Stylistic Role of Deminutive Vocabulary in the Work of D. Hnatko “The Impious Soul”

Abstract

The article examines the diminutive vocabulary of the modern women’s novel “The Impious Soul” by D. Hnatko. The stylistic role of diminutives is considered, their lexical and semantic groups, morphological affiliation, as well as the most productive ways of creation are determined. It has been found that diminutives add lyricism to the narrative, set the reader up for sincerity, and enhance the emotionality of the narrative. Among the units of linguistics that reveal the mental characteristics of Ukrainians, diminutives are also mentioned, because their use is a reproduction of one of the character traits of Ukrainians – emotionality. The author’s positive attitude to certain characters is reflected in speech by the use of diminutive vocabulary – derived nouns, adjectives, adverbs which express the meaning of diminutiveness and affection. There are 9 lexical-semantic groups of nouns with the meaning of diminutiveness in the work. They are different in meaning, but play one role – show the author’s positive attitude towards the characters and bring the style of the story closer to folk creation. The use of adjectives actualizes the reader’s attention to the peculiarities of the shape and size of the object; colour characteristics of the object, which allow to achieve accuracy, rich in the reproduction of artistic details. In general, adjective-diminutives play the role of epithets, which are used with nouns. The use of such adjectives gives the story emotionality, friendliness, positivity. With their help the author expresses sympathy and condolence to the characters of the story. The research allowed to reveal the use of emotionally coloured adverbs in the novel, which give the depicted situation additional meaning of kindness, affection, joy or dissatisfaction. It seems important to identify the most productive way of creating diminutives. As the examples show, this method is a suffixation. The most used suffix in the text is -onk- / -enk-. As we can see, this suffix mainly joins the basis of feminine nouns, and also functions in stems of qualitative adjectives and circumstantial adverbs. The analysis of the diminutives in the historical novel “The Impious Soul” by D. Hnatko has led to the following conclusions: - the writer often uses diminutives because they help to express her positive attitude, sympathy for the characters of the story and depicted objects; - the use of diminutives contributes to the emotionality of the work, as the main storyline is the image of a difficult female fate.