VARIANT CASE FORMS OF POSSESSIVE AND DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS IN IVAN FRANKO'S LIFETIME POETRY

Abstract

The article describes the variant case forms of the possessive pronouns namely (мій) my, (твій) your, (свій) one’s own, as well as the demonstrative pronouns such as that (той) and this (сей). The source base, which is all Stone-Hewer’s lifetime collections, includes «Ballads and Tales» (1876), «From the Heights and Lowlands» (1887, 1893), «Withered Leaves» (1896, 1911), «My Emerald» (1898), «Ancient and New» (1911), «From the Days of Sorrow» (1900), «Semper Tiro» (1906), «From the Years of My Youth» (1914). The article indicates that the Ukrainian language of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, unlike the modern one, represents two types of pronoun declension such as Eastern Ukrainian (grammar by E. Tymchenko and V. Simovych) and Western Ukrainian (grammar by S. Smal’-Stotskii and F. Gartner), which led to the presence of variant forms. The variant forms of the possessive pronouns my(мій), your(твій), one’s own (свій)and my(моя), your(твоя), one’s own(своя) were found in the genitive such as my(мого/мойого), your(твого/твойого), yours (свого/свойого), my/mine(моєї/мойі), your/yours(твоє/твойі), yours/yours', my/his/her/your/their(своє/свойі/свеї), dative my/my (мойому/мому) cases in the singular, which were normative for both the Western and Eastern Ukrainian variants of the language at that time. On the other hand, in the locative case of the singular, variant forms are found, one of which was characteristic of the Ukrainian language of the time (in my, on your, in yours) (в моїм, на твоїм, в своїм, while the other reflected the word change of pronouns of the Halych-Bukovyna group of dialects, for instance, in my, on your, in one’s own (в мойому, на твойому, в свойому). There were used contracted and non-contracted variant forms of demonstrative pronouns in the nominative and accusative cases of the singular feminine and neuter genders as well as in plural such as that, those, this, those (та, те, ті/тая, теє, тії; ся, се/сяя, сеє; сю/сюю). The usage of reduplicated forms of that (тота; тото, тоту) and compound forms of that (тамтой, тамті) of demonstrative pronouns were found in some rare cases. Variant forms of the pronouns such as that (та) and this (сей) were used in the genitive case of the singular, reflecting the Western and Eastern Ukrainian literary variants of the language at the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, for example, this (тої/тієі; сього), as well as characteristics of the Halych-Bukovyna dialect group of the Southwestern dialect of that (сего). Analyzing such material can serve as a foundation for future studies regarding the language of works not only by Franko but also by other writers from the late 19th to the early 20th century.