HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL CRITERIA FOR COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION OF YOUTH VOCABULARY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF GERMAN AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the comparative description of youth vocabulary on the example of German and Ukrainian languages. At the first stage of the study, the key features of youth vocabulary have been singled out. It has been established that this linguistic phenomenon is a specific lexical subsystem of the national language, which is most actively used by socio-age group “youth”. Compared to standard language, it is characterized by informality, emotional connotation, and expressiveness. A high gedree of sensibivity to external influences is typical for young people. That affects the choice of the means of communication. Nominative processes in the given language subcode are determined by the search for new words and collocations that indicate the social status and social roles of their users, as well as intra-group relations and hierarchy. At the second stage of the study, criteria for comparative description of German and Ukrainian youth vocabulary have been developed: interrelationship with other vocabulary subsystems, the use of specific vocabulary as a means of self-identification, amount of lexical-semantic groups, regional heterogeneity, intra-group heterogeneity, conspiracy function, features of borrowing from foreign languages, emotional connotation, the share of rude words, dependence on the mass-media impact. As a result, common and distinctive features of the given language subcodes have been found out. Both German and in Ukrainian vocabulary subsystems verbalize young people’s worldview and feelings, reflecting their try to demonstrate protest, self-identification, intra-group heterogeneity. The most important lexical-semantic groups contain a wide choice of synonyms for satisfying the above-mentioned needs. Historical, social, and cultural factors determine some differences between two studied language subcodes, mainly in the regional heterogeneity and the share of rude words. At the same time, both studied vocabulary subsystems are constantly enriched by words and collocations taken from popular mass-media sources. The growing role of American subcultures has been pointed out as well.