Linguistic methods of personality identification in the fiction text (using S.D. Dovlatov's works)

A.V. Bastrikov*, E.M. Bastrikova**

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: *Alexei.Bastrikov@kpfu.ru, **Elena.Bastrikova@kpfu.ru

Received June 29, 2017

Full text PDF

Abstract

This paper considers the methods of personality identification in the works by S.D. Dovlatov, a popular short-stories writer who became famous in the 1990s for his ironical word view and “sharp” language style.

We have analyzed one of the basic concepts of almost all linguistic world views, the concept of “my group’s own — someone else’s” (“a friend – a foe”), which is implemented in the text in the form of several lexical-semantic groups. The corresponding semantic field has been interpreted, and it has been shown as the word field containing various linguistic signs that organize the individual attitude of the author to himself and others: the real people who surrounded him and the characters that appear in his prose.

Some options for interpretations of the opposition “my group’s own — someone else’s” (“a friend – a foe”) in the structure of the concept described have been discussed. Special attention has been paid to the lexical expressive means: epithets, metaphors, comparisons, oxymoron, irony, paradox, etc. Such language-game techniques as anecdote, pun, and parody have been revealed by the analysis. The significance of precedential phenomena has been determined (from names to expressions and situations), and as it has been demonstrated that many of them are reinterpreted and transformed in S.D. Dovlatov’s style.

Keywords: author’s linguistic world image, literary text, concept, semantic field, lexical-semantic word groups, explication, interpretation

References

  1. Stepanov Yu.S. Konstanty: Slovar’ russkoi kul’tury [Constants: Dictionary of Russian Culture]. Moscow, Akad. Proekt, 2004. 992 p. (In Russian)
  2. Benveniste E. Obshchaya lingvistika [General Linguistics]. Moscow, Editorial URSS, 2002. 448 p. (In Russian)
  3. Kolesov V.V. Drevnerusskaya tsivilizatsiya. Nasledie v slove [Ancient Russian Civilization. Legacy of Words]. Moscow, Inst. Russ. Tsiviliz., 2014. 1120 p. (In Russian)
  4. Bastrikov A.V. The concept of “Own” – “Alien” in the world view by M. Osorgin (based on the story “A Human’s Things”). Russkaya i sopostavitel’naya filologiya, 2006: Sb. materialov dokl. i soobshch. uchastnikov itog. nauch. konf. filol. fak. Kazan. gos. un-ta. [Russian and Comparative Philology, 2006: Proc. Sci. Rev. Conference Held at the Philological Faculty of Kazan State University]. Kazan, Kazan. Gos. Univ., 2006, pp. 51–56. (In Russian)
  5. Ar’ev A.Yu. Our little life. In: Dovlatov S.D. Sobranie sochinenii [Collection of Works]. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg, Limbus Press, 1995, pp. 5–24. (In Russian)
  6. Ar’ev A.Yu. Sergei Dovlatov: tvorchestvo, lichnost’, sud’ba. Itogi Pervoy mezhdunar. konf. “Dov­latovskie chteniya” [Sergei Dovlatov: Works, Personality, Fate. Proc. 1st Int. Conf. “Dovlatov Lectures”]. St. Petersburg, Zvezda, 1999. 320 p. (In Russian)

 

For citation: Bastrikov A.V., Bastrikova E.M. Linguistic methods of personality identification in the fiction text (using S.D. Dovlatov’s works). Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 5, pp. 1069–1082. (In Russian)

 

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.