CC BY
165
-m
SCIENCE TIME
LEXICAL MEANS OF THE AUTHOR'S STYLE OF JANE AUSTEN (BASED ON THE NOVEL "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE")
Kalmykov Vladimir Alexandrovich, Nizhniy Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N.A. Dobrolyubov
Nizhniy Novgorod
E-mail: kalmykov1950@mail.ru
Osokina Lilya Markovna National Research University Higher School of Economics, Nizhniy Novgorod
E-mail: lilichka1@rambler. ru
Abstract. The article contains an analysis of lexical means of the author's style of Jane Austen. The main peculiarities revealed include commonly used words, obsolete words, French borrowings, abstract nouns, understatement and overstatement, intense adjectives.
Key words: idiostyle, meta-image, linguistic personality, linguistic, extra-linguistic.
In this work there is an attempt to identify and analyze the peculiarities of lexical means of the style of English writers of the late XVIII-XIX centuries. Jane Austen (1775-1817).
Not all researchers use the term "style" when describing the writer's creative manner. Some of them use it along with the term "language". Some scientists use these terms interchangeably, while others see a strict borderline between them. We support the idea that it is necessary to distinguish between the scopes of usage of these terms, like V.V. Vinogradov and others did [1, p.84]. According to this point of view, the key to identifying an idiostyle of a writer is the category of "the image of the author", which manifests itself in the process of "author-character" interaction. It is the speech structure of each character that "reflects the author's attitude to the national literary language" and carries a verbal expression of images which as the result of their
interaction contribute to the creation of images of a higher order, and ultimately add up to a unified "meta-image" - "the image of the author" [2, 7-8].
In this work, we proceed from the anthropocentric principle, according to which there is a representation of the author of a literary text as a "linguistic personality." This concept was introduced in linguistics by YN. Karaulov and means the identification of the subject of speech as an individual, expressed "in the language (texts) and through the language" [3.45 et seq].
With all the variety of existing definitions and approaches to the study of the phenomenon of idiostyle researchers agree that it is not a genetically predetermined category, but it is formed under the influence of many factors, not only linguistic, but also extralinguistic.
Let us consider the linguistic means of realization of the author's style of Jane Austen at the lexical level.
1. Among the most common and widely-used words we find the following:
- abode (lit. old use or fml.place where one lives, home);
- aught (lit. for all I know, care);
- propriety (fml. rightness of social and moral behavior);
- abide (lit. and old use to stay, remain);
- attire (fml. dress, clothes);
- bethink (lit. or old use to cause (oneself) to be reminded or to consider);
- pray (fml. or old use please).
2. The vocabulary of an English aristocrat includes the following obsolete words:
- Hither (old use: to here, to this place): "You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither";
- Thither (old use: to that place, in that direction): "... she went with the lady who presided over it, to Ramsgate; and thither also went Mr.Wickham ... ";
- Apparel (old use, lit .: clothesesp. Of a fine or special sort): "Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel ...";
- Sharp (clever, esp. To the point of dishonesty): "... And what sort of table do they keep? Charlotte is an excellent manager, I dare say. If she is half as sharp as her mother, she is saving enough ";
- To deck (to ornament with, to decorate): "The family were assembled in the breakfast-room to receive them. Smiles decked the face of Mrs. Bennet, as the carriage drove up to the door ";
- A dining-parlour (now rare: a room in private house used by the family for receiving guests, reading and other amusements): "Elizabeth obeyed; and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest downstairs. As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the door into the dining-parlour and drawing room...";
- Scheme (a clever dishonest plan): "If you'll believe me, I did not once put my footout of doors, though I was there a fortnight. Not one party, or scheme, or anything...";
- A waiting-woman (obs. A servant): "Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that her waiting-woman was in it".
3. It is necessary to note the influence of the French language, which is reflected in the novel. Jane Austen was fluent in French. Therefore, in addition to purely French words such as tête-à-tête, vingt-et-un, éclat, hauteur, etc., in her novel one can find assimilated French words, which became part of the English language and are used in its phonetic and grammatical rules: to demand, to pardon, to depart, comprehend, etc.
4. Jane Austen notices and reproduces the disposition of the English to talk about morality, a sense of pride, prejudices through the characters' speech. This is reflected in the vocabulary of gentry with the help of a large number of abstract nouns. It is interesting to note that the title of the analyzed novel consists of two abstract words: pride and prejudice. Moreover, the title highlights these character traits that are often associated with the image of an English aristocrat. In the novel, they are absolutized in the two main characters - Darcy and Elizabeth, the former personifying the pride, and the latter - the prejudice. "He [Darcy] was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again".
Wickham, being raised in the same house as Darcy, noted that pride was his best friend; it, like no other feeling, made him a good man: "It is wonderful", replied Wickham, "For almost all his actions may be traced to pride; and pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling". Then he explains what is meant: the pride of Darcy becomes a virtue, and it means that it made him noble and generous, giving him the opportunity to give money freely, to be hospitable, to help and to ease the lot of the poor. "Family pride, and filial pride - for he is very proud of what his father was, have done this ... He has also brotherly pride, which, with some brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his sister; and you will hear him generally cried up as the most attentive and best of brothers ".
In the speech of Darcy, as a representative of the upper class, abstract nouns are used as well, for example:
- "Your surprise could not be greater than mine in being noticed by you. My conscience told me that I deserved no extraordinary politeness, and I confess that I did not expect to receive more than my due ";
- "My object then", replied Darcy, "was to show you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill-opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to. How soon any other wishes introduced themselves, I can hardly tell, but I
believe in about half an hour after I had seen you ".
Lady Catherine's speech is also full of abstract nouns:
- "Are you lost to every propriety and delicacy?..."
- "Because honour, decorum,prudence, nay, interest forbid it".
5. One of the most interesting and at the same time complex issues related to the speech of an Englishman is their usual under- or over-reaction to the situation (understatement or overstatement).
Understatement is the best means of preserving friendships and business relationships between the interlocutors. Naturally, conventional understatement in the speech of an Englishman is contrasted with deliberate, intentional. Understatement is expressed with the help of conversational phrases: a bit of, quite, rather, sort of.
Jane Austen notes the inherent quality of the gentry to hush, to keep back, and to underestimate. Understatement in novels is mainly expressed by lexical means - with the help of words "quite", "almost", the negative particle "not" with the adjective having a negative prefix:
- "... The family are quite delighted with her";
- "She was almost sure of being told, that upon her word she looked vastly smart ...";
- "... They are not, I hope, quite so easily changed as that implies";
- "... And as to your giving them more, it is quite absurd to think of it";
- "... I can not quite agree with you there";
- "I am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me, when we met at Pemberly";
- "... About the court, such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon".
Understatement is expressed in the case of a diminutive suffix -ish in the word "pretty":
"... There seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn".
To create an overstatement in speech it is necessary to resort to phraseology, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, transmitting the highest degree of intensity. Examples of overstatements are not so numerous in the novel. The most common method of their creation is using adverbs (adjectives) intensifying the meaning of what has been said:
- "I am excessively attentive to all this things";
- "... All bespeak an exceeding good income";
- "When I wrote that letter", replied Darcy, "I believed myself perfectly calm and cool; but I am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit ";
- "He was my god father and excessively attached to me".
On the basis of these examples, it can be concluded that the main intensifiers, with the help of which overstatement in gentry's speech was created, were
"excessively", "exceeding" and "perfectly".
6. It was typical of gentry's speech to use adverbs and adjectives to express the highest degree of intensity:
- "After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations";
- "Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good?";
- "I am confident that she would have performed delightfully ..." ;
- "... But I am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit";
- "Four nieces of Mrs. Jenkinson are most delightfully situated through my means".
The most commonly used were "abominably", "delightfully" and "dreadful".
7. The analysis of the lexical material of gentry's speech revealed the adjective "charming", which was used in different situations and on different occasions - in the description of the picture, to characterize an action or event:
- "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing after all ";
- "Oh, dear, how beautiful these are! Well, how delightful! Do but look, mamma, how sweet! I declare they are quite charming: I could look at them forever ".
In these statements the trendiest adjectives of that time like "beautiful", "delightful", "sweet", "charming" are reflected.
Jane Austen reproduces gentry's speech stylizing its lexical aspect and thus recreates all the features of their vocabulary.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that the system of an individual style of the writer is formed by the originality and the combination patterns of the author's linguistic means. Every word retains its conventional meaning, but in the context of artistic speech, it acquires new author's emotionally expressive shades of meaning, which are the markers of the author's style.
Literature:
1. V.V. Vinogradov About the language of fiction. - M .: State fiction publishing, 1959.
2. Goncharova E.A. Author-character categories and their linguo-stylistic expression in the structure of a fiction text. M., 1989.
3. Karaulov YN. Russian language and linguistic personality. - M .: Nauka, 1987.
