ONOMASTIC SPACE OF LESYA UKRAINKA’S CORRESPONDENCE

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the study of onomastic space in the letters of Lesya Ukrainka. For the purpose of conducting this research, writer’s letters were thoroughly examined. The novelty of this research lies in it being the first one to present a comprehensive analysis of onomastic lexis in Lesya Ukrainka’s letters, which should provide for an objective analysis of texts and facilitate better understanding of their connotative potential.
 Proper names constitute a remarkably multilevel component of her letters possessing numerous possibilities for the generation of semantic and expressive distinctiveness in addition to presenting author’s point of view and revealing psychological and intellectual potential of the reader.
 The core of onomastic space of analyzed letters is composed of anthroponyms which perform the function of identification, characterization, and evaluation in Lesya Ukrainka’s correspondence. Their selection in analyzed letters is dictated by the thematic focus, national coloring, and author’s views. The second largest group is comprised of titles of literary works, followed by toponyms and names of media outlets occupying the periphery of onomastic space in analyzed correspondence and only having the function of nomination and identification.
 The most frequent units among hypocoristics in Lesya Ukrainka’s letters are the well-known two-syllable variants of full names in Ukraine, which indicate a decrease in the social distance between the respondents. Less frequent ones were formed with the help of specific diminutive suffixes (-ochk, -is).
 Letters of Lesya Ukrainka exemplify the new stage in the development of Ukrainian correspondence, since if Shevchenko and Kulish in their letters undergo a smooth shift from the so-called "Kotliarevshchyna" to the expression of personal "I", Lesya Ukrainka’s correspondence reflects the true intellectual wealth of her personality.