Brus M. Feminine nouns in the Ukrainian language: genesis, evolution, functioning.

The present thesis is a profound research on the history of common feminine nouns, which specifies the issues of historical development of Ukrainian feminitives. The methods of lexical, word-building, functional stylistic analysis, diachronic and synchronic approaches have been applied. A number of linguistic concepts and terms have been interpreted. The research characterizes the category of feminitivity from its origin to the emergence of writing, it traces its interrelation with the development of the grammatical categories of person, animate / inanimate object and gender. There have been defined feminitives of common Indo-European origin, analyzed basic and derived feminine nouns, which were formed in Proto-Slavic period and were preserved in the Ukrainian language. Feminitives in Ancient Ukrainian, Old Ukrainian, Modern Ukrainian and Contemporary Ukrainian languages have been exposed to systemic analysis with reference to lexical semantic, structural word-forming and functional stylistic peculiarities, static and dynamic phenomena in each historic period. The patterns of the development of feminitive-based subsystem of Ukrainian literary language have been found.