LINGUISTIC PARAMETRS OF OPEN LETTERS BY ILLYA ILYUK

Abstract

The article under studies aims at conducting a complex linguistic and stylistic analysis of the open letters as the genre variety of epistolary type of communication. It is based on the material of the creative heritage of Illya Ilyuk – a unique representative of Bukovinian writing, enlightenment, and pedagogy of the last decades of the 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century. The significance of the research has been stipulated by the necessity for a thorough study of the linguistic organization of Illya Ilyuk’s open letters, which will enable the further investigation of the author’s creative heritage as a complete creative personality. The novelty of the research lies, firstly, in the involvement of the texts of Illya Ilyuk’s open letters (which were published in the Chernivtsi magazines “Ruska Rada” and “Narodnyi Holos”) in the scientific analysis, and secondly, in the analysis of linguistic and stylistic means of designing open letters as genre varieties of epistolary style. Both general scientific (analysis, description, generalization) and linguistic (structural-semantic, functional-stylistic, typological) methods of research have been applied in the article. Open letters have a peculiar compositional organization: they lack greeting and farewell formulas, since the addressee of such messages is not one person, but a certain audience of readers of a particular magazine. The thematic range of Illya Ilyuk’s open letters is very diverse: the issue of Ukrainian children’s education, the problem of agricultural work, the social system of that time, philosophical aspects of life, etc. However, the ideas of national identity and a decent future for the Ukrainians remain dominant and prevalent throughout his creative activities. The instructive intention of Illya Ilyuk’s open letters has been mainly implemented through imperative structures, in which the author frequently uses subordinate clauses and separate sentences to explain the importance of instruction. The addressing formulas, used both at the beginning of letters and in the text canvas of messages, are mostly represented by diminutives and attributives with a positive connotation, sometimes with possessive semantics. Various types of comparisons are also typical of Illya Ilyuk’s open letters, which helps the author to be convincing with his addressees. The structure of open letters is marked with numerous textual descriptions and speculations on different topics. The descriptions are very extensive, full of complex constructions with various types of syntactic connection, apt author’s metaphors and aphorisms.