Les archaÏsmes dans la langue littéraire de Turgenev

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeAbstractTurgenev’s style has been studied thoroughly except with regard to his use of archaic words. The present study reviews Turgenev’s early poetry, his short stories and his novels. It shows that Turgenev employed an archaic vocabulary mainly in his youth, and that the percentage in this lexical category declined very rapidly as he grew older. The use of archaisms in all genres, however, continued throughout his literary career. There does not seem to be any particular pattern in the evolution of his literary style; during the middle of the 1840’s his language acquired the form which it was to maintain throughout the rest of his life. The need or desire to emphasize a given situation or character seems to have been the reason for his use of archaisms. In a broader sense, a study of Turgenev’s use of archaisms seems to support the thesis that the Russian literary language is predominantly Russian and that Slavonic elements have penetrated it only to a minor degree.