Vocative forms in G. Yakhina’s short story “A Moth”: Linguistic and cultural issues

Abstract

This article deals with the features of vocative forms used in a literary text. Guzel Yakhina’s short story “A Moth” was chosen as one of the most meaningful in terms of presenting culturally significant information (due to the combination of fictional and documentary narrative). The aim of the article is to identify and comment on linguistic universals and peculiar Russian (including Soviet) linguistic culture, which are realized in special forms of Russian anthroponymic appellatives in specific speech acts of address in the story. Methodologically, the article is of interdisciplinary character, because the author uses methodological tools based on the application of general scientific methods (modeling, interpretation) and specific methods (linguistic reconstruction of culture, language and culture commentary). Having analyzed the corpus of appellative words that forms a specific space of interpersonal communication in a literary text, the author highlights the features of the worldview and communicative stereotypes of the era, reconstructed in the literary text. We identify the reasons for the unproductive use of appellatives in the analyzed text by G. Yakhina, as well as the most frequently used anthroponymic units.