МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ І НАУКИ УКРАЇНИ

Київський Національний Лінгвістичний Університет

Self-Study Work in Cross-Cultural Studies

on the topic

“Speech behaviour of Ukrainians”

By student Iryna Baran

Group MLa 03-19

2021
 Society develops certain standardized norms of social behavior (including
speech), which are determined by ideas about behavior patterns in a particular
situation. In order to function as a single whole, as a complex social system, society
must establish such a framework of individual behavior that this behavior becomes
monotonous, stable, and repetitive. It is precisely еthe etiquette – a system of rules of
a person's external culture, behavior, decency, good taste, and so on.
So, the aim of our work is to identify, analyse and compare means of speech
etiquette in English, American English and Ukrainian. These means are indispensable
for successful сross-cultural communication.
Ukrainian society has its specific features and standards of conduct. Some of
them are inspired by traditions, while others are a result of fanciful historical
development. I would like to tell you about the habits and customs of Ukrainians that
affect our speech behaviour.
The speech etiquette of Ukrainians arises from the living language practice of
the Ukrainian people. It has been developed for thousands of years and reflects the
cultural traditions of the Ukrainian nation, corresponds to its spiritual foundations.
Without a doubt, the national traditions of communication are based on universal
moral and ethical values - benevolence, respect, cordiality, grace.
Ukrainian speech etiquette is distinguished by its originality, because it appeared
on its own national soil. It reflects the gentle nature of Ukrainians, the tendency to
correctness and tolerance in human relations, contempt for brutality. Swear and
coarse words, sometimes used by unconscious speakers, are mostly of foreign origin.
Moreover, our speech etiquette provides for national-specific rules of speech
behavior inherent in Ukrainians, implemented in a system of stable formulas and
expressions for situations of polite contact with the interlocutor accepted and
proposed by society. These situations include: addressing the other person and
attracting their attention, greeting, acquaintance, gratitude, forgiveness, farewell, and
so on.
Appropriate expressions should be applied in every life situation. These are
greetings like: "Слава Ісусу Христу", "Христос народився" (at Christmas),
"Христос воскрес" (at Easter), "Доброго ранку", "Добрий день", "Добрий вечір",
"Зі святом"; farewell: "До побачення", "Бувайте здорові", "До вечора", "До
завтра", "Прощайвайте", "На все добре"; thanks: "Дякую", "Щиро вдячний".
It is worth saying that speech etiquette, while maintaining the traditional
structure of etiquette expressions, is not a closed system, because it is characterized
by dynamics and flexibility. Some of the formulas of speech etiquette are gradually
being archaized (for example, the formulas of the greeting "Добридосвідок!", "Бог
на поміч!", "З неділею будьте здорові!“). There may be new, mostly random
formations that are created according to typical models for the Ukrainian language.
Some expressions, having lost their original semantics, are used in other
communicative situations. For example, the expression " Ні пуху, ні пера! ", which
originated in ancient times among hunters, as a wish of good luck on the hunt, is now
used much more widely.
Ukrainians tend to use positive politeness strategies, evaluation of the wishes of
the addressee and affirmation of the interests of the communicants, which is
expressed by lexical, syntactic and grammatical means, such as names, diminutives
and degrees, for instance, the superlative degree of adjectives.
Thus, Ukrainians, being by nature friendly, responsive, have developed their
specific system of communication – communicative etiquette, based on the concepts
of goodness, peace, harmony, the pursuit of understanding as the main priorities for
the Ukrainian nation.
The specific features of the Ukrainian mentality include individualism, so the
Ukrainian family is individualistic, where each family member is an individual who
strives for self-expression. This feature is also reflected in speech etiquette.
There are many sincere words in the arsenal of the Ukrainian language.
Ukrainians tend to say compliments and kind words to each other, so it is not for
nothing that they use tokens with the semantic center "love" to denote bright wishes,
spiritual, thus emphasizing their respect for others. For example, люб‘язно прошу
Вас, будьте люб‘язні.
Another feature inherent in the Ukrainian nation is emotionality. As a result,
there is the widespread use of etiquette suffixes in etiquette units (доброго
здоров‘ячка, яка ви гарненька). They are recorded in folk art: fairy tales, proverbs,
songs.
I decided to make research to find out what do the foreigners think about the
Ukrainian nation. According to them, Ukrainians do not respect their government and
do not take it seriously. Also, our people have many acquaintances, but few real
friends. To become good friends with Ukrainians, you need to go with them through
fire and water. Ukrainians generally have a flexible attitude towards time.  When
working with Ukrainian counterparts, one should bear in mind that people may arrive
5 to 10 minutes late for a business meeting. For social situations, this may extend to
15 minutes. Also, schedules and appointments can change quite regularly so one
should be prepared for last-minute changes.
Rudeness and irritation in public places, smoking in public places, violation of
traffic rules, the exceptional importance of signs, taboos and superstitions, irrational
use of money and violation of personal space are those things that are also noticeable
in the everyday life of Ukrainians.
Among the positive aspects, foreigners noted that the Ukrainian people are very
hospitable, but sometimes this hospitality is very excessive. We often go to visit and
receive guests. Ukrainians also keep their promises. If you have promised something,
you must fulfill it. Ukrainians are very open and easy to make comments. It is better
for them to speak openly about what is bothering them. This helps to avoid conflicts
in the future.
Some habits of Ukrainians seem strange to foreigners. In Ukraine, it is
customary to take off your shoes at home. We are used to wearing home shoes. When
you ask a guest from another country to take his shoes off, he may perceive it as an
insult. In addition, Ukrainian humor also seems strange to foreigners. Ukrainian
jokes have a lot of layers like cabbage. Ukrainians tell you half of the story, and you
have to guess the other half yourself. The worst thing is that the other half is funny,
but there may be cultural features, mentalities, and historical events that you don't
even know about because you weren't born in this country.
We can conclude that the speech etiquette of the Ukrainian people is the color of
mentality. Firstly, it is significantly reflected in speech etiquette, in particular the use
of words that emphasize their honor, respect, politeness and politeness, and words
that contain the centers of semantic words. Secondly, there is preserving of the
traditions of the Ukrainian people in communication, wishes of health and good.
However, the most important sign of the reflection of the mentality is the
emotionality and the very richness of the manner of communication.
An important conclusion is also that the Ukrainian nation does not have a
preference for any of the considered communicative styles and, accordingly, no
dominant features of communicative behavior, which, as it was noted, is due to the
peculiarities of the cultural and historical development of the nation. On the one
hand, Ukrainians are distinguished by an innate tolerance and certain emotionality,
close to sentimentality, which to a certain extent brings us closer to the East. On the
other hand, we can quickly recode communication according to the registers of the
actual European commutative style, namely, to be persuasive, determined, and even
stubborn.
 List of references
1. https://studfile.net/preview/5114073/page:3/
2. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/bitstream-download/123456789/53243/2/
Kulishenko_2013_4.pdf;jsessionid=2BC92310CB9DE948F242D75370A929A
0
3. https://osvita.ua/vnz/reports/culture/1098/
4. https://otherreferats.allbest.ru/ethics/00743697_0.html
5. http://rep.knlu.edu.ua/xmlui/bitstream/handle/787878787/336/%D0%9A
%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE.pdf?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y