ENGLISH LOANS IN THE UKRAINIAN YOUTH SLANG

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of the English loans use in the modern Ukrainian youth slang. The tendencies of the Ukrainian language development at the beginning of the XXI century, the role of the English loanwords in the process of language globalisation are analysed. Changes in any language are activated by social processes. Modern conditions of the society development are a potential catalyst for the natural language changes, which accelerate their dynamics and make them more significant and noticeable. The youth slang is a certain language layer, which reflects its innovations. The article represents a comprehensive description of the youth slang, as one of the subsystems of the modern Ukrainian languge, the reasons of its occurrence and use. The youth slang is an integral part of any language that is considered to be more comprehensive and up-to-date. The paper presents the results of sociolinguistic research in order to identify the pecularities of the loanwords use. Fifty young people at the age of 16-23 have taken part in the experiment to determine the tendency of the English loanwords use. They have participated in a survey, where they had to determine the frequency of the English loanwords use, which have and do not have one-word equivalents in the Ukrainian language. The results have shown that the most part of the respondents use loanwords in their speech. It can be explained by linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The main hypothesis is the statement about the internationalisation of the English language in the modern language space. The results of the study have confirmed this position. The English loanwords are very popular with the youth. Most of them do not have the one-word Ukrainian equivalents and their use can be explained by the factor of language resources economy. However the significant tendency is that the English loanwords are frequently used in the Ukrainian slang. This process is connected with the phenomena of the English language globalisation.