Языковая репрезентация отрицательных эмоциональных состояний в творчестве Л. Петрушевской

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of the linguistic means of expressing negative emotional states in Lyudmila Petrushevskaya’s works included in the collections Don’t Get in a Car with Two People and Wanderings About Death. The aim of this research is to identify the features of the language representation of negative emotional states in Petrushevskaya’s stories. Approximately 400 statements with the semantics of an emotional state were revealed in the collections; 90% of them describe the characters’ negative experiences. The main research methods are descriptive, linguo-stylistic text analysis, and linguistic modeling. The analysis shows that the semantic model of an emotional state is represented by a wide range of language means that express the characters’ negative emotions and experiences: fear, anger, annoyance, grief, sadness, aggression, longing, resentment, despair, etc. The linguistic model of the situation of an emotional state represented in Petrushevskaya’s stories includes three main components – the predicate of the state, the subject and the causator, and two optional components – the locative and the temporative. The peculiarity of an emotional state is that it belongs to unobservable phenomena, limited in time, possessing a static feature and lacking volitional activity of the subject (carrier) of the state. The author describes the linguistic means of representing the main components of the proposition of the state: the predicate, the subject (or carrier) of the state, and the causator; emphasizes the importance of local and temporal characteristics that actualize a particular emotional state; reveals the expressive ways of nominating emotions, which verbalize the writer’s worldview. The author also notes that intensifiers (standard and specific) and various stylistic means promote the linguistic expression of negative emotions: parcellation, rhetorical questions, addresses, lexical repetitions, etc. Based on the analysis, the author concludes that negative emotional states, among which fear prevails (127 statements), are characteristic for Petrushevskaya’s works. The representation of basic emotions (fear, anger, sadness, etc.) shows the writer’s perception of reality: the world is dangerous and cruel. The characters who find themselves in difficult and hopeless situations are on the verge of despair; therefore, in the works, both men and women suffer equally with “anguish”. The linguistic representation of negative emotions in the analyzed stories reflects the general specifics of the writer’s style of narration. Statements with the semantics of an emotional state are full of neologisms, substandard vocabulary, complex constructions, contradictions and oppositions, inappropriate detailing and abrupt transitions.