Peculiarities of the use of some comparative constructions in the series of detectives by C. McCullough «Carmine Delmonico»

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of using the equative construction as...as in the works of C. McCullough. The choice of the topic is conditioned by the limited number of scientific works devoted to comparative constructions of the modern English language connected with the concept of equivalence. The possibility of deepening theoretical knowledge about the functioning of comparative constructions with the semantics of «equality» and «equivalence» seems important. The authors point out that despite the fact that identity in the category of comparison is still poorly studied, the article proposes the consideration of the means of expressing equality in the language with the help of the construction as...as and defines its use and functions in the text. The authors base their analysis on the works of C. McCullough in the series «Carmine Delmonico», emphasizing the importance of using equative constructions in the construction of artistic images in detective novels. As a result of the study, the authors conclude that equality and equivalence represent groups of identical concepts in language, united under a similar way of action or a similar description. The main idea of the article is that equality and equivalence have a significant impact on the perception of the artistic world, which is expressed in the presence of both positive and negative images arising in readers. The article presents and groups examples showing the variety of possibilities for expressing equality in the detective field. The paper also presents the results of studying the frequency of using equative constructions as a means of artistic description. Thus, this study represents an important contribution to the study of the equative construction as...as.