Innovative paradigmatic description of the part-language system of the modern Ukrainian language

Andrii Kolesnykov, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Professor, Head of Departmant of the Ukrainian Language and Literature
Izmail State University of Humanities
12 Ripyn St., Izmail 68600, Ukraine

E-mail: akolesnykov2015@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8365-7598

Maryna Deliusto, Candidate of Sciences in Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Departmant of the Ukrainian Language and Literature
Izmail State University of Humanities
12 Ripyn St., Izmail 68600, Ukraine

E-mail: mdelyusto@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-4131

Heading: Articles
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: This article presents an innovative description of the inflectional system of the modern Ukrainian language through an exposition of the concept of a paradigmatic approach to morphological word classes in general, as well as through specific examples of such a description, in which, according to the author, certain complex problems of Ukrainian grammar have been successfully resolved. The series of textbooks, co-authored by the author of this article, is innovative primarily because the object of description chosen is not the word, as was done previously, but the paradigm. It is the morphological paradigm, in the author’s view, that serves as the generalizing linguistic unit (with respect to linear units – word forms), whose classificatory characteristics at the morphological level allow for an objective description of parts of speech. However, the authors examine the paradigm not from a formal perspective (focusing primarily on the system of forms), but from a functional-semantic one (focusing on the interaction between the system of forms and the system of meanings within the structure of paradigms). The patterns of such interaction, the imbalances within this system, and the interaction of paradigms at different levels of linguistic structure become distinct objects of observation, which, in turn, form the basis for the classification of morphological classes. Certain fragments of the presented description (interpretations of some formants of grammatical categories, the structure of categories) serve as arguments proving the validity of this descriptive model and can also be taken into account in traditional descriptions, particularly in Ukrainian orthography.

Keywords: morphological paradigm, paradigmatics, morphology, grammar, language structure, grammatical category, parts of speech.

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Received 05.04.2026  Revised 26.05.2026  Accepted 00.00.2026