Communicative peculiarities of verbalization of the concept of “way of family life” in the British children's literature of the XX century (on the example of the fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton)

Abstract

Concept of the “way of family life” is one of the unique concepts of the English-language linguistic worldview, as it reflects mental, cultural and behavioral traits of the British people. The subject of this article is the communicative methods of expressing the concept of “way of family life” on the example of children’s fantasy tale “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton. Research methodology is based on the analytical method (analysis of theoretical literature and factual material on the topic), descriptive method, and continuous sampling. The authors describe such aspects of the concept of “way of family life” as family traditions and routine, relationships between family members, family structure, parenting, rules, morality, and habits. The scientific novelty lies in adding more details to the existing representations on the concept of “way of family life” in the English-language linguistic worldview on the level of its verbal representation in the fantasy tale “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton. The acquire results allow stating that this fantasy tale creates a holistic image of the typical lifestyle of the English family, which implies such aspects, as responsibility for each other, mutual understanding, household issues, relationships between spouses and children, family traditions, distribution of roles in the family, family identity, continuity in child’s upbringing, relations with relatives and neighbors. The determined communicative peculiarities in verbalization of the concept of “way of family life” testify to the fact that in British society this concept is associated with such notions as tranquility, home, comfort, coziness, something very personal and dear to heart. Such privacy of feelings and space, as demonstrated in the analyzed material, is rooted in mentality of the British people.