slang, popular language, surzyk, obscene lexicon.