Concepts VOLUNTEER and VOLUNTEERING: historical context and prospects for development (а linguist approach)

Abstract

The article presents the etymologic and the linguacultural analysis of concepts VOLUNTEER and VOLUNTEERING. Etymologic analysis of lexeme-identifier a "volunteer" allowed to define the basic stages of acquisition by it connotations taking into account the cultural and historical context of different countries, namely the United States of America, Germany, Ukraine, etc. The influence of social factors on the acquisition of new meanings by the lexeme-identifier, in particular quasi-military, is determined. It is focused on the fact that in the German and East-Slavic language cultures there are two linguistic units to denote a person who performs work for the benefit of others at his own will. On the basis of the analysis of Ukrainian-language sources, the presence of two lexemes with the same meaning has been proven – the borrowing "volunteer", which came into Ukrainian at the end of the 19th century, and the lexeme ohotnyk- to denote civilians who voluntarily performed actions for the benefit of others, but it was lost during the 20th century. It was determined that in the English, German and Ukrainian linguistic cultures, the linguistic unit "volunteer" acquired a civilian/quasi-military meaning and creates an opposition to the unit with a military meaning. The article also considers cases of the language unit "volunteer" usage in the modern information space. The linguistic and cultural analysis of the concepts VOLUNTEER and VOLUNTEERING demonstrated their discourse-creating potential, the gradual expansion of the pragmatic possibilities of their use both at the state level and in interpersonal communications. So, with the development of a civilized society, these concepts acquired new meanings, which are discussed in detail in the article.