Lexico-stylistic peculiarities of English literary text

Abstract

This article examines the lexical and stylistic features of literary texts using the example of Nelle Harper Lee’s work “Go, Set a Watchman”, which was published in 2015. Nelle Harper Lee is one of the most remarkable American writers of the XX century, famous for her book “To Kill a Mockingbird” which is thoroughly studied in schools and higher educational institutions in America. Since the book “Go, Set a Watchman” was published recently, there is still no sufficiently complete and detailed analysis of this work by the American writer, which confirms the relevance of our article. Our goal is to establish the characteristic features inherent in the text of a given author by analyzing lexical and stylistic aspects. We focused specifically on a literary work since the style and expressive means of the writer’s language are clearly traced in such works. Through consideration of the lexical and stylistic features common to literary texts, we found many examples in the book “Go, Set a Watchman”, among which are stylistic means, such as epithets, metaphors, as well as slang, and colloquial vocabulary prevails in the author’s style. The results of this work can be used in teaching students of philology. Key words: linguostylistics, stylistic features, lexical features, literary text, Harper Lee.