THE CREATION OF THE IMAGE OF INSANE CHARACTER IN LITERARY TEXTS
Journal Title: Записки з романо-германської філології - Year 2019, Vol 1, Issue
Abstract
This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the lexicalisation of concept INSANITY in literary texts based on the material of contemporary novels by American and British writers. The purpose of the study is the analysis and classification of lexical means that form the portrait of a mentally ill person in the studied works. The object of the analysis is the lexemes-verbalisers of the concept INSANITY, the language means of creating a mentally ill character in literary texts form the subject of our work. The concept in this study is understood as a discrete mental entity, a basic unit of a person’s mental code. It has an ordered structure, which is the result of cognitive activity of the individual and society, and which carries complex information about the reflected subject or phenomenon. Using the continuous sampling method, we selected text fragments containing portrait descriptions of characters suffering from mental disorders. It has been hypothesised that conceptual features DESTRUCTION, DEFORMATION, AFFECTIVENESS, which are nuclear features of concept INSANITY, are lexicalised in the texts under study when the authors create the portrait of the mentally ill character. Our research also found that the opposition of FRIEND-FOE is one of the most important mechanisms involved in the conceptualisation of the phenomenon of insanity, which is indicated by the frequent lexicalisation of conceptual feature FOE in literary texts. After analysing the lexical means involved in creating the portrait of the literary character with mental disabilities, we identified a set of prototypical characteristics of the appearance of a mentally ill person. Based on the material of the works, we studied narrative compositional form “description” pertaining to the portrait of the mentally ill character. The characteristics obtained were grouped into the following thematic groups: text fragments describing voice / speech, body, eyes, face, overall appearance, body plastics, poses, and smell. All such contexts offer the reader quanta of information, functioning as markers of a person’s mental illness.
Authors and Affiliations
D. Pozdniakov
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP625977
- DOI 10.18524/2307-4604.2019.1(42).168858
- Views 47
- Downloads 0
GRATITUDE SPEECH ACT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF ITS SINCERITY
The article deals with the criterion of sincerity in gratitude speech act. According to the criterion of sincerity, gratitude has been identified as phatic, sincere (or behabitive) and insincere. The article also dwells...
BIOCOGNITIVE NATURE OF EVALUATION
The article discusses the biokognitive foundations of evaluation category. Particular attention is paid to the structure of the evaluative concept.
ONTOLOGICAL TIME AND SPACE (IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN FOLKTALES)
The article focuses on the comparative study of ontological time and space having the systemic organization of the lexical semantic field in English and Ukrainian folktales. The investigation reveals the peculiarities of...
ONCE AGAIN ABOUT THE ROLE OF SIGNAL SYSTEMS IN COGNITION AND SIGNIFICATION OF THE WORLD, OR WHY ONE’S MOUTH IS WATERING AT THE WORD LEMON
The article deals with the interrelation of the first and the second signal systems of a man in his perception of sensual information and its further reflection in a text message. Sensual information is perceived via fiv...
INVESTIGATION OF THE LEXICAL SEMANTIC FIELD BLOOD IN ITS SCIENTIFIC VERSION
The article aims at the investigation of the lexical semantic field as a paradigmatic formation in the language. The research is being carried out on the basisof English medical terminology that serves the material of th...