METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF DIACHRONIC STUDY OF LINGUISTIC VARIATION IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

Inna Tsaralunga

doi:10.20535/2410-8286.154597

Abstract

The article analyses the system of methodological principles employed in the comprehensive study of linguistic variation in diachrony. In particular, the author defines the essence of the scientific principle as a means of linguistic study as well as thoroughly describes the system of methodological principles of a diachronic study of any linguistic variations. The described methodological foundations of a diachronic study are substantiated through the prism of Ukrainian written monuments of the late Middle Ages. The paper also outlines the prospects of further theoretical and methodological scientific studies for historical linguistics. The study material comprises more than nine thousand variable language elements, recorded in the texts of business and religious writing of the late Middle Ages. The sources for the study are represented by handwritten and printed monuments of the official style of the Old Ukrainian language and the religious style of the Church Slavonic language of the Ukrainian edition. As a result of the carried out research, it has been defined that the methodology of diachronic study of variable language phenomena is based on the principles of a scientific and objective approach to the variation of the literary language in historical conditions on the basis of a complex unity of historical, systemic, anthropocentric, and synergetic directions of linguistic studies. The described methodological aspects of the study of linguistic variations can be used in training courses of general linguistics, historical grammar of the Ukrainian language, the history of the Ukrainian literary language and historical dialectology as well as in the following optional courses: “Language Variation in Diachrony”, “Principles and Methods of Linguistic Analysis of Linguistic Variation”, “Formation of the Ukrainian Language Standards” for students of philological departments.

Highlights

Language is the result of numerous intra- and extra-linguistic changes that occur in the process of its development and are reflected in split-level variable elements, resulting in the variation of the language system as a whole
According to Selivanova (2008), the study of the laws of language development in diachrony, the elucidation of the evolutionary character of language changes in the context of the problem of linguistic variation can take place in terms of a certain scientific paradigm, which is recognised as a pattern of knowledge and actions in a given period in the society in question, which give a model for problems statement and their solution in the scientific community (p. 15)
Conclusions we conducted an analysis of the system of methodological principles of the comprehensive study of linguistic variation in diachrony on the basis of the studying the texts of the Ukrainian written artifacts of the XIV – XV centuries

Summary

Introduction

Language is the result of numerous intra- and extra-linguistic changes that occur in the process of its development and are reflected in split-level variable elements, resulting in the variation of the language system as a whole. The scribes of the mentioned records applied the principles that were different from the norms of the Ukrainian literary language adopted in the western Ukrainian territories, so the old texts reflect the whole phonetic and grammatical structure of the Maramoros dialect of that time, in which, along with the Old Church Slavonic language forms, numerous dialectisms are found In his turn, Nimchuk (1981), describing the language of the acts of Volyn and Naddnieper Ukraine of the XVII century, discovered in general the north-Ukrainian dialectal sound characteristics of the language of the records, which are evident in deviations from the old Ukrainian etymological spelling, as well as recorded archaic and innovative elements in the morphology of the acts

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Conclusion