Changes in the grammatical norms of the number in proper and foreign names of shoes
Authors:   National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Lavrinets Оlena 
Published: March 2024

Footwear and its various models are primarily the subject of study in merchandising; however, for linguistics, it is an equally interesting object of research in synchronous and diachronic aspects. In particular, the grammatical characteristics of footwear nouns have not yet been the subject of separate research. The plural form of the noun ʻfootwearʼ is more commonly used in modern linguistic practice, determined by the significance, for human existence, of the semantics of a com- plete pair of footwear. The singular form of the noun name ʻfootwearʼ is less common, as it disrupts the integrity of the concept of a ʻfootwear pairʼ with the semantics of an ʻindi vi- dualizedʼ object. The choice of the number form of footwear nouns as a register is deter- mined by different principles of compiling lexicographical publications and their distinct purposes: explanatory dictionaries prioritize the meaning of an unanalyzed plural, while re- gis ters prioritize the plural form of the noun expressing the semantics of a type of footwear. In orthographic dictionaries, the indication of another numerical form represents the inflec- tional component of the number category of fixed nouns in this semantic group. The grammatical significance of the number in the core of footwear names consists of nouns with a numeral pair, where the codification of the singular form is conditioned by the proportional origin of lexemes and the completion of the grammatical assimilation of foreigh lexemes. Lexicographical sources inconsistently record the singular form of footwear nouns from the core sphere. The change in the grammatical qualification of some footwear names from ʻpluralia tantumʼ to ʻgrammatical significance of singular and pluralʼ attests to the dynamics of morphological norms in contemporary Ukrainian language in general and the process of grammatical adaptation of predominantly foreigh lexemes in particular. However, more often, discrepancies in the printed and ele ctronic dictionaries regarding the grammatical number of nouns from the core sphere of footwear (either plural nouns or nouns with a numeral pair) are caused by subjective factors. The periphery consists of ʻpluralia tantumʼ nouns, most of which are of foreign origin and only make up a part of the lexical composition of the Ukrainian language. The infre- quent functioning of singular forms of nouns from the peripheral sphere in modern speech indicates the incompleteness of their grammatical adaptation. Predominantly foreigh foot- wear names that are not represented in any of the analyzed dictionaries reside outside the delineated spheres, and their use in the plural form in the texts of the 16th version of the Ukrainian National Corpus (HRAK) and in advertising posts on the social network ʻInstagramʼ illustrate the beginning of grammatical adaptation to the morphological norms of the modern Ukrainian language. We see the perspective of research in studying the dynamics of grammatical assimila- tion primarily of those footwear names that are only included in the lexical system of the Ukrainian language and have the grammatical status of ʻpluralia tantumʼ nouns, predomi- nantly used in modern speech either exclusively or mostly in the plural form, with the sin- gular form of these nouns not recorded in any lexicographical publication. The observa- tion of changes in the grammatical number of those footwear names whose singular form is not codified, as it is inconsistently represented in dictionaries, also remains relevant. Keywords: number category, noun, footwear name, pluralia tantum, nu me ral pair, parsed plu- ral, unparsed plural, dynamics, dictionary.