Особливості художньої текстуалізації українського суржику: спокуса епатажної гри

The presented study is dedicated to the comprehensive analysis of the functional features of the surzhuk in artistic speech, focusing on Oleksandr Denysenko’s comedy «May-September», in which the surzhyk is not just a means of communication between the characters or a way of conveying the author’s picture of the world, but a separate element of the diverse palette of language codes used by the playwright, which refl ect the realities of today. The relevance of the study is determined by the interest in «surzhyk» in modern fiction, particularly in the quest for new expressive linguistic and figurative means to depict a living environment beyond the confi nes of literary language. It has been found that in modern artistic discourse, substandard speech is involved not only to represent the character, internal culture, and environment of the characters but also as a means for the author to convey a sense of looseness and provoke thought. In recent years, Ukrainian literature has increasingly employed surzhyk as a character-creation tool. In this context, the comedy «May-September» stands out among other works, in which the malaise of the surzhyk becomes a dominant feature not only of the characters’ speech but also of their consciousness. In addition, the play’s multilingualism as an effect of the game prompts the writer to portray sharp collisions of modern life – surzhyk appears as one of the tools of the language palette along with Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Spanish languages. The analysis of the 9 groups of «surzhyk» vocabulary recorded in O. Denysenko’s comedy allowed us to certify that there are certain mechanisms for the formation of this subcode. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms could contribute to the reduction of distorted speech in usage. The results of this research will be valuable for journalists, teachers, and scientists, helping to distinguish literary norms and deviations from them and will contribute to mastering the literary Ukrainian language