ADVERBIALISATION OF NOUNS FOR DENOTING ANIMAL NAMES: SEMANTIC-SYNCRETIC PARAMETERS

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with the transposition of nouns denoting animal names into the lexical-grammatical class of adverbs through the prism of the theory of syncretism, which results in certain difficulties in determining the part-of-speech status. Taking into account the semantic, morphological, and syntactic criteria for defining parts of speech, the functional homonyms of nouns / adverbs have been identified and categorized as syncretically undifferentiated and syncretically potential functional homonyms.
The purpose. The study aims to characterize the semantic, morphological, and syntactic changes that occur as a result of the transposition of nouns representing animal names into the category of adverbs, leading to the formation of functional homonyms.
The methods. General scientific and linguistic methods are employed to achieve the research goal. The structural method predominates, incorporating techniques of distributional and componential analysis. Data are sourced from contexts identified in the General Regionally Annotated Corpus of Ukrainian (GRAC).
Main results of the study. It has been observed that nouns in the instrumental case singular transition into the adverb category to denote both generic and specific animal names. Adverbialized adverbs have detached from the declension paradigm, lost the morphological categories of nouns, restricted the ability to perform certain syntactic functions, and shifted their categorical meaning from objectness to attributiveness.
Originality. The semantic changes occurring in noun / adverb homonymic pairs are traced, as well as the development of adverb polysemy. Seme assimilations are identified in derived words based on external and internal characteristics, facilitated by the metaphorical transfer of the semantics of original words. Drawing on the phenomenon of syncretism, several ways of transferring noun meanings to adverbs are delineated: 1) the noun meaning of a word transitions to an adverbial one based on external similarities; 2) primarily, the noun meaning of a word transitions to an adverbial one based on external similarities, and then a second meaning is formed, rooted in internal similarities; 3) certain meanings of a polysemous noun are manifested in various adverbial meanings with external and internal assimilation.
Conclusions and specific suggestions of the author. It has been elucidated that during the synchronous stage, the adverbialization of nouns demonstrates dynamic shifts within lexical-grammatical classes. Despite difficulties in distinguishing functional homonyms, their formation is considered to be positive as it contributes to language development. Research on identifying new functional homonyms is promising.