Language representation of the concept of entropy – energy in the journalism of E. Zamyatin

Abstract

The article is devoted to identifying the features of the linguistic representation of the idea of revolutionary renewal of the world, which is the most important for the worldview system of E. Zamyatin. The study was carried out in line with the anthropological trend that is relevant in modern linguistics. The focus is on vocabulary related to the reflection of the concept of entropy - energy transferred by E. Zamyatin from the field of physical and mathematical knowledge to the field of the humanities. Much attention is paid to the analysis of the functional features of words combined into a lexical-semantic group with a common meaning of the subjects of the revolutionary process, as well as the representation of the concept of revolution in the writer’s journalism. The main objectives of the study are to determine the individual author’s component in the meanings of keywords and describe their systemic relationships. The main research method is contextual analysis. In the process of identifying actualized semes in the structure of lexical meaning, the method of component analysis is used; when determining the subtlest semantic nuances associated with the peculiarities of the writer’s individual worldview, the semantic-stylistic method is used. Historical and literary articles and essays by E. Zamyatin became the source of factual material. The result of the analysis was a description of a significant fragment of his individual picture of the world. The study of the writer’s journalism in the proposed perspective was undertaken for the first time. As a result, a conclusion was made about the principles of constructing a lexical microsystem that reflects the dialectical views of E. Zamyatin, the contextual meanings of keywords were identified, and methods for updating these meanings were described. The principle of binary oppositions, which underlies the writer’s comprehension of reality, determined the specifics of his idiostyle: the use of language game techniques based on the opposition of the meanings of a polysemic word, the active use of contextual antonyms and occasional words.