THE RESEARCH OF THE STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF THE LEXICAL-SEMANTIC FIELD “POLITICAL ACTIVITY” WITHIN SOCIO-POLITICAL LEXIS OF THE UKRAINIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

Abstract

The article deals with the semantics of lexical units of unrelated languages. Problems of studying the lexical level of related and unrelated languages are of particular interest, since the specificity of the national language systems is the most clearly reflected in the lexis. The study of common and different structural semantic features makes it possible to disclose the peculiarity of the native language and culture on the background of language contacts. The studied language systems belong to different types, and the comparison of languages of different types without regard to their genetic links is the greatest value for any research, since it contributes significantly to the correct understanding of the significance of the analyzed speech phenomena. The subject of the analysis is lexemes of socio-political meaning in the Ukrainian and English languages. The study of socio-political lexis is of considerable interest to linguistics, because it reflects one of the most important spheres of life of modern society – political. The study of such an active lexical category as socio-political lexis, contributes to the understanding of language phenomena, due to the evolution of the semantics of lexical units. Socio-political lexis is characterized by blurring of its boundaries, semantic dispersion and sphere of usage. In order to systematize the linguistic material, the lexical-semantic field of the studied lexical units was identified – “Political activity”, within which an anаlysis of the dynamic prosesses in the socio-political lexis was carried out in their correlation with the factors of a social nature. The peculiarity of the lexical-semantic field is that it is allocated on the basis of the logical division of the broad concept, but at the same time it is the actual linguistic division of the man’s representations of objective reality. The field approach to the organization of the vocabulary is one of the main principles of systematization of linguistic phenomena, through which the relationship, interdependence and hierarchy of linguistic units are revealed. This makes it possible to study not separate lexemes, but systems of lexical units and the reflection of their semantic links. Lexical-semantic fields are highly organized and intergrated conceptual spheres, elements of which are mutually delimiting one another, and their importance derives from the system as a whole. Each field analyzes the scope of experience, concrete or abstract; divided and classified in a unique way, reflecting a scale of values of society and a special vision of the world. As a result of the study of structural-semantic features of the lexical-semantic field “Political activity”, it became known that in English it is represented by larger number of lexical units. This advantage can be explained by the greater stability of the British political system in comparison with the Ukrainian. The presence in the lexical vocabulary of the English language of a greater number of borrowed lexical units with political meaning can be explained by the fact that Great Britain has more economic and political contacts with other countries of the world than Ukraine.