Minitexts of the journal “Ridnyi Krai” (1905-1916): Genre, content, and structure

At the present stage of historical and cultural development of Ukraine, the appeal to periodicals of the late 19th-early 20th centuries as important cultural and educational institutions is becoming extremely relevant. The paper was devoted to the analysis of the “Ridnyi Krai” journal, published during 1905-1916 in Poltava, Kyiv, and Gadyach. It was established that the analysed language units are integral components of the textual (discursive) paradigm, consistently correlate in many ways with large texts, or macrotexts, and simultaneously reveal specific characteristics that relate primarily to the functions performed and verbal content, and only then contextual, semantic, communicative, and structural integrity, thematic programming, relative completeness, semantic self-sufficiency, harmony of content and form. Minitexts typical of the publication “Ridnyi Krai” – self-promotion, advertising, advertising, etc. – are detailed and characterised. The most common thematic groups, combining minitexts into a single communicative whole, offer the reader in a single number of the weekly laconic stories about changes in various spheres of public life in Ukraine and the world, about the Ukrainian issue in its multidimensional format. It was proved that small texts by their functional purpose, influence on recipients, informative weight are not inferior to large ones and even have advantages, since they quickly and systematically reflect the course of social life at that time – important state events of that era (the revolutions of 1905-1907, the post-revolutionary period with its contradictory tendencies), the life of other countries (for example, France, America), individual Ukrainian territories, large and small towns and villages. The results obtained can be used in research activities, in particular, by linguists and language historians to investigate the processes of establishment of Ukrainian spelling and analyse the dynamics of language norms