Interrogative statement and discourse-stylistic continuum of the Ukrainian language

Abstract

Interrogative statements are used to perform the intention of the query in various discourse-stylistic forms of the Ukrainian language. This article aims to analyze interrogative statements from the stand-point of their functioning as syntactic constructions. Drawing on a wide range of literary sources, the author states that, fulfilling the epistemological need to fill information gaps in speaker’s knowledge, the interrogative statement is the most relevant linguistic sign used to express the speaker’s motivation and needs. The interrogative statement is, however, a clear example of communicative-pragmatic functions which include figurativeness, expression of will, emotionality, evaluation, and tolerance, verbalized in a speech in accordance with the speaker’s intentions. A suggested in terpretation of the linguistic nature of interrogative constructions attests to their ambivalence and semantic syncretism along with the performance of primary and secondary functions. The discourse-stylistic continuum of the Ukrainian language, i.e., vernacular, literary, journalistic, religious, and epistolary, represents a rather extensive functional potential of inter-rogative constructions. In spoken discourse, interrogative expressions, e.g., address-oriented syntactic units, verbalize the specifying and clarifying intentions of the query, thus highlighting their primary function in the dialogic discourse. In other registers, these are secondary func-tions related to the following aspects: 1) figurativeness and aesthetics of speech which em phasizes the linguo-creative nature of a speaker, i.e., fiction; 2) the display of certain information which has a purposeful influence on the addressee of the speech and encourages specific actions, i.e., journalistic discourse; 3) the creation of aphoristic and rhetorical dialogue, establishing spiritual values and a human worldview, i.e., religious discourse; 4) the creation of epistolary dialogue as a marker of the interrogative searching process focused on essential phenomena related to pub-lic and private life and aimed at the formation of textual communication conceived in time and space. This article introduces the concept of interrogative discourse as a dynamic continuum of human communication, a special mode of cognition and reflection of reality, one of the latest fragments of linguistic knowledge. Keywords: interrogative statement, discourse-stylistic continuum, the intention of inquiry, address-ability, dialogicality / quasi-dialogicality, interrogative discourse.