SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF SYMBOL-WORDS IN THE UKRAINIAN SONG TRADITION

Abstract

Ukrainian song tradition is not only a unique form of national musical expression but also a multi-layered sign system in which symbol-words serve as key structural elements of ethnocultural memory. Through verbal imagery embedded in song lyrics, the value-based and worldview framework of the nation, its collective experience, mental archetypes, and emotional-axiological constants are transmitted. The song language represents a special form of communication,where a symbol-word gains exceptional expressive and ontological significance: it does not merely name an object orphenomenon, but constructs its cultural perception and embodies a mythopoetic vision of reality. This article offers a semiotic analysis of symbol-words identified across various genres of Ukrainian folk song –calendar-ritual, family and domestic, military-recruitment, historical songs, dumy, and lamentations. The study focuseson lexemes with deep symbolic meaning (oak, falcon, water, fire, viburnum, wreath, field, fate, marigold), and traces the patterns of their functioning as signs of cultural memory. Water and fire symbolize threshold states of existence, rites of passage, purification, and sacrifice; viburnum, marigold, and wreath signify femininity, lineage codes, and social status; oak, field, and falcon act as markers of strength, space, freedom, and ancestral connection. Emphasis is also placed onthe emotionally communicative nature of symbols in combination with melos as a means of amplifying semantic content.The methodological framework draws on the principles of structural and cultural semiotics, folklore studies, ethnomusicology, and cognitive ethnopoetics. Special attention is given to the phenomenon of the song as a carrier of cultural memory, capable of recording, transforming, and transmitting the worldview matrix of the ethnic group across time. The analysis also considers examples of contemporary transformation of symbolism in authorial song, staged folklore, and folkloric-stylized mass culture. The article argues that Ukrainian melos functions as a multi-codedcommunicative mechanism, where symbol-words act as cultural markers and “keys of memory,” capable of sustainingidentity continuity even amid social upheaval and global challenges.