Language styles. Features of the language of fiction

Specifics of the language of fiction.

Lecture No. 8

Methods and techniques for analyzing works of art

1. Literary language and the language of fiction.

It is necessary to distinguish between two similar, but different in scope and essence (specificity) phenomena - literary language and the language of fiction. This is difficult to do, but extremely important. Historically, literary language is primary. It appears in the countries of Europe and Asia during the era of the slave system, along with the advent of writing, as an addition to ordinary oral speech. In the era of nationalities and nations, the written and literary variety becomes the leading form of existence of the language. It pushes aside other forms, non-literary, namely: territorial dialects, social dialects, then vernacular and even ritual (church) language. Literary languages ​​perform quite broad functions: they are usually the languages ​​of office work, science, culture and religion. The functional language of fiction is also formed on the basis of the literary language. But, having been formed on the basis of the literary language, it behaves bolder, more relaxed than the literary language, its norms are less strict, it is more liberal, and in this respect, in terms of means of use, it surpasses the standardized literary language. For example, it can use dialectisms:

Letter from my little girl

Try to understand:

I sent felt boots to the front,

And he writes that Pima...

In the poem by Sergei Alymov ("The glory of these days will not cease, / Will never fade. / Guerrilla squads / Occupied the cities ... ") the dialectism of "tava" turned out to be incomprehensible to a wide range of readers, in connection with this, the song with these words was sung with the replacement of "tava" with "detachments", with a violation of rhyme.

Jargons, neologisms that are not very welcome in the literary language (Evgeny Baratynsky’s poem “I don’t know, dear I don’t know...”), archaisms, historicisms, professionalisms, etc. can be used.

1. The language of fiction is wider than the literary language in terms of the use of lexical expressive means; superimposed on the literary language, it gives additional sectors.

2. Literary language is the form of existence of the language of either a nationality or a nation, along with territorial dialects, vernacular, etc. The language of fiction is not a form of existence of a language, entering the literary language as a component, but at the same time it has a wider and richer arsenal of its means.

3. As part of the literary language, there are several independent styles (macrostyles, functional styles): bookish - official business, scientific, journalistic and fiction style - and everyday conversational everyday style. The language of fiction does not shy away from or despise the material of any of the styles, using them for its own artistic, aesthetic, expressive purposes.

For example, the journalistic style is used by Maxim Gorky in the novel “Mother” (speeches by Pavel Vlasov), the scientific style is used by Leonid Leonov in the novel “Russian Forest” (speeches by Professor Vikhrov), the official business style is used by Bronislav Kezhun in one of his poems, which mentions the inscription on the monument to the deceased : ʼʼSpecial detachment fighter / Red Army soldier L. Kezhunʼʼ.

The language of fiction is “all-consuming”, it takes everything it needs. For example, Demyan Bedny in the “Manifesto of Baron Wrangel”, in order to emphasize the “foreignness” of the enemy, uses the macaroni style: “Ikh fange an.” I'm sewing…ʼʼ

Specifics of the language of fiction. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Specifics of the language of fiction." 2017, 2018.



32. The originality of the language of fiction.

Questions about the stylistic status of artistic speech are still debatable. Some highlight the artistic style of speech, others do not distinguish artistic speech as a functional style; in this case, they speak of a variety of literary language - artistic speech.

Specifics:

• Multi-style of artistic speech - it is possible to use linguistic means, different styles, including those that make up a kind of “face of style” - colloquial elements, scientific style, official business style”; selection is determined by the topic and style of the author
• Linguistic means that are outside the boundaries of the literary language can be used (jargon, argot, dialectisms) up to direct violations of the literary norm (Belov, Astafiev)
• The relationship between the concepts of the language of fiction and literary language; they are not identical, but connected. The language of fiction is both broader than the concept of literary language and narrower than this concept at the same time.
• All linguistic means perform a special function - aesthetic
• A special stylistic feature is artistic and figurative speech concretization
• The constructive principle is the translation of a word-concept into a word-image (determined by several factors. It is characterized by broad metaphoricality, imagery of language units at almost all levels, the use of synonyms of all types, polysemy, and different stylistic layers of vocabulary is observed. “All means, including neutral, are called upon to serve here as an expression of the system of images, the poetic thought of the artist.")
• It is distinguished by its vivid emotionality and aesthetically oriented expression (The aesthetic function closely interacts with the communicative one, and this interaction leads to the fact that in the language of a work of art the word not only conveys some content, but also has an emotional impact on the reader: causing him to have certain thoughts, ideas )
• Image system, artistic cognition, mastery, reconstruction of the world of reality in the form of images
• figuratively expressive language means are directly dependent, first of all, on the functional and semantic types of speech of description, narration, reasoning: in an artistic text, the image of portraits of heroes and their reasoning are conveyed by various lexical and syntactic means
• Stylistic variations are largely explained by the identification of three substyles within the style of fiction: prose, poetic, dramaturgical.
• all forms of faces and all personal pronouns are used; the latter usually indicate a person or a specific object, and not abstract concepts, as in the scientific style.

Image- a non-linguistic phenomenon, but the material shell is the word.

The word and its lexical composition undergo the greatest transformation.

The use of linguistic means in fiction is ultimately subordinated to the author's intention, the content of the work, the creation of an image and the impact through it on the addressee. Writers in their works proceed, first of all, from accurately conveying thoughts and feelings, truthfully revealing the spiritual world of the hero, and realistically recreating language and image. Not only the normative facts of language, but also deviations from general literary norms are subject to the author’s intention and the desire for artistic truth. However, any deviation from the norm must be justified by the author’s goal setting, the context of the work; the use of one or another linguistic device in fiction must be aesthetically motivated. If linguistic elements located outside the literary language perform a certain functional load, their use in the verbal fabric of a work of art can be justified.

Vocabulary undoubtedly occupies a central place in the system of figurative means of language.
The word, as is known, is the basic unit of language, the most noticeable element of its artistic means. And the expressiveness of speech is connected primarily with the word. Many words have the ability to be used in several meanings. This property of them is called polysemy, or polysemy. Writers find in polysemy a source of vivid emotionality and liveliness of speech. For example, a polysemantic word may be repeated in the text, which, however, appears in different meanings: A poet starts talking from afar, a poet starts talking far away. (M. Tsvetaeva)
How much courage is needed to play for centuries, How the ravines play, how the river plays, How diamonds play, how wine plays, How to play without refusal is sometimes destined.
(B. Pasternak)

Imagery of speech is created through the use of words in a figurative meaning.
Words and expressions used in a figurative meaning and creating figurative ideas about objects and phenomena are called paths.
The following trails stand out:
metaphor - a word or expression used in a figurative meaning based on similarity, for example:
Around the whitening ponds there are bushes in fluffy sheepskin coats, and wires of wires are hidden in snow-white tubes.
(S. Marshak)
The poet compares the snow that covered the bare bushes with a fluffy sheepskin coat: it is also white, soft and warming.
The spruce covered my path with its sleeve.
The word on the sleeve creates a bright artistic image. The reader imagines a thick, spreading spruce that covers the passage on the path with its branch, like a long hanging sleeve.

Another type of tropes is metonymy .
This is a word used in a figurative meaning based on contiguity. When M. Isakovsky writes: As soon as you hear a lonely accordion wandering somewhere on the street, it is clear to everyone that it is a man walking with an accordion.
A. Pushkin turned to metonymy when painting a “magical land” (theater): The theater is already full; the boxes shine; the stalls and the chairs - everything is boiling...

Epithet- this is an artistic definition: If only you knew how lonely, languidly sweet, insanely happy grief I am intoxicated in my soul.., (A. Fet)

Comparison is a comparison of two phenomena in order to explain one through the other:
A few years ago, Where, merging, making noise, Embracing like two sisters, the Streams of Aragva and Kura, There was a monastery.
(M. Lermontov)

Personification- transferring the properties of living beings to inanimate objects:
The creek is sleeping. The mirror water is silent. Only where the reeds sleep, Someone's sad song is heard, Like the last breath of the soul.
(K. Balmont)

It should not be confused with polysemy homonyms, i.e. words that coincide in sound and spelling, but are completely different in meaning: key - “spring” and key - “master key”.
Different types of homonyms (homophones, homographs, homoforms) are also a source of expressiveness of speech:
You puppies! Follow me! You'll love it! Look, don't talk, or I'll beat you up!
(And Pushkin)
Writers often juxtapose different meanings of polysemantic words and homonyms in the same context, achieving a comic effect: Women are like dissertations: they need to be defended. (E. Meek)

Homonymous rhymes- a bright means of sound play. I. Brodsky mastered it brilliantly:
Flickered on the slope of the bank Near the brick bushes. A Crow hovered above the pink spire of the bank, screaming.
(The Hills, 1962)

The expressiveness of speech enhances the use synonyms- words denoting the same concept, but differing in additional semantic shades or stylistic coloring.

The beauty and expressiveness of a native speaker’s speech can be judged by the way he uses synonyms. Without mastering the synonymous richness of your native language, you cannot make your speech bright and expressive. Poverty of vocabulary often leads to repetition of the same words, tautology, and the use of words without taking into account the nuances of their meaning. K. Chukovsky, discussing translations, asked questions and answered them himself: “Why do they always write about a person - thin, and not lean, not skinny, not frail, not skinny? Why not cold, but cold? Not a shack, not a shack, but a hut? Not a trick, not a catch, but an intrigue? Many... think that girls are only beautiful. Meanwhile, they are comely, pretty, handsome, not bad-looking - and you never know what else.”
Synonyms allow you to diversify your speech and avoid using the same words.
Using synonyms, the author clarifies the name of the concept: My soul was gradually filled with inexplicable fear... This fear turned into horror when I began to notice that I was lost, lost my way. (A. ch^khov)

Antonyms occupy a special place in the system of expressive lexical means.

Antonyms- these are different words related to the same part of speech, but having opposite meanings: friend - enemy, heavy - light, sad - fun, love - hate.
Not all words have antonyms. If a word has multiple meanings, then each meaning can have its own antonym: a bad bucket is a whole bucket, a bad deed is a good deed. The contrast of antonyms in speech is a vivid source of speech expression, enhancing the emotionality of speech: Houses are new, but prejudices are old. (A. Griboedov) I’m sad because you’re having fun. (M. Lermontov) How few roads have been traveled, how many mistakes have been made. (S. Yesenin) That heart will not learn to love that is tired of hating. (N. Nekrasov)

Antonyms are constantly used in antithesis- a stylistic device that consists in a sharp contrast of concepts, positions, states.
Both Death and Life are native abysses: They are similar and equal, Strange and amiable to each other, One reflected in the other.
One deepens the other,
Like a mirror and a man
Unites them, separates them
By my own will forever.
(D. Merezhkovsky)

The language of fiction, i.e. The language of writers is guided by the norms of literary language, but contains a lot of individual, not generally accepted.

What does the concept of “literary language” mean?

Literary language

The literary language is the processed part of the common language. Literary language has written norms; all verbal types of culture are created in it; it has stylistic differentiation and functions in written and spoken forms.
Literary language is the common written language of a certain people or several peoples. This is the language of official business documents, school teaching, science, journalism, fiction, all manifestations of culture expressed in verbal form. The historically established literary language is not static, but mobile and has the ability to develop.

Correlation between literary and national languages

There is a difference between them: the national language is a form of a literary language, but not every literary language becomes a national language.
The Russian literary language began to take shape from the beginning of the 17th century, and it became the national language in the first half of the 19th century, in the era of A. S. Pushkin.

Russian literary language

The creation of the Russian literary language is usually associated with Cyril and Methodius. Church Slavonic writing, introduced by Cyril and Methodius in 863, was based on the Old Church Slavonic language, which was derived from South Slavic dialects, in particular the Macedonian dialect of Old Bulgarian. The Church Slavonic language was a book language, not a spoken language, the language of church culture, which spread among many Slavic peoples.

Lavrenty Zizaniy. Miniature from the 18th century. (from the original of the 17th century)
To systematize Church Slavonic texts and introduce uniform language norms in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the first grammars were written: the grammar of Laurentius Zizania (1596) and the grammar of Meletius Smotrytsky (1619).

Meletius Smotrytsky
The process of formation of the Church Slavonic language was basically completed at the end of the 17th century. The first Russian literary works used the writing of Cyril and Methodius: “The Tale of Bygone Years” (1113), “The Tale of Boris and Gleb”, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechora”, “The Sermon on Law and Grace” (1051), “The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh” ( 1096) and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (1185-1188).

The most important reforms of the Russian literary language and system of versification in the 18th century. were made by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. Lomonosov was the author of scientific Russian grammar. In this book, he described the riches and possibilities of the Russian language. Lomonosov's grammar was published 14 times and formed the basis for the course of Russian grammar of Barsov (1771), a student of Lomonosov.
N. M. Karamzin played a major role in the formation of the Russian literary language. But Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is considered the creator of the modern literary language.
Now let's move on to talking directly about the language of fiction.

Composition of the language of fiction

The language of fiction includes literary language, dialects, urban vernacular, youth and professional jargon, argo (the language of a socially closed group of people, characterized by the specificity of the vocabulary used, the originality of its use, but not having its own phonetic and grammatical system) - everything , which is an integral part of the common (national) language.
In addition, the language of fiction is distinguished by a variety of author's styles, as well as the presence of tropes. Let's talk about this in more detail.

Writer's style

Each writer has his own individual author's style (idiostyle). The first to explore idiostyle in the 20th century. started by Yu. N. Tynyanov, Yu. N. Karaulov and V. V. Vinogradov. Currently, many scientists are engaged in research in this area.
What is meant by author's style in literature? These are all those features that distinguish the works of one author from the works of other authors and reflect his individuality (most often this refers to the language of the work, since it is the linguistic features that manifest themselves most clearly). It is impossible to judge the author's style from one work, although in all the author's works some common features and the author's moral attitude to the subject are preserved. “Whatever the artist depicts: saints, robbers, kings, lackeys, we look for and see only the soul of the artist himself,” wrote L.N. Tolstoy in the Preface to the works of G. de Maupassant.
For example, the stylistic originality of the prose of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is manifested in the special “speech intensity” of his heroes. Dostoevsky's novels always contain extensive dialogues and monologues, which are characterized by verbal repetition, slips of the tongue, and interruptions of speech.

“On the way to Porfiry, Razumikhin was in a particularly excited state.
“This, brother, is wonderful,” he repeated several times, “and I’m glad!” I'm glad!
“What are you happy about?” - Raskolnikov thought to himself.
“I didn’t even know that you also pawned it from the old woman.” And... and... how long has it been? So how long have you been with her?
“What a naive fool!”
“When?” Raskolnikov paused, remembering, “yes, three days before her death, I was with her, it seems.” However, I’m not going to buy things back now,” he picked up with some kind of hasty and special concern for things, “after all, again I only have a silver ruble... because of this damned delirium yesterday!..
He spoke particularly impressively about delirium.
“Well, yes, yes, yes,” Razumikhin hurriedly assented and unknown to what, “so that’s why you were then... partly amazed... and you know, in your delirium you kept remembering some rings and chains!.. Well yes, yes... It’s clear, everything is clear now.”

Style L.N. Tolstoy (1828-1910) is distinguished by a detailed psychological analysis of the characters, for which the writer needs a very complex syntax. Tolstoy's complex sentences sometimes take up half a page of printed text. Here is an example of complex syntax in L. Tolstoy (chapter 2 of part III of volume “War and Peace”: “When he went over in his imagination this whole strange Russian company, in which not a single battle was won, in which not a single one was taken in two months banners, no guns, no corps of troops, when he looked at the secretly sad faces of those around him and listened to reports that the Russians were still standing - a terrible feeling, similar to the feeling experienced in dreams, covered him, and all the unfortunate accidents came to his mind , which could destroy him." Tolstoy often uses different types of syntactic connections.

A.P. style Chekhov (1860-1904) is distinguished by the meager precision of details,

characteristics, variety of intonations. The writer often uses indirect speech, when the statement can belong to both the hero and the author. Modal words (certainly, really, probably, etc.) are also a special feature of Chekhov’s style. Often the use of modal words gives Chekhov's works an intonation of hope, but uncertainty.

“My husband may be an honest, good man, but he’s a lackey!” (A.P. Chekhov “Lady with a Dog”). “The light crackled in the lamp, and everything seemed to be quiet and safe” (A.P. Chekhov “The Bride”).

Style I.A. Bunin (1870-1953) – refined, sophisticated. The writer carefully selects synonyms, the words in his works seem to be gradually strung along the thread of the plot, and the expressed feelings are distinguished by almost physiological accuracy thanks to precisely chosen words.

“On the fifth day there was an impenetrable blizzard. In the snow-white and cold farmhouse there was a pale twilight and there was great grief: a child was seriously ill. And in the heat, in delirium, he often cried and kept asking for some red bast shoes. And his mother, who did not leave the bed where he lay, also cried bitter tears - from fear and from her helplessness. What to do, how to help? The husband is away, the horses are bad, and the hospital, the doctor, is thirty miles away, and no doctor would go in such passion...” (I. Bunin “Lapti”).

The writer's idiomatic style is manifested even in the use of punctuation marks. It is known, for example, that the author’s use of dashes by M. Tsvetaeva. The dash is her favorite symbol. Tsvetaeva’s stylistic functions of the dash are very diverse. It forms the complex syntactic structure of Tsvetaeva’s verse. The intonations of her poems and special rhythms are similar to the rhythms of the heart. This reflects her unique talent and complexity of fate.

Get used to it -
And the lid!
Nourishing –
Too much.
- Three days like this and I’m ready:
- I'm starting to love cats
And merchants...
- If they choke you, I’ll forgive you.
- Tomorrow I will baptize my daughter:
It’s all the same to me, but to her -
To her - goals.

For Tsvetaeva, punctuation marks are filled with no less, and sometimes even more, meaning than words. Tsvetaeva’s dash occurs during repetition, when it separates two identical words after a period within a line. Sometimes Tsvetaeva’s dashes help create an effect reminiscent of the rapid change of close-ups in cinema. For example, the poem “Train of Life”:

Area. - And sleepers. - And the last bush
In hand. - I'm letting go. - Late
Hold on. - Sleepers. - From so many lips
Tired. - I look at the stars.

Trails

Trope is a word or expression used figuratively in order to enhance the figurativeness of language and the artistic expressiveness of speech. Tropes are widely used in literary works, oratory, and sometimes in everyday speech. The term comes from the ancient Greek τρόπος - turnover.

Main types of trails

Metaphor

Metaphor (from the ancient Greek μεταφορά - “transfer”, “figurative meaning”) is a word or expression used in a figurative meaning, i.e. transfer of a name from one object (phenomenon, action, sign) to another based on their similarity.

The book hunger does not go away: products from the book market increasingly turn out to be stale - they have to be thrown away without even trying.

A metaphor can introduce an element of evaluation into a word. So if we say straight line or crooked line, then the line assessment will be neutral. What if we say crooked smile, then we get a negative estimate.
There are also author’s metaphors:

Nature's clear smile through a dream meets morning of the year (A.S. Pushkin)

Metonymy

Metonymy (from the Greek metõnymia - “renaming”) is the transfer of a name from one object (phenomenon, action) to another based on their contiguity. Metonymy should not be confused with metaphor, because metonymy is based on replacing words “by contiguity” (part instead of the whole or vice versa, representative of a class instead of the whole class or vice versa, container instead of content or vice versa, etc.), and metaphor is based on “by similarity.” The meaning of metonymy is that it identifies a property in a phenomenon that, by its nature, can replace the others.

Moscow sings, filled with lights! (E. Dolmatovsky).
Bucket splashed.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a type of metonymy. Synecdoche (from the ancient Greek συνεκδοχή) - ratio. Stylistic device, the name of the particular instead of the general and vice versa.

"We all look at Napoleons"(A.S. Pushkin).
“Most of all, take care a penny"(N.V. Gogol) - instead of money.

Epithet

Epithet (from the ancient Greek ἐπίθετον - “attached”) is a bright, colorful definition. Expressed mainly by an adjective (also an adverb, noun, numeral): Mother Volga, wind-tramp, bright eyes, damp earth, etc.
An epithet is a very common trope in literature; without epithets it is difficult to imagine a work of art, especially poetry.

Under blue skies
Magnificent carpets,
Glistening in the sun, the snow lies;
Transparent the forest alone turns black,
And the spruce turns green through the frost,
And the river glitters under the ice.
A.S. Pushkin

Hyperbola

Hyperbole (from the Greek Hyperbole) is an obvious and deliberate exaggeration in order to enhance expressiveness and emphasize the idea being said.

For example:
I've said this a thousand times.
We have enough food for six months.

“...a rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper”
N.V. Gogol

My love,
like the apostle at the time,
I will destroy roads across a thousand thousand...
V. V. Mayakovsky

And I swear - I will be the last bastard! –
Don't lie, don't drink - and I will forgive the betrayal!
And I will give you the Bolshoi Theater
And the Small Sports Arena!
V. Vysotsky

Hyperbole is used especially often in satire. Satire in Russia began to develop back in the 18th century. The most striking images of satire in Russian literature of the 19th century. are represented by the works of A. S. Griboyedov, N. V. Gogol, A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, N. A. Nekrasov and especially the work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The satire of A.P. Chekhov is calm and laconic.

Litotes

Litota, litotes (from the ancient Greek λιτότης - simplicity, smallness, moderation) - understatement or deliberate softening.

A person's life is one moment.
Many litotes are phraseological units: “snail’s pace”, “at a stone’s throw”, “the cat cried for money”, “the sky seemed like a sheepskin”.

Litota is used in folk and literary fairy tales: “Tom Thumb”, “Little Man”, “Thumbelina Girl”.

In A. S. Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” Molchalin says:
Your Pomeranian is a lovely Pomeranian, no bigger than a thimble!
I stroked him all over; like silk wool!

“Such a small mouth that it can’t miss more than two pieces” (N.V. Gogol “Nevsky Prospekt”).

Comparison

Comparison is an artistic technique (trope) in which one object or phenomenon is compared to another according to some characteristic common to them.

As if covered with a veil, all nature was hiding behind a transparent matte haze (A.P. Chekhov).
The cat walked around the house and garden, as owner and caretaker(K. Paustovsky).

Allegory

Allegory (from the ancient Greek ἀλληγορία - allegory) is an artistic representation of ideas or concepts through a specific artistic image or dialogue.
Most often, allegory is used in parables, fables, and poems.
An example of an allegory is human age, which is associated with 4 seasons: childhood - spring; youth - summer; maturity – autumn; old age - winter.
Everyone remembers I.A.’s fables well. Krylov, in which human vices are allegorically shown. Allegorical (allegorical) are the novels “Penguin Island” by Anatole France or “War with the Newts” by Karel Capek.

Personification (personification)

Personification (from Lat. persona “face”, Lat. facio “I do” - personification). Attributing properties and characteristics of animate objects to inanimate ones.

S.A. Yesenin was a Russian man close to nature, he knew and understood nature well, which is why there are especially many personifications in his poems.

The grove dissuaded golden
Birch, cheerful language,
AND cranes, sadly flying by,
Already don't regret about no one else.

Whom should I feel sorry for? After all, everyone in the world is a wanderer -
He will pass, come in and leave the house again.
About all those who have left hemp tree dreams
With a wide moon over the blue pond.
S. Yesenin

Try to find the personifications yourself in this poem by S. Yesenin:

The fields are compressed, the groves are bare,
Water causes fog and dampness.
Wheel behind the blue mountains
The sun went down quietly.

The dug-up road sleeps.
Today she dreamed
Which is very, very little
We have to wait for the gray winter.

Oh, and I myself am in the ringing thicket
I saw this in the fog yesterday:
Red moon as a foal
He harnessed himself to our sleigh.

Irony

Irony (from the ancient Greek εἰρωνεία “pretense”) is a satirical device in which the true meaning is hidden or contradicts the obvious meaning. The purpose of irony is to create the feeling that the subject of discussion is not what it seems.
To achieve an ironic meaning, you can use words in a negative sense, exactly the opposite of the literal one: “Well, you’re brave!”, “Smart, smart...”. Here positive statements have negative connotations.
“Where can we fools drink tea?” An ironic worldview is a very valuable thing. This is a state of mind that allows you not to take common statements and stereotypes on faith and not to take various “generally accepted values” too seriously.

Sarcasm

Sarcasm (Greek σαρκασμός, literally “tearing flesh”) is a caustic mockery, one of the types of satire, the highest degree of irony, based on enhanced contrast and the immediate deliberate exposure of a flaw.

If a patient really wants to live, doctors are powerless (Faina Ranevskaya).
Only the Universe and human stupidity are infinite. Although I have doubts about the first one (Albert Einstein).

1.1 Features of the style of fiction

Literary speech is a special style of speech, historically developed in the system of the English literary language, which has a number of common features, also historically variable, and a wide variety of particular features, modified depending on the forms of manifestation of this style (substyle), on the era, on the individual manner of the author .

The style of artistic speech is a complex unity of heterogeneous features that distinguish this style from all other styles of modern English literary language. The fact that this style allows the use of elements of other styles, although processed according to the general, typical features of this style, puts it in a somewhat special position in relation to other speech styles. Moreover, the style of artistic speech allows the use of such elements of language that are unacceptable at this stage of development of the literary norm of the language. Thus, in the language of artistic works of modern English writers one can find linguistic facts that go beyond the norms of the literary language, for example, jargon, vulgarisms, dialectisms, etc. True, these elements in the style of artistic speech appear in a processed, typified, selected form. They are not used here in their, so to speak, natural form; such use of non-literary words would clog the language and would not contribute to the enrichment and development of the literary norm of the language.

“In fiction,” writes academician. V.V. Vinogradov, - a popular, national language with all its grammatical originality, with all the richness and diversity of its vocabulary, is used as a means and as a form of artistic creativity. In other words, all the elements, all the qualities and features of the national language, including its grammatical structure, its vocabulary, the system of its meanings, its semantics, serve here as a means of artistic generalized reproduction and illumination of social reality" [Vinogradov 1951]

Thus, the main function of the style of artistic speech is, through the use of linguistic and specific stylistic means, to promote, according to the author’s intention, a deeper disclosure to the reader of the internal causes of the conditions of existence, development or extinction of this or that fact of this reality. What are the means of artistic speech style with the help of which this goal is realized? These means are the “figurative-aesthetic transformation” of the national language.

The system of stylistic means of the English language has been greatly enriched in the journalistic style, especially in the oratorical style, and continues to be enriched in the style of artistic speech. It is no coincidence that the basic stylistic means of language were studied in literary theory.

The style of artistic speech, sometimes called poetic language, is primarily characterized by imagery. The image created by various linguistic means evokes a sensory perception of reality and, thereby, contributes to the creation of the desired effect and reaction to what is said.

The style of artistic speech has the following varieties: poetic speech, artistic prose and the language of drama. When we use the term “style of artistic speech,” we mean purely linguistic categories, such as words, their meanings, their combinations, syntactic structures, the nature of imagery and other features of the language, specific from the point of view of their selection and interdependence in a given speech style. The term “poetry,” which often combines the concepts of poetic speech, artistic prose and drama, is much broader. This is a literary term. It is understood not only as the language of works of art in its relation to the expressed content, but most importantly, as a type of art. When reading the statements of revolutionary democrats and Russian classic writers about poetry, it is necessary to remember that the term “poetry” is used in a very broad sense. This becomes especially obvious if we quote the following statement by V. G. Belinsky about poetry:

“What is poetry? - you ask, wanting to quickly hear the solution to a question that is interesting to you, or, perhaps, slyly wanting to embarrass us from the consciousness of our powerlessness to solve such an important and difficult question... One or the other is all the same; but before we answer you, we’ll ask you a question in turn. Tell me: what do we call the difference between a person’s face and a wax figure, which the more skillfully made, the more similar it is to the face of a living person, the more it arouses disgust in us? Tell me: what is the difference between the face of a living person and the face of a dead person? ... The point is clear: in the former there is life, but in the latter there is none.” [Belinsky, Collection. op., 1948: t 1. 634]

In the course of linguistic stylistics, we are naturally only interested in the linguistic side of poetry, which we call the style of artistic speech.

So, the most essential characteristic of this style of speech is imagery. Along with a purely logical way of expressing thoughts, in which words are used in their subject-logical meanings, in the style of artistic speech there are often different shades of meanings: contextual meanings, emotional meanings of words - conductors of the author’s subjective evaluative views. O. Walzel is to some extent right when he asserts that “the word is a means of purely logical, i.e., scientific expression. Poetry, as a verbal art, must use the word, that is, a means that always remains to a certain extent related to expression in concepts. Only insofar as words affect us sensually is poetry an art. The artistic appearance of a poetic work is created from the auditory impact of words and then from all the sensory ideas evoked by the word.” [Walzel 1928: 3]

The features of the language of fiction as a whole are determined by several factors. It is characterized by broad metaphoricality, imagery of linguistic units of almost all levels, the use of synonyms of all types, polysemy, and different stylistic layers of vocabulary is observed. “All means, including neutral ones, are called upon here to serve the expression of the system of images, the poetic thought of the artist.” The artistic style (compared to other functional styles) has its own laws of word perception. The meaning of a word is largely determined by the author’s goal setting, genre and compositional features of the work of art of which this word is an element: firstly, in the context of a given literary work it can acquire artistic ambiguity not recorded in dictionaries; secondly, it retains its connection with the ideological and aesthetic system of this work and is assessed by us as beautiful or ugly, sublime or base, tragic or comic

The use of linguistic means in fiction is ultimately subordinated to the author's intention, the content of the work, the creation of an image and the impact through it on the addressee. Writers in their works proceed, first of all, from accurately conveying thoughts and feelings, truthfully revealing the spiritual world of the hero, and realistically recreating language and image. Not only the normative facts of language, but also deviations from general literary norms are subject to the author’s intention and the desire for artistic truth.

However, any deviation from the norm must be justified by the author’s goal setting, the context of the work; the use of one or another linguistic device in fiction must be aesthetically motivated. If linguistic elements located outside the literary language perform a certain functional load, their use in the verbal fabric of a work of art can be justified [Kozhina 1983].

Comic effect. Let us dwell in more detail on individual aspects of colloquial speech. Studying styles To identify the frequency of figurative and expressive means in various functional styles of the Russian language, we will consider examples of texts of each style separately and analyze them. The analysis consists of identifying tropes and figures in all styles and comparing their number in relation to...

Not only the presentation of a fairy-tale picture of the world, for which magic is the ontological core, but also a special linguistic stylization of the text itself, its surface structure. An integrated approach to solving this problem is presented in the fundamental work of M.M. Lipovetsky "The Poetics of a Literary Fairy Tale" [Lipovetsky, 1992]. For him, the problem of the relationship between drugs and NS, as well as the problem...

The peculiarity of the language of fiction is that it is an open system and is not limited in the use of any language capabilities. The author of a literary text boldly uses all the resources of the language, and the only measure of the legitimacy of such use is only artistic expediency. Not only those lexical and grammatical features that are characteristic of business, journalistic and scientific speech, but also the features of non-literary speech - dialect, colloquial, slang - can be adopted by a literary text and organically assimilated by it.

On the other hand, the language of fiction is more sensitive to the literary norm, taking into account a large number of prohibitions (the meaning of the gender of inanimate nouns, subtle semantic and stylistic nuances, and much more). In ordinary speech, the words “horse” and “steed” are synonymous, but in a poetic context they are irreplaceable: Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you put your hooves? In the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov “A golden cloud spent the night on the chest of a giant’s cliff...” the gender of the nouns cloud and cliff are contextually significant, serving as the basis not only for personification, but also for creating an artistic image of the poem, and, if you replace them with synonyms, for example, mountain and a cloud, the result will be a completely different poetic work. The linguistic fabric in a literary text is created according to more strict laws, which require taking into account the smallest stylistic and expressive properties of the word, its associative connections, the ability to be divided into component morphemes, and to have an internal form.

A work of art may include words and grammatical forms that are outside the boundaries of literary language and are rejected in non-fiction speech. A number of writers (N. Leskov, M. Sholokhov, A. Platonov and others) widely use dialectisms in their works, as well as rather rude figures of speech characteristic of common speech. However, replacing these words with literary equivalents would deprive their texts of the power and expressiveness that they possess.

Artistic speech allows any deviations from the norms of literary language, if these deviations are aesthetically justified. There are an infinite number of artistic motives that allow the introduction of non-literary linguistic material into a literary text: this includes recreating the atmosphere, creating the desired color, “lowering” the object of the story, irony, means of indicating the image of the author, and others. Any deviations from the norm in a literary text occur against the background of the norm and require the reader to have a certain “sense of the norm”, thanks to which he can assess how artistically significant and expressive the deviation from the norm is in a given context. The “openness” of a literary text does not foster disdain for the norm, but the ability to appreciate it: without a keen sense of the general literary norm, there is no full perception of expressively intense, figurative texts.

The “mixing” of styles in fiction is determined by the author’s intention and the content of the work, i.e. stylistically marked. Elements of other styles in a work of art are used for aesthetic function.