“Three strikes on goal in the first half”: vocabulary of the official football discourse in artistic works by Serhiy Zhadan

Background. Ukrainian football discourse and the aspects of the functioning of the football vocabulary in the texts of artistic style has become of great interest over the last few years due to the influence of linguistic and extra-language factors. The multi-genre works (poetry, prose, essayism) by Serhiy Zhadan where football nominations for official and informal football discourses were recorded are the object of the study. Purpose. The purpose of the research is to find out the variety of football vocabulary used in Serhiy Zhadan’s artistic texts, to reveal the semantics of football names of official football discourse and to classify them according to the thematic principle. Methods. Linguistic observation and lexicographic analysis of recorded football lexemes are the main methods of research used in the article. Results. The following groups of football nominations are singled out according to the analysis of the vocabulary of the official football discourse, which functions in the texts of art by Serhiy Zhadan: the names of the football game, the names of the football match, its variants and parts of the game, the names of football buildings and their parts, the names of football teams (general and proper names), the names of players and other persons involved in football, the names of the football equipment and the football uniform, the names of the rules of the game, the names of the game moments and violations of the rules of the game, the name of the match results, the names of football actions, the names of football tournaments, match reports and tournaments, statistics, and the names of footballers and football functionaries. Discussion. The analysis of the actual material found in the artistic texts of Serhiy Zhadan showed that the author used a varied vocabulary from the most important thematic groups of football vocabulary, which is quite natural because S. Zhadan is a long-time supporter of the game of millions, an active football fan and captain of the Ukrainian writer’s football team. It is necessary to consider the football nominations of official and unofficial football discourses used in the author’s texts in detail in the future. Article received 04.09.2018