Мова як дзеркало етнічної ментальності: так і ні

At the background of increased attention towards a psychological interpretation of content-based linguistic phenomena, aiming to relate them to the mentality of different peoples, the article calls on to avoid positing the direct, proximate dependence of language features on those of ethnic mentality. Along with the search in this direction, one should also bear in their mind the possible effects of general mental activities of people (regardless of their ethnicity), of the general structural specificity of the language at its various levels, as well as particular features of formation and development of the literary (standard) form of the national language. The material for a more specific analysis were some phenomena of the Ukrainian language that arouse great interest what concerns the features of Ukrainian mentality being [allegedly] mirrored in them: diminutives with hypocoristic connotations, the category of passive voice, “positivity” of Ukrainian vocabulary inner form, abundance of Ukrainian synonyms.