IMPLEMENTATION OF UKRAINIAN SPELLING STANDARDS IN THE NAMES OF MODERN WEAPONS

Abstract

In the article the peculiarities of the spelling of modern weapons in the Ukrainian mass media have been analyzed. Also, attention is focused on the presence of spelling variability in the names of weapons in mass media texts, which contradicts the Ukrainian spelling rules.
In order to explain relevance of applying the current norm of spelling the names of brands of technical products (machines, devices, etc.) to the spelling of the names of modern weapons, the semantics of the words like “machine”, “device”, “tank”, “missile”, “projectile” have been determined.
It has been found out that the key words in the definitions of common types of weapons are “machine” or “device”, therefore there is a reason to spell the names of modern weapons in the same ways as the names of brands of technical products (machines, devices, etc.), in other words – to apply the identical current spelling norms of the modern Ukrainian literary language.
Names of modern weapons common in the mass media texts have been systematized, and three models of their names have been distinguished according to the component criterion. The first model consists of the common noun and the proper name of the weapon. The second model is a combination of the initial abbreviation and the proper name of the weapon. The third model is formed by the proper name of the weapon.
In case of spelling the names of modern weapons, it is suggested to follow the rules: put the name of the weapon in quotation marks and write with a capital letter, if there is a common name before the proper name; the names of weapons used in the text without common names or abbreviations to denote types have to be enclosed in quotation marks and written with a small letter. It isn’t recommended to use quotation marks in the names of weapons, which are a combination of an abbreviation and a numerical designation. All these rules correspond to the current Ukrainian spelling.