COMPATIBILITY OF THE DIMINUTATIVE-AFFECTIVE FORMS ЖІНОЧКА (ZHINOCHKA) AND ЧОЛОВІЧОК (CHOLOVICHOK) WITH ADJECTIVES: AXIOLOGICAL DIMENSION

Tetyana KOSMEDA,
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Romance and German Philology and World Literature,
Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University (Vinnytsia);
9 Arkhypenkа St., apt. 1, Lviv 29005, Ukraine;
e-mail: tkosmeda@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8912-2888

Oksana KHALIMAN,
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Lecturer of the Separate Structural Subdivision “Poltava Professional College of Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University”; Associate Professor of the Department of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages; Poltava Polytechnic National University;
14 Vitaliia Hrytsaienka Ave., Poltava 36000, Ukraine;
e-mail: khaliman_oksana@ukr.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6952-0627

Heading: GRAMMATICAL STYLISTICS
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract
The scientific investigation is conducted within the paradigm of gender linguistics theory, linguo-axiology, and language culture. Based on the data from the GRAC corpus, the study analyzes the peculiarities of the collocation of diminutive-affective forms representing the feminitive – masculinative opposition, expressed by the lexical units жіночка – чоловічок. Considering the axiologically marked semantic opposition between man and woman that existed diachronically, the word man was semantically associated with a high degree of positive evaluation. In contrast, a woman was a priori evaluated as the second member of the axiological opposition, meaning that this lexeme carried a negative connotation, as attested by ancient philosophers.
In contemporary Ukrainian speech, an axiological opposition between жіночка and чоловічок is observed, where the lexeme жіночка now leads this opposition. It consistently represents a positive semantic-pragmatic load, contributing to the creation of an intimate, warmer, and more benevolent atmosphere in discourse – softer, gentler, and more affectionate. The analysis of the collocational features of the examined lexemes supports it. In contrast, the collocation of the lexeme чоловічок with adjectives demonstrates a range of pragmatic meanings with negative connotations, including contempt, irony, sarcasm, humiliation, disregard, disrespect, insult, and so forth.
Thus, there is a clear trend towards the formation of new collocational norms for the examined lexemes, which should be more consistently documented in explanatory dictionaries. The diminutives жіночка and чоловічок represent pragmatic parameters such as neutral, diminutive-affectionate, endearing, contemptuous, disdainful, ironic, negative, positive, and others. These should be illustrated with at least three contexts that simultaneously demonstrate (1) neutral semantic-pragmatic load; (2) positive semantic-pragmatic load; and (3) negative semantic-pragmatic load.
Key words: gender linguistics, diminutive-affective forms, linguo-axiology, evaluation, semantics, collocation, pragmatics.

REFERENCES
Kosmeda, T.A., Haliman, O.V. (2024). Semantics and pragmatics of feminitives zhinochka, zhinka in Ukrainian linguistic culture (synchronic-diachronic aspect). Slavia Orientalis, LXXIII (1), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.24425/slo.2024.150669 (in Ukr.).
Kosmeda, T.A., Karpenko, N.A., Osipova, T.F., Salionovych, L.M., Haliman, O.V. (2014). Gender linguistics in Ukraine: history, theoretical foundations, discursive practice. Kharkiv: KhNPU im. H.S. Skovorody; Drohobych: Kolo (in Ukr.).
Simovych, V. (1921). Grammar of the Ukrainian language: for self-study and to help the school. Kyiv – Leipzig: Ukrainska nakladnia (in Ukr.).

LEGEND
ГРАК – Shvedova, M., Waldenfels, R. von, Yarygin, S., Rysin, A., Starko V. and others. (2017–2022). General regionally annotated corpus of the Ukrainian language (GRAK). Kyiv – Lviv – Jena. URL: https://uacorpus.org (in Ukr.).