LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE VERBS DENOTING DEBATE IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN

LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE VERBS DENOTING DEBATE IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN Natalya SKRYTSKA, Bukovinian State Medical University, ORCID 0000-0002-1498-4747 ISSN: 2411-6181(on-line); ISSN: 2311-9896 (print) Current issues of social studies and history of medіcine. Joint Ukrainian -Romanian scientific journal, 2021, No:1(29), P. 74-77 UDK 94(477):323 DOI 10.24061/2411-6181.1.2021.246 Перекладознавство

Problem statement and its connection with important scientific tasks. The lexical set of Ukrainian verbs denoting debate comprises 40 language units. According to the number of their meanings, Ukrainian lexemes under study have been subdivided into three groups: verbs with the highest degree of polysemy, verbs with the middle degree of polysemy, and monosemantic verbs.
The urgency of the research lies in the fact that for the first time the complex comparative study of both lexical and seme ctocks of the verbs denoting debate in English and Ukrainian has been conducted.
The aim of the article is to identify common and distinctive semantic and monosemantic characteristics of the language units denoting debate in the languages understudy. The aim of our work can be achieved by carrying out the following tasks: to determine the theoretical and methodical basis of the research; to collect the verbs denoting debate in English and Ukrainian; to construct the matrices presenting relations between the lexical units and their meanings; to find out the lexico-semantic peculiarities of the analyzed verbs; to conduct the comparative analysis of the verbs denoting debate in the languages understudy.
The first group of Ukrainian verbs denoting debate contains 6 lexical units, the semantics of which includes 7-4 meanings. They are characterized by the highest degree of polysemy and include the following verbs: змагатися, доводити, сваритися, гризтися, стикатися, суперечити.
It should be noted that the studied verb is used in the set expression доводити "(довести) до гріха -бути причиною чиїх-небудь негативних вчинків" that allows to deeper disclose its semantics.
In the next subgroup, the lexemes сваритися, гризтися, стикатися and суперечити (4 meanings) have both common and distinctive features.
Although each of these words has individual meanings. The semantics of threatening is revealed in the meaning of the word сваритися "зробити погрозливий жест". The lexeme гризтися reveals a pain and suffering, hostility and animosity even between animals 'душевно страждати, журитися, переживати'; ‗кусати один одного (про тварин)'.
Thus, the analysis of Ukrainian verbs denoting debate with the highest degree of polysemy manifests that they are characterized by the semantic features expressing the process or action of resisting someone/something, protesting against someone/something, fighting, quarreling with someone, arguing with each other, etc. Three verbs reveal their semantics in phrases.
The verb протестувати denotes the protest against someone or something "виражати протест проти кого-, чого-небудь, виступати з протестом". People protesting about something want to attract public attention and get their rights back, to object on whatever they do not like. In other words many people protest to satisfy their psychological needs while believing that they are protesting to get their rights back. Besides, this language unit indicates economic relations: "засвідчувати факт несплати за векселем у встановлений термін".
Two lexical units засперечатися and посваритися share the meaning "сваритися; лаяти; висловлювати невдоволення" which contains indications of a high degree of disagreement, misunderstanding and disorder. At the same time the word посваритися has individual meanings: "докоряти, дорікати" and "зробити погрозливий жест".
The analysis of the Ukrainian language units with the middle degree of polysemy denoting debate shows that they are interrelated in their meanings outlining debate as contradicting, disagreeing, resisting and opposing, condemnation, dissatisfaction, quarreling and aggravating relations, etc. The characteristic feature of the verbs with the middle degree of polysemy is the availability of the meanings in their semantics that refer them to various spheres of human activity: economy, law, human relationships, human actions, etc.
The first group of words denoting debate in English is represented by 5 lexical units possessing 8-6 meanings (to oppose, to argue, to fence, to struggle, to dispute).
The first in this group is the lexeme to oppose which possesses 8 meanings characterizing it as a verb indicating the process of opposing someone as an antagonist: ‗to set as an opponent or adversary", "to be in opposition". The meaning of resistance is clearly obvious in the seme ‗to act against or furnish resistance to; combat" which correlates this lexeme with the verb to dispute. The two verbs are also semantically close in the semes indicating opposition ‗to set against, esp. for comparison or contrast" and ‗to set (something) opposite something else, or to set (two things) so as to be opposite one another". The word to oppose also indicates the state of unfriendliness, enmity, and animosity -‗to be hostile or adverse to, as in opinion" as well as preventing, inhibiting and baffling -‗to hinder or obstruct". The analyzed lexeme reveals its semantics in the set phrase as opposed to defined as follows: ‗as contrasted with'.
The language unit to argue is semantically close to the word to dispute in its meaning ‗to participate in a formal debate'. The distinctive positive lexical feature of the analyzed verb is its ability to indicate discussing and clarifying the issue -‗to state the reasons for or against" and explaining, indicating -‗to maintain in reasoning", "to show; indicate". The indication to convincing and presenting support is obvious in the meaning ‗to persuade or compel by reasoning". In addition, the lexeme to argue is capable of forming set phrases revealing its semantics of debate: argue around and around -‗to argue (about something) in a circuitous, indirect fashion, without an end or satisfactory result', argue back -‗to respond angrily or rudely at an inappropriate or unwelcome time', argue out -‗to discuss opposing views, with the goal of resolving a dispute", argue the toss -‗to dispute something", arguing for the sake of arguing -‗continuing a disagreement solely out of obstinacy', can't argue with that -‗a phrase used when one cannot or does not want to dispute what another person has said or suggested" 7 .
The following semantics meanings: ‗to engage in skilful or witty debate, repartee, etc.' and ‗to evade a question or argument, esp. by quibbling over minor points" semantically refer the lexeme to fence to the semantic space of debate and unites it with the word to argue. The studied word is also used in the following positive meanings: ‗to construct a fence on or around (a piece of land, etc.) ', ‗to close (in) or separate (off) with or as if with a fence', ‗archaic to ward off or keep out". The negative meanings of the lexeme include: ‗to fight using swords or foils", ‗to receive stolen property'.
The meaning of arguing and competing is characteristic to the verb to struggle -‗to compete or argue with somebody/ something, especially in order to get something'. Other meanings of the lexeme describe it as a verb of fighting, wrestling: "to fight against somebody/something in order to prevent a bad situation or result", "to fight somebody or try to get away from them". The analyzed word also denotes striving and attempting -"to try very hard to do something when it is difficult or when there are a lot of problems" and toiling -‗to move somewhere or do something with difficulty". The lexical unit also reveals its semantics in the set phrase to struggle against someone or something -‗to strive or battle against someone or something".
The word to dispute possesses six meanings which describe it as the verb of arguing, debating ‗to engage in argument or debate", "to argue or debate about", "to argue against", "call in question', quarreling ‗to argue vehemently; quarrel", "to quarrel or fight about; contest' and opposing ‗to strive against; oppose". Thus, the verb is semantically close to all lexemes with the highest level of polysemyto oppose, to argue, to fence, to struggle. In addition, the investigated language unit has the ability to form phrases: dispute something with someone -‗to argue with someone about something, such as an amount of money'. The data of the table prove that the verbs with the middle degree of polysemy comprise the largest group in the research sample making up 65% of all selected English language units. The group of monosemantic lexemes denoting debate is represented by 22,5% of lexemes while the group of verbs with the highest degree of polysemy is the least represented one and comprises 12,5% of the total sample.
Сonclusions. The study of the lexicо-semantic structure of words denoting debate revealed their qualitative and quantitative characteristics, which contributed to the allocation of common and distinctive features of verbs.
The common semantic features of the lexical units denoting debate in Ukrainian and English include: a) the classification of the verbs' lexical stock according to the degree of polysemy: language units with the highest degree of polysemy, words with the middle degree of polysemy, and monosemantic ones; b) the correlation of semantics between the words within the lexical group; c) the ability to disclose the semantics of debate in phrases and set expressions; d) positive and negative semantics to reveal debate; e) the availability of individual semantic features lying outside the semantic space of debate.
The perspectives of our further research lie in the contrastive study of lexemes denoting different human relations in English and Ukrainian.