In Other Words: Reformulation Strategies in Dostoevskii's Literary Works

Abstract

This study aims to explore characteristic linguistic patterns to express narrowing, correction and reformulation in Dostoevskii's literary works. Particular attention is paid to the description of the function, meaning and features of these discourse markers in relation to the mental representations they evoke. The high frequency of discourse markers in Dostoevskii's literary works seems to be related to his constant control over speech, especially over the collision and overlap of mental representations that occur during reading. For that reason, this article tends to be framed within the scope of the negotiation of meaning during literary text comprehension in the general context of the relationships between language, culture and discourse in Russian. The proposed analysis may therefore contribute not only to the study of Dostoevskii's works and poetics, but also to the comprehension and explanation of discursive mechanisms of reformulation in Russian.