Iryna Miahkota

Lviv State University of Physical Culture

Synonyms and variants in Ukrainian folklore terminology

© Miahkota I. B., 2014

The article is dedicated to the issue of Ukrainian terminology synonymy. Synonymic bonds of folklore study terms as well as peculiarities of professional name functioning have been analyzed and types of terminological synonyms outlined.

Keywords: Ukrainian language, terminology, term lexis, Ukrainian folk study, synonym, variant, synonym classification.

Terminological system as any language system is based on the relations between its elements. One of the key factors of any scientific terminological system is paradigmatic relations, in particular synonymic ones. The study focuses on synonymic relations based on the material of Ukrainian folklore terms.

The article deals with the synonymy both in literary language and terminology. It has been stressed that synonymy in terminology has certain deviations from the synonymy in literary language. They are as follows: no expressiveness, stylistic differentiation within the scope of academic voice, differentiation according to the application spheres and others.

The article provides different views and discussions concerning appropriateness of synonymy in term systems. It has been stated that on the one hand this phenomenon is undesirable and testifies that the name and content of the term that denotes certain idea isn’t formed yet and its functioning is complicated. At the same time we discover that it’s practically impossible to eliminate them. On the other hand term synonyms are useful, as each variant conveys the meaning differently.

We have detected the following terms that denote synonymy in terminology, they are: synonyms, doublets, variants, equivalents, term synonyms, synonymic terms, synonymic relations.

There have been detected about 130 synonymic term combinations in Ukrainian folklore terminology. According to their etymology they have been grouped into: "indigenous term - indigenous term":  дражнили – прозивали (teasing rhymes); билини – старини (bylina); забавлянки – утішки (amusing rhymes). 2) "foreign term – Ukrainian equivalent": апотропеї (greek. prefix аро – separation, denial, cessation, tropos – expression, utterance) – оберіг (amulet); ритуал (лат. ritualis – ritual) – звичай (custom). 3)"foreign term - foreign term: фабльо (old French . fabliau – fable, tale, вfrom latin. fаbula – story, fable) – фацеція (latin. faceta – joke, witticism).

The article presents the following modifications of synonymic term combinations: lexical, syntactical, word building. It has been pointed out that lexical synonyms are the terms that differ in sound and spelling but are close or identical in meaning, for example: вояцький фольклор – армійський фольклор (army folklore); наймитські пісні – заробітчанські пісні (farm labourer songs). Among syntactic term synonyms according to the structure, depending on the number of elements in the combination, there have been singled out such groups: 1) "single-word term – single-word term" made of: a) " single-word term – juxtaposition term": меморат – оповідання-спогад (memoirs); b) "juxtaposition term - juxtaposition term": пісні-хроніки – співанки-хроніки (chronicle songs); c)" single-word term – composite term": молитви – молитвослови (prayers); d) "composite term - composite term": антропоморфний – людиноподібний(anthropomorphous). 2) "term combination – term combination":

бродячі сюжети – мандрівні сюжети(migrant subject); записування фольклору – фіксація фольклору (folklore recording). The synonyms have also been detected on different structural levels: «single-word term - term combination": кант – духовна пісня (canticle); наратив – оповідальна творчість(narration).

It has been detected that synonymic row of Ukrainian folklore terminology is made up of up to eleven professional words: заплачка – заспів (prelude); біблійні колядки – апокрифічні колядки – євангельські колядки(gospel carols); відьма – гадина – босорканя – гадєрка – ворожка(witch); веснянки – весняні пісні – гаївки – гагілки – гаілки – маївки – магілки – гагалівки – ягівки – лаголойки – галя (spring songs).

In addition to synonymy Ukrainian folklore terminology has also some variants, that are formal modification of the same term (term combination) possessing the same meaning. There have been cited the ideas of different scientists concerning this phenomenon. We have grouped the reasons that influence the occurrence of variants into outer and inner ones. In Ukrainian folklore terminology we have detected variants of linguistic units on different levels, they are: phonetic variants: ладкання – латкання; morphological variants: заробітчанські пісні – робітничі пісні; morpho-syntactic variants: усна народна творчість – УНТ; word forming variants: петрівчані пісні – петрівчанські пісні, звеличання – величання.

It has been stated that the main reason for variant terms in Ukrainian folklore terminology is the influence of the dialects.