LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CODE OF UKRAINIAN MILITARY VOLUNTEERING (BASED ON THE NAMES OF VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS)

Abstract

The article substantiates the expediency of applying an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of proper names as verbalized cultural signs, in particular, to the analysis of the names of public associations as signs of socio-political discourse. The object of the study is a group of names for volunteer associations (VA) formed on the territory of Ukraine in 2014–2022 to ensure the combat capability and humanitarian needs of the Ukrainian army. The author determines how the communicative and representative functions influence the choice of the motivational basis for the names in this sphere; the dependence of the choice of names of VA on the ideological orientations of citizens is also traced. The symbolic nature of the motivation of the analyzed names and the productive models of their creation are characterized. The derivational bases of onyms are ranked by frequency and grouped by the core structural components into proper names represented by a) astionyms ‒ names of settlements, regions where the VA were created and function; b) the choronym “Ukraine” and its derivative adjective; and appeals, in the semantic structure of which the semantics of a) ‘one who loves his homeland, is devoted to his people, is ready for sacrifices and feats for them’; b) ‘together’, ‘unity’; c) names of historical events and phenomena, realities significant for Ukrainian culture; d) ‘a participant in the volunteer movement’ are actualized. It has been established that Ukrainians use mainly ethno-cultural signs related to the conceptual spheres of national history and culture to create the names of the VA. The system of emotional and evaluative components of the meaning of the names of the military organizations is analyzed in detail, and their role in shaping public narratives about the causes and nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war is highlighted. It is proved that the analyzed onyms can be interpreted as one of the keys to studying the peculiarities of national self-identification of Ukrainians.