THE LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW OF UKRAINIANS IN MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS OF THE FIRST THIRD OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article offers an analysis of the linguistic worldview of Ukrainians based on instructional texts from problem books for various types of schools authored by Ya. Chepiha, Ol. Astriab, and O. Stepovyk, published in the Dnieper region during the first third of the 20th century. The universal concept of the linguistic worldview is interpreted as a means of revealing knowledge about the world. It is established that each mathematical problem represents an experience of a specific situation and a cultural background into which students are immersed during their schooling. Particular attention is devoted to the vocabulary of the trade and economic sphere, as economic topics constituted an integral aspect of teaching mathematics. A thematic group of names denoting participants in trade and economic relations is identified, along with a subgroup of terms referring to persons engaged in resale for profit; their hyperonymic– hyponymic structure is systematically organized. It is observed that some of these lexical items are not codified and occur only in colloquial usage. The collected material also enables the identification of additional thematic groups: names of buildings, farm structures, and their parts (including the subgroup designating facilities for keeping domestic animals, poultry, and insects); names of constructions, equipment, machines and mechanisms, and their components that form the basis of transport; and names of land plots. Because agriculture has been a fundamental element of Ukrainian life since ancient times, the problems in school textbooks of the studied period also contain nouns denoting cereal crops. Within these thematic blocks, important oppositions are noted, such as threshed (grain) vs. unthreshed (unprocessed) cereal crops. It is concluded that the linguistic worldview reflected in the instructional texts represents a significant component of the national and cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people.