Lexical-Grammatical Means of Expressing Oppositivity in an English Literary Text

Abstract

The article considers the notional nature and peculiarities of genus-species relations between the phenomena of opposition and oppositivity ; it also deals with the lexical-and-grammatica ways of expressing the latter in an English literary text. The study establishes that, besides the logical component, an opposition also expresses a subjective one, manifesting a communicants unique view on the communicative situation and thus displaying semantics of oppositivity. Unlike spatial, logical and grammatical oppositions, generally characterized by a symmetrical structure, the subjective (oppositive) opposition is asymmetrical. It is revealed that due to the structural asymmetry this kind of opposition is marked by greater semantic potential compared to logical and grammatical oppositions. It is proved that the complication of subjective oppositions with antonymous pairs, lexical and syntactical repetitions, antithetic units, oxymorons etc. extends the scope of meanings implied by them; and the use of subjective (oppositive) oppositions in a literary text themselves becomes an effective tool of contrast-building both on the lexical-grammatical and textual levels.