VERBALIZATION OF THE CONCEPT DEATH IN THE SHORT STORIES OF V. STEFANYK: A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH

Abstract

The research is devoted to studying the verbalization of the concept of DEATH in the short stories of the Ukrainian expressionist writer Vasyl Stefanyk, using the tools of the General Regional Annotated Corpus of the Ukrainian Language (GRAC). The study material consisted of 45 short stories by the author. It is noted that the concept of DEATH belongs to universal concepts, as it is present in all cultures and languages and is a multifaceted notion. The works of Ukrainian linguists who study the concept of DEATH were analyzed, revealing the multifaceted nature of this concept and the main aspects of its study. It is considered that the concept of DEATH is strongly negative, as it has many connotations, such as the end of life or rebirth, i.e., a process, to personification. Considering the paradigmatic structure of the concept, the study applied the Sketch Engine corpus analysis program. It was determined that for analysis, it is also appropriate to use such tools as Word List, Concordance, and Key Words. The verbalizers of the concept of DEATH were identified and grouped into categories: signs of death (corpse, body, soul, eyes) and rituals (mourning, wailing, grave, cross, coffin, hands, feet). The words «death» and «life» (the opposite of death), as well as «earth», were separately identified. A search was conducted, and a considerable number of collocations with key words were obtained, analyzed for part-of-speech membership, length, and meaning. As a result, it was established that the author most often used verbal and prepositional collocations in a literal sense in his short stories. Expressions that are authorial and original were identified, such as «the smallest sign of life», «the soul froze in the body», «the black grave sends out a loud moan», «the eyes fell out and rolled like dead stones on the ground». Vasyl Stefanyk interprets death not only as «the end of life», as evidenced by the definition of this concept in the «Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language», but much broader, for example, equating it with many rituals: farewell to the body, burial, etc. This indicates the breadth of his thinking, inclination towards imagery and metaphor, rich vocabulary, and an interesting worldview.