MEANS OF VERBALIZATION OF THE CONCEPT РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY IN THE UKRAINIAN, POLISH AND ENGLISH PROSE FICTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2520-6397.2026.1.12Keywords:
linguistic worldview, linguaculture, conceptualization, emotion concepts, the concept JOY / RADOŚĆ / РАДІСТЬ, literary discourse, means of verbalization, cognitive definition.Abstract
Background. In modern linguistics there is an increasing interest in the study of concepts that represent key areas of human life, in particular emotional. Emotional concepts reflect the values, worldview and cultural traditions of the people. Therefore, their study is of great importance for understanding the national linguistic picture of the world. The study of the concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY is particularly relevant, since this emotion belongs to the basic positive human feelings, shapes one's worldview, influences linguistic behaviour, communicative strategies and the conceptualization of reality. Also, it is a constituent part of the value-semantic foundation of culture, determining the ethical norms of a society.
The main objective of the study is to identify the verbalization features of the concept of РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY in Ukrainian, Polish and English linguacultures by analyzing its linguistic representations in prose fiction from the electronic corpora of the studied languages and to find out universal and culturally specific features of its conceptualization.
Methods. The research is conducted within the framework of reconstructing a cognitive definition of the concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY by applying Jerzy Bartmiński's method. The methodological basis is the provisions of cognitive linguistics, linguistic cultural studies and emotional semantics. The research methods include cognitivelinguistic, contextual-interpretative, semantic-stylistic, comparative-typological and elements of corpus analysis.
Results. The article presents the results of a study of the emotional concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY, its structure, and the means of verbalization in the Ukrainian, Polish, and English linguacultures based on the texts of prose fiction. Conceptual features, qualities and cultural scenarios are identified on the basis of contexts containing the words радість / radość / joy, selected from electronic corpora of fiction texts. Also, a comparative analysis of the concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY in the Ukrainian, Polish and English languages is conducted. More than 300 examples with the word радість, 200 with radość, and 250 with joy are analyzed.
The analysis of corpus examples showed that the connotations of the lexemes радість / radość / joy in literary texts correspond to their dictionary definitions and have common hyperonyms such as a feeling, sensation, psychological state, mood, character trait. Theу are used in the forms of greetings, wishes and fixed expressions with the meaning 'to greet, meet someone with joy'.
Universal features of the studied concept have been identified: joy is a process; the feeling of joy can be associated with past, present and future experiences; joy has a collective and individual nature of experience; joy interacts with other emotions (positive and negative); it has a binary opposition; a person feels joy with his heart, soul or chest; joy can have a reason or be groundless; sometimes it causes an influx of energy or strength.
The peculiar features of joy expression include smile, laughter, facial expressions, physiological, behavioural and voice reactions. The concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY is characterized by a number of common parameters. The universal causes of joy are identified ‒ life, love, family, friendship, favorite pastime, success, nature, holidays, celebrations, recreation, travel, achievements, material goods, etc. Along with this, culturally specific features of the studied concept are revealed in the Ukrainian, Polish and English linguacultures.
Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the concept РАДІСТЬ / RADOŚĆ / JOY has shown that despite the universal nature of the emotion, its verbalization reflects the specifics of worldview models and value orientations of each culture.
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SOURCES
National Corpus of the Ukrainian Language. http://www.mova.info/corpus.aspx
National Corpus of Polish. http://www.nkjp.pl
British National Corpus. https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/
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Copyright (c) 2026 Флорій БАЦЕВИЧ, Марія ОЛЬХОВИЧ-НОВОСАДЮК (Автор)
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