SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATION OF UKRAINIAN LEXEMES DENOTING PHYSICAL EXISTENTIAL ELEMENTS

Abstract

This paper considers the history of semantic transformation of 3 lexemes denoting physical existential elements (water, earth, fire), which belong to the Ukrainian language corpus. They are included in the famous list by American linguist M. Swadesh, who chose a hundred words present in the vocabulary of any language regardless of a nation’s cultural history. The scientist proved that 20 percent of the words change in 1000 years. The author of this paper demonstrated that in the course of historical development of the analyzed lexemes, the leading semantic process is metonymisation, which contributes to the differentiation of the main meanings and the formation of lexical-semantic variations. Much less productive process in the history of these nouns is metaphorisation.
The noun water during its historic development is mainly influenced by metonymic transposition, which causes the formation of radial polysemy. Metaphorisation plays insignificant part in semantic history of this word. Its development is noticeable during the late period of the word’s existence, in Modern Ukrainian.
The noun earth in the course of its historic development is changed metonymically as well, which leads to radial polysemy. Metaphorisation is less active and produces an insignificant amount of derivative sememes.
Semantic transformation of the noun fire results in the creation of a great number of connotations, which are partly lost in the course of its historic development. The peculiar feature of this word is the occurrence of metonymic lexical-semantic variations, which create radial polysemy. A limited number of metaphorical sememes create the elements of chained polysemy.
Summing up the results, it can be concluded that the analyzed Proto-Slavic lexemes denoting physical existential elements have been functioning for a long time. They keep their main meaning and develop a number of lexical-semantic variations in the outer circle of semantic structures. The history of their semantic transformation is full of active metonymic changes, which leads to radial polysemy. Metaphorisation is less developed and occasionally causes the formation of chained polysemy.