STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF YOUTH SLANG IN MARTA GULEY'S NOVEL "ONE DAY SHE WILL TELL"

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of structural and semantic aspects of modern youth slang. The research was based on the novel "One Day She Will Tell" by Marta Hulei. The definition of youth slang is given, and the peculiarities of its functioning are identified. It is observed that slangisms as the means of stylisation are used in modern Ukrainian prose. A sample of 200 slangisms is studied. The material is systematised into four lexical and semantic groups that reflect the spheres of young people's lives (remarks of admiration or condemnation, physical activity, designation of persons and their characteristics, the human world). The last two groups are divided into subgroups. It has been found that the most numerous are slangisms for physical activity; IT, social networks; leisure; and state of mind. Using slangisms, young people give an emotionally coloured description of the world around them. The word-forming ways of youth slang in the novel were analysed: borrowing, shortening of the word base, metaphor. It was found that foreign language borrowings occupy an important place in the active vocabulary of young people. English borrowings have entered the sphere of computer technology, everyday life, culture and sports. When mastered, borrowed slangisms undergo morphological, word-formation and semantic modifications. The most productive method of slang word formation is affixation. The truncation of the word base is widespread, which indicates the tendency of the younger generation to use language economy. It is observed that the most interesting slangisms are formed as a result of metaphor. The characters of the story show original thinking, denoting people's faces and character traits, often resorting to unexpected comparisons. An attempt is made to prove that contemporary fiction can be one of the ways of studying youth language.