TYPES OF LINGUISTIC PERSONALITIES OF CHARACTERS IN UKRAINIAN DETECTIVE WORKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the proposed article lies in the fact that literature for children and young adults plays a crucial role in shaping linguistic culture and worldview among young
readers. Contemporary Ukrainian detective fiction for children is distinguished by vivid characters, each representing a unique linguistic personality. The concept of a linguistic personality reflects the set of linguistic means which characterizes a character and enables the reader to better understand their inner world, social status, and attitudes toward others. Through the language of the characters, a child perceives the world, interprets events, and defines their place within the communicative space.
Purpose. The purpose of the article is to determine the types of linguistic personalities of characters in
children’s detective fiction based on lexical-stylistic, pragmatic, and genre-conditioned features of their speech; to outline the individual authorial style of linguistic characterization; and to identify the functional role of linguistic behavior within works addressed to a young audience.
Methods. In order to achieve this purpose, the descriptive method was employed to systematize
linguistic features of characters and define their types; the comparative-typological method was used to contrast the linguistic personalities in the works of V. Nestayko, H. Vdovychenko, and A. Kokotiukha; the contextual-interpretive method helped to analyze the functioning of linguistic means in speech situations; and the discursive method enabled the examination of linguistic personalities within the framework of children’s detective discourse and helped determine their role in shaping genre specificity.
Results. The analysis revealed that the linguistic personality of a character in Ukrainian children’s
detective fiction is a multi-level construct combining verbal-semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic components.
The identified types of linguistic personalities range from naïve and sincere, emotionally expressive, and humorously ironic to skeptical, authoritarian, and intellectual. Each type performs specific functions within the artistic structure of the text – character-building, plot-forming, axiological, and communicative. It has been proven that characters’ linguistic behavior reflects the social, age-related, and psychological features
of the child audience, ensuring the polyphonic nature of detective discourse.
Originality. The originality of this research lies in conducting a comprehensive analysis of the types of linguistic personalities in Ukrainian children’s detective fiction, which have scarcely been subjected to systematic linguistic study. For the first time, a typology of linguistic personalities has been developed based on the works of V.Nestayko, H.Vdovychenko, and A.Kokotiukha, analyzed through verbal-semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic levels. The study combines linguo-personological and genre-communicative approaches, allowing for an understanding of the role of linguistic behavior in character construction and plot dynamics. For the first time, the functional load of linguistic personality types (character-forming,
axiological, and communicative functions) has been substantiated within the context of children’s detective discourse. The obtained results expand the understanding of linguistic modeling mechanisms of characters and contribute to the development of new approaches to studying the linguistic consciousness of young readers.
Conclusions. The study concludes that a character in children’s detective discourse represents a multi-level entity encompassing verbal-semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic layers. The revealed types of linguistic personalities, ranging from naïve and sincere or emotionally expressive to ironically cynical and aggressively authoritarian, reflect a wide range of communicative strategies and genre functions. Their role lies in creating individualized character portrayals and shaping the polyphony of the text, which, in turn, ensures plot dynamism and enriches the communicative space of the work. Linguistic personalities serve as
mirrors of the social, age, and emotional traits of participants in artistic discourse, thereby endowing children’s detective stories with additional educational potential. Hence, the typology of linguistic personalities in children’s literature functions not only as an object of linguistic analysis but also as a tool for exploring communicative models that shape the linguistic consciousness of young readers.