The Combinatorial and Expressive Potential of Weapon Nominations in the Ukrainian Language: A Cognitive-Syntactic Aspect

Abstract

Based on the concepts of cognitive grammar, this article examines the combinatorial possibilities and means of expression of weapon names in the semantic-syntactic structure of Ukrainian sentences used in contemporary media texts from the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The typological parameters of weapon names necessary for their syntactic description are outlined. In accordance with the identified archemes, semantic types of predicates are distinguished with which nouns denoting weapons can be valently combined. Established have been the semantic-syntactic functions, lexical content, and morphological variation of weapon names in subject, object, and instrumental syntactic positions. Obligatory and optional, direct and indirect valency-distributive realizations of weapon names are distinguished. The analysed factual material demonstrates that journalists actively use the names of all types of modern weapons in valency connection with verbal predicates of destruction, creation, and sound to inform about the events of the war and to exert a psycho-emotional influence on recipients. The functioning of weapon names with locative verbs requires a separate study in the future.