THE PHENOMENON OF VARIATION IN THE MODERN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE: LITERARY AND NORMATIVE ASPECT

Tetiana KOTS,
Doctor of Philological Sciences,
Senior Researcher of the Department of Stylistics, Language Culture and Sociolinguistics,
Institute of the Ukrainian Language of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine;
4 Mykhaila Hrushevskoho St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine;
e-mail: tetyana_kots@ukr.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4622-9559

Heading: LANGUAGE NORM: CONSTANT AND VARIABLE
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract
The article analyzes the theoretical principles of studying variation in synchronic and diachronic aspects, relevant from the point of view of the modern understanding of the dynamics of the literary norm. The tendencies characteristic of the Ukrainian literary language are emphasized and the ways of their study in the general Slavic context are outlined. A structural classification of formal modifications of linguistic units with identical meaning, which function in the Ukrainian literary language of the present day, is proposed. Their status, reasons for appearance and motivational levers that make it possible to preserve, disappear, and semantic dissimilarity of doublet means in the process of their compliance with the communicative needs of the time and the criteria of the literary standard are clarified.
The coexistence of formally different units with identical meaning in a language is one of the unique possibilities of the language system, determined by deep historical processes. Variant in the Ukrainian literary language has a dual nature, on the one hand, it is a means of preserving the defining features of the literary language, and on the other, it is a mechanism for the dynamics of the literary norm, the search for a balance between the resources of the dictionary, grammatical system and the changing communicative demands of society. In the conditions of rapid innovations of time, it is relevant to bring any lexical, morphological, syntactic modifications into line with the criteria of the literary norm, with the natural tendencies of language functioning.
Key words: variation, literary language, literary norm, lexical variants, morphological variants, syntactic variants.

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