Hnat Khotkevych Individual Style.

Abstract

The thesis is devoted to the study of Hnat Khotkevych individual style, i.e., ideological and artistic peculiarities, linguistic-stylistic means and the author’s place and role as an innovator of the folk-conversational style in the Ukrainian prose of the 20^th century. The scientific novelty of the thesis is predetermined by the fact that it is the first research in Ukrainian linguistics which studies Hnat Khotkevych’s original individual style and attempts to study systematically ideological and artistic peculiarities and language-stylistic means of his works.

The theoretical significance of the research lies in the fact that the results of the study can serve as a basis for theoretical conclusions and generalisations when studying the writer’s individual style and will further encourage the investigation and deeper understanding of the peculiarities within ideological and artistic features and language-stylistic means of Hnat Khotkevych creativity; the paper will expand scholarly knowledge about the artist’s individual style features as one of the main categories of the fiction stylistics.

The practical significance of the study includes possibility of using the results obtained in the development and teaching of theoretical and practical courses and delivering special seminars on the history of Ukrainian literary language at philological faculties at higher educational institutions, optional courses at secondary schools; the paper can also serve as methodological basis for the writers’ individual style linguistic

analysis and material for writing masters dissertations and bachelors’ annual papers, abstracts, scientific articles, etc.

The research of Hnat Khotkevych individual style is carried out in a comprehensive consistent manner which embrases several stages. First, the terminology of the study is determined, i.e. the linguistic essence of terms ‘individual style’, ‘idiolect’, ‘individual world’, ‘linguistic personality’ is substantiated, which allows to determine the author’s individual picture of the world. The second stage of the study put in focus the analysis of Hnat Khotkevych’s fiction prose and dramatic texts, letters, leaflets, diary entries of the LUs (Lexical Units) and PhUs (Phonetic Units) which represent the writer’s individual style on phonetic, lexico-semantic, morphological, and functional-stylistic levels. The empirical database consists of about 6000 contexts containing idiolectally-marked LUs and PhUs. The present work analyses 1103 pages where the author’s orthography is preserved. The third stage of the study aimed at identifying the constant and dominant of the artist’s individual style, taking into account non-linguistic and linguistic factors of the phonetic, lexical-semantic, morphological and functional-stylistic domains. At the fourth stage of the analysis, the components of Hnat Khotkevych’s individual style expression are identified and systematised. It was found that the study of the linguistic concept involves disclosing the nature of this phenomenon at each language level individually which makes it possible to create a coherent picture of the author’s individual style. Also, fixed word-combinations and expressions – accumulators of national, cultural, and historical experience, successfully combined general human social laws with national values. This is predetermined by the fact that it is vital to consider the issue of the writer’s individual style comprehensively at all the language levels.

Hnat Khotkevych’s artistic works vividly reflect phonetic, morphological, and lexical peculiarities, which are the characteristic of the Hutsul dialect. Although not all linguists consider it necessary to distinguish dialectisms at these levels, the research proves the appropriateness of such approach, since the distinction between dialectics on each level gives possibility of full and comprehensive differentiation. The literary characters speech analysis at the above outlined levels allows to reproduce the specific features which are shared by the Hutsul dialect. Marking the speech of the characters by dialectal features, the author accurately creates a tru-to-life vision of the Hutsul dialect while adhering to the clarity and sequence of the phonetic, vocabulary, and grammar peculiarities of the Hutsul dialect.