Marchenko A. Ritual wishes: structure and meaning of text.

The dissertation explores the issues of genre differentiation and classification of Ukrainian wishes as well as determines their position in the genre system of Ukrainian paremiology. The author conducts complex analysis of the wishes as folklore texts and as rituals and researches ritualistic and situational context of the verbal wishes. As the result, the conducted research establishes peculiarities of the structural construction of Ukrainian wishes, features their textual functions and characterises thematic consistency and main motives of "good wishing". The dissertation has incorporated wide array of the materials (folk wishes) collected by the author herself. The work is the first attempt to classify the materials of holiday wishes gathered by the degree candidate according to the ritual and thematic functions.