Semantic and motivational potential of the word baba in contemporary Ukrainian dialects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/um/56(2026).61-100Keywords:
semantic motivation, motivational feature, lexical nomination, derivative/derived word, grandmother, dialect, linguistic worldview, national cultureAbstract
Background. Dialectal lexis is a valuable source for investigating human perceptions of the world. The relevance of this study is determined by the need to analyze the motivational mechanisms of dialectal nomination, which makes it possible to reconstruct cognitive and cultural processes in folk linguistic thinking. The purpose of the research is to characterize the semantic features of the derivational and phraseological nest of the lexeme baba in contemporary Ukrainian dialects.
Methods. To achieve this objective, methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, the descriptive method, textological (contextual) analysis, componential analysis, and motivational analysis were applied.
Results. The capacity of dialects to reflect folk worldview made it possible to trace the degree of preservation of traditional notions about old woman objectified in the semantics of derived lexemes, phraseological units, and fixed collocations; to observe the dynamics of evaluative shifts, and to determine the productivity of motivational features that led to the appearance of secondary nominations. The observations have shown that the image of an old woman in Ukrainian dialectal speech is represented in many ways: from family and domestic, age-related meanings to sacred and magical, ritual, and mythological interpretations. The derivational nest implements six basic motivational features related to kinship and genealogical relations, age, emotional and evaluative characteristics, somatic features, behavioral traits, and social functions (assistance during childbirth, participation in rituals, folk medicine, etc.). The highest motivational potential is associated with characteristics related to the physicality and social role of an elderly woman. The models of chain transition of meanings confirm the associative nature of semantic structuring in the linguistic thinking of dialect speakers.
Conclusions. The cognitive-semantic complex with baba as its apex is a representative fragment of the dialectal worldview, within which it becomes possible to identify models of motivation determined by physical, social, and symbolic conceptions of woman in traditional culture, and to outline the typological principles of semantic organization in contemporary Ukrainian dialects.
About the author:
Vira Diachuk – Ph.D., Junior Researcher in the Department of Dialectology at the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3982-335X
E-mail: virarozumna@gmail.com
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