Names of an illegitimate child in modern Ukrainian language

Abstract

The article deals with the composition of the lexical-semantic group “names of an illegitimate child” in the Ukrainian language, in particular in dialects, as well as with the word-forming structure, etymology and semantic processes that take place in it. Special attention is paid to the history and etymology of the lexemes байстрюк, бастард and копил. The active use of the word байстрюк in the modern literary Ukrainian language, in particular in its colloquial version, is emphasized. It was found that the Ukrainian nominations of an illegitimate child represent a very diverse range of motivational models: ʻlocus of conception or of a birth of a child’, ʻthe lewd nature of the mother’s behavior’, ʻabnormal appearance of the child in the family’, etc. The lexical implementation of these models differs significantly in different regions of Ukraine. Borrowed mainly from the Polish language or through its mediation, lexemes to denote an illegitimate child show a wide phonetic and word-forming variation in the process of adaptation to the system of the Ukrainian language or — more narrowly — to the peculiarities of certain dialects. Most names represent pejorative connotative semes — rude, abusive; but sometimes they show sympathy for an illegitimate child. Keywords: illegitimate child, Ukrainian dialects, dialect dictionaries, areal lexical variety