Semantic dimension of discourse space (based on the scripts of English TV series "How to get away with murder")

Abstract

This article addresses modern English TV discourse that provides representational space for legal discourse. Linguo-semiotic basis of discourse-level construals is identified as textual. As sequences of textual segments unfolding in an alternative reality modeled in a certain discourse are relatively stable, respective discourse is regarded as a frame structure integrating "frame-type scenarios" of different levels of generalization / abstraction. A state of affairs verbalized in TV discourse is considered an alternative reality, potential premises for a sub-culture, and a source of meanings and senses that are transmitted back to the "primary" reality and capable of modifying states of affairs in it. The article suggests an interdisciplinary understanding of discourse as a container of relatively stereotypic social phenomena as well as an operational space of dynamic semiosis. The employed methodology encompasses basic notions of discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, linguo-cultural studies, and semiotics. The paper generalizes modern approaches toward interpretation, categorization and conceptualization of the world and verbal designation of the conceptualized experience. The paper focuses on verbal representations of a number of stereotypic scenarios unfolding in the judicial sphere. The inner structure of scenarios is analyzed from the standpoint of frame semantics. The paper reconstructs propositions as frame-type structures and suggests their arrangement within scenarios in regard to the hierarchical, causative and complementary criteria. The paper dwells on a number of "spaces" related to the said judicial scenarios. Designations of sub-scenarios, scripts and discrete notions are analyzed through the prism of functional semantics. Pragmatic intentions of judicial scenarios' participants are tackled in regard to their tactics / strategy reference.