THE PARTICIPATION OF EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY COMPARATIVES IN THE EXPLICATION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER ELENA IN L. ULITSKAYA’S NOVEL THE KUKOTSKY ENIGMA
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2019-7-17-23
The article features the comparative characteristics of the main heroine in L. Ulitskaya’s novel The Kukotsky Enigma and combines two topical approaches: the functional-semantic approach, connected with the text explications of units in the functional-semantic field “comparativeness”, and the gender-linguistic approach. The second approach actualizes feminine-oriented comparatives, namely: the forms of the images of comparisons (comparatives of equality) and the forms of the signs of difference (comparatives of inequality), the “targets” of which are explications of the external and internal appearance of Elena Kukotsky. The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze the structural and substantive diversity of the comparatives involved in the character’s thematic grid of Elena, identifying the author’s idiostyle features. We use the primary linguistic description (collection of materials, classification and interpretation), as well as contextual and transformational methods. Appeal to the chronotopic, discourse and sensory levels in the comparative characteristics of Elena, we can see her various manifestations in life, the polysemy of the heroine because of different attitude expressed by other heroes and the narrator, her self-expression, the variability of her assessments. An important role in the discourse representation of the heroine “from the inside” is played by Elena’s notebooks, in which feminine-oriented comparatives participate in the expression of her self-criticism, linguistic creativity, fantasy in the use of occasionalisms, unexpected metaphorical images, including expanded ones. The comparative character’s grid of Elena is represented by a wide variety of comparisons of quality (comparisonassimilations and metaphors) and comparatives of inequality (forms of degrees of comparisons of characteristic words and forms of subjective assessment of quality). In front of readers there is a visual, odor, auditory (the sensory level) appearance of this young woman, charming by her fragility; it is difficult to imagine her face; readers themselves draw her portrait. In the comparative characteristics of the heroine, first of all, her inner appearance (moods, joyfulness, but for the most part difficult experiences, value proposition in her picture of the world) is explicated. The participation of the comparatives in the creation of the image of Elena manifests their pronounced text-forming function, with the particular use of the approach “the correlation of trops and realia”. The results of the analysis contribute to the systematization of knowledge about the expressive ways of comparatives in the language of artistic texts; and their description makes a definite contribution to the theory of imagery.
Keywords: gender, femininity, comparatives of equality and inequality, subject of comparison, image of comparison, metaphor, L. Ulitskaya’s novel The Kukotsky Enigma
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Issue: 7, 2019
Series of issue: Issue 7
Rubric: TOPICAL ISSUES OF DISCOURSIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 17 — 23
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