Prosaic Texts Research Articles

The flow of language: Respiration and the rhythmic motor control of speech

Speech rhythm can be described as the temporal patterning by which sequences of vocalic and gestural actions unfold, within and between interlocutors. Despite efforts to quantify and model speech rhythm across languages, it remains a scientifically enigmatic aspect of prosody. For example, the existence and/or form of a basic speech rhythmic unit is hotly contested. One challenge is that the primary means of speech rhythm research has been the analysis of the acoustic signal. As speech is multimodal and motoric, investigations of speech rhythm will likely benefit from a greater range of complementary measures, including physiological recordings. The current experiment explores respiratory effort as a contributing factor in speech rhythm production. Undergoing simultaneous inductive plethysmography and acoustic recording, participants produce speech by reading novel prosaic texts aloud in single and dyadic conditions. Speech-associated breathing patterns are analysed in conjunction with traditional acoustic-phonological approaches to speech rhythm. It is hypothesized that, like spoken utterances, speech breathing is subject to rhythmic constraints. Preliminary results are therefore interpreted with a focus on the temporal relationship between inhalation events and previously proposed phonological rhythmic units (e.g., inter-stress, p-centre, syllable), underscoring breathing as a necessary, yet often overlooked, component in speech rhythm planning and production.

Семантика пустоты в модели мира постмодернистского текста

The purpose of this work is to study the meaning of the category of emptiness in the modeling of the artistic world in the poetics of postmodern literature. In this regard, the article investigates on the basis of the structural-semiotic method the specifics of the organization of time and space in the text of postmodernism, their basic structural and semantic parameters, as well as axiological guidelines. As a material for the analysis, prosaic and poetic postmodern texts, which are relevant to the problematic subject, use the category of emptiness as one of the key factors in the construction of the artistic world. The study characterized such aspects of the world modeling as chaotization, pluralization, destruction, etc. as part of the study of the “devastated” postmodern time and space, and also established the specifics of the correlation between real and unreal categories, true and false, genuine and virtual in the semantic-axiological field of the poetics of emptiness in the text of postmodernism. The article also presents a detailed analysis of the postmodern poetics of emptiness in the aspect of time and space as the main parameters of the modeled artistic world; according to this, the work formulates the basic principles of constructing an artistic reality.

Iconicity of syntax and narrative in Amerindian prosaic texts

AbstractThe notion that the form of a word bears an arbitrary relation to its meaning accounts only partly for the attested relations between form and meaning in the world's languages. Recent research suggests a more textured view of syntactic and narrative structure in Amerindian prosaic texts, in which arbitrariness is complemented by iconicity (aspects of form resemble aspects of meaning) and systematicity (statistical regularities in forms predict function).

СТРУКТУРНО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ ТИПОЛОГИЗАЦИЯ ПРОИЗНЕСЁННОЙ НЕСОБСТВЕННО-ПРЯМОЙ РЕЧИ НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ПРОЗЫ МАРИНЫ ЦВЕТАЕВОЙ

Статья посвящена теме чужой речи, которая остаётся актуальной в современном языкознании. Автор статьи исследует особенности функционирования произнесённой (внешней) несобственно-прямой речи (далее НПР) (а именно её структурно-семантических видов) на материале прозаических текстов Марины Цветаевой. Посредством произнесённой НПР отображается прямая речь литературных персонажей через авторскую перспективу, при этом фактическая речь персонажа в авторской речи иногда принимает форму прямой речи, либо маркируется за счёт использования кавычек, редко – двоеточия. Опираясь на структурно-семантическую классификацию, предложенную украинским лингвистом Е.Я. Кусько, автор статьи описывает отличительные черты различных видов произнесённой несобственно-прямой речи: тематической речи, скрытой речи, речи в речи, коллективной речи, цитатной речи. Делается вывод, что последняя разновидность внешней НПР находит наибольшее применение в прозаических текстах выдающегося русского поэта ХХ века, а произнесённая НПР используется М.И. Цветаевой очень редко, что связано со спецификой идиостиля поэта.Целью работы является описание характерных черт функционирования НПР, выявление механизмов реализации и маркеров выделяемых видов произнесённой НПР в прозаических текстах поэта.Метод или методология проведения работы. Основу исследования образует метод сплошной выборки иллюстративного материала, метод нарратологического анализа, метод семантического структурирования художественного текста, прием стилистической интерпретации.Результаты. В результате проведённого анализа теоретического и практического материала автор приходит к выводу о том, что в прозаических текстах М.И. Цветаева прибегает к трём разновидностям произнесённой НПР, а именно цитатной речи, реже речи в речи и коллективной речи. В качестве цитатной речи в прозе Цветаевой используется дословное цитирование, когда в структуре авторского повествования дословно цитируется речь литературных персонажей (в виде отдельных слов или выражений); и дословное или видоизменённое цитирование речи известных лиц.Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть применены исследователями творчества Марины Цветаевой, студентами филологических отделений при изучении таких дисциплин, как стилистика русского языка, синтаксис русского языка.

МЕТАФОРА КАК КОГНИТИВНЫЙ, ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ И ЭСТЕТИЧЕСКИЙ ФЕНОМЕН В ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРОЗАИЧЕСКОЙ РЕЧИ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ЛЕКСИКИ СО ЗНАЧЕНИЕМ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЯ)

The article examines the metaphor as a means to perceive the reality and a phenomenon of human linguistic thinking, a way to designate a conception system and a typical trope; special attention is paid to the problem of correlation of the notions “metaphor” and “image”; image is considered both as a cognitive basis and a cognitive product of metaphorization; theoretical provisions are illustrated by the examples taken from literary prosaic texts and containing words with the meaning of memory/imagination.

Accumulate Motherland in Russian and Bulgarian Linguocultures

The article deals with the accumulation of the Motherland in Russian and Bulgarian linguocultures. The essence of the term we have proposed is explained. Attention is drawn to the similarities and differences in the use of the units under consideration, which serve to solve the national phenomenon, expand the concept of the linguistic picture of the world, and understand the specific features of different cultures. In the paper, the values ​​of the accumulation in explanatory, synonymous, etymological dictionaries, prosaic and poetic texts, folklore (proverbs and sayings) are stated, as well as statements and thoughts of personalities with national authority. Attention is also drawn to the extralinguistic factors that led to the emergence and use of this phenomenon. Descriptive, taxonomic, comparative-historical and comparative methods are used in the work as general methods of linguistic research. As, an auxiliary component analysis was used to identify all the semantic parts of the linguistic unit that represents the accumulation. The results of the study showed a common and different in the accumulation in question in two linguocultures - Russian and Bulgarian.

The Use of Authorial Corpora Beyond Linguistics

Abstract The study concentrates on the issue of quantitative and qualitative methods within the context of literary theory. It intends namely to present the concept of the literary corpus of Czech prose and define main parameters of the corpus. Besides the project of a specialized corpus, primarily intended for the use in the field of literary theory, the study deals with current stochastic and corpus methods applied by foreign scholars in analysis of literary prosaic texts. The study tries to incorporate the original project of Czech prose literary corpus in this contemporary context that represents one form of a recently flourishing discipline called Digital Humanities (Digital Literary Studies).

Die Wortstellung des Präteritum-Auxiliars in den ältesten tschechischen Prosatexten

Summary The aim of the paper is to analyze word-order positions of preterite auxiliary forms (AuxP) in the Old Czech prosaic texts from the 14th and 15th centuries, e. g. in Pasionál (‘Passional’), in Život Krista Pána (‘Life of Christ the Lord’), in Životy sv. Otců (‘Life of Holy Fathers’/ ‘Vitae Patrum’) and in Tkadleček (‘The Weaver’/ A Czech version of Ackermann aus Böhmen). The aim of the paper is to detect all possible word-order positions of these auxiliary forms in analyzed texts. The analysis demonstrates that the AuxP maintains some properties of an orthothonic word in several rare cases. However, the overwhelming majority of examples give evidence that the Old Czech AuxP was an enclitic. According to the explored data it seems that the post-initial (2P) word-ordering of the Czech enclitic became established in Old Czech as a prototypical word-order pattern of Czech enclitic forms and that verb-adjacent (VA) word-ordering had a quality relating to style.

Chronopotic Information of the Non-Dialogic Part of American Dramatic Text (Based On 20th Century American Plays)

It is well-known that any dramatic text consists of two main blocks – the dialogic represented by actors’ speech and the non-dialogic part represented by the author’s indications (remarks). This article seeks to analyze the informative potential of the non-dialogic part of a dramatic text from the point of view of its content-related and semantic characteristics, and in its peculiarity is considered as a distinctive feature of the American linguocultural area. The topic of the content of the non-dialogic part is rendered by chronotope and anthropocentric information, which reveal the point that a dramatic text is encoded in the verbalization of extra-linguistic space/time and of a human being. Special attention is paid to spatiotemporal indications as the constituents of chronotopic information. The interior and scenery descriptions as subtypes of spatial loci are subjects of the research as well. The investigation was carried out on the bases of 45 dramatic texts created by American authors of the 20th century. The research methods were component data mining, descriptive analytical method and linguistic comparison. The results showed that the distinctive feature of the American plays of the first half of the 20th century was the presence of large pieces of text and specific information in spatiotemporal indications in the non-dialogic part. Furthermore, the results affirmed that during the reading of modern American dramatic texts it might seem as though the authors forgot about the original orientation of plays for performance on stage. Some of the spatiotemporal indications were bound not to be embodied by a stage director and were available only for a reader, who in this aspect was equal to a reader of a prosaic text. As for a viewer, they are highly unlikely to perceive the author’s descriptions of the scenery in full informational content and consequently they would face a definite information gap.

Mytholoric space of Amerindian prosaic texts: cognitive-semiotic and narrative perspectives

The paper suggests a new cognitive facet of ethnolinguistics for exposing ethno-cultural features embodied in mytholoric characters of literary prosaic texts. The term "mytholoric" is a coinage that reflects syncretic unity of mythic and folk lore of Amerindian culture. Myhtoloric space is defined as cognitive and semiotic construct that incorporates different types of mytholoric characters. Author’s mytholoric character is a cumulative cognitive and semiotic textual construal, which reflects behavior and deeds of the person who stands for the interests of Amerindian in modern American society and tries to adapt to the rules of existing in that new world. It has been proved that metamorphosis is a dominant linguistic means in creating mytholoric and author’s mytholoric character. Semiotic and cognitive analysis made it possible to construe the model of the main character, interpreted as ethnocultural symbol. Narrative analysis of the Amerindian prosaic texts outlined the ways and means of narrative perspectives highlighting metamorphosis and reverse perspective as the major ones in creating and interpreting the mytholoric space in literary text. The paper suggests linguistic and cognitive mechanism of reverse perspective in literary text. Models of mytholoric space are determined by the genre of the literary text and eclecticism of mytholoric characters.

The Role of the Author's Remarks in the Structure of the Dialogue

In literary science the term «remark» mainly applies in respect to dramatic work. The immersion of different types of structure of the art speech of the prosaic text leads to his rapprochement with the drama that gives a possibility to equally use the notion of "remark" and to the drama, and to the prosaic work. Despite this, it is impossible to consider the notes function identically in both genres, as in a drama work, the author's remark is given in brackets and usually performs the function of explanations for actions and replicas of the characters, whereas in prosaic work it has a complex manifestation, performing art and aesthetic function elucidation of gesture and facial expressions, actions and deeds, inner feelings, the psychological condition of the characters. In the development of the Karakalpak prose 1980-2010 there has been a deepening of psychologism in transferring events and phenomena of reality that is connected with the desire of domestic writers to penetrate into the hidden corners of the human soul. This fact served as a factor in productive use inherent in mainly dramatic monologues, dialogues, referring to the author's remarks in the structure of prose works. On the basis of scientific-theoretical opinions of studiers of literature, this article explores the problem of artistic and aesthetic features of the author's remarks in the structure of the prosaic works based on examples taken from wide-range novels by T. Kaypbergenovʼs «Apple of the eye», K. Mambetovʼs «Busted people», Sh. Seytovʼs «Khalkabad».

Reverse perspective as a narrative technique in Amerindian prosaic texts

Abstract The paper focuses on the narrative perspective of interpreting the ethno-cultural meanings hidden in the characters of prosaic texts written by contemporary Amerindian writers (N.S. Momaday, Linda Hogan, Leslie Silko and others). The main idea raised in their works is to highlight ethno-cultural traditions, values, ceremonies and understanding the world. The main author’s interest is paid to the reverse perspective as a narrative technique of interpretation the central character as ethno-cultural symbol.

Bakhtin Attends the Theater: Kama Ginkas's Chekhov Trilogy

In the late nineties and early 2000s, Kama Ginkas, one of the most celebrated theater directors working in Russia today, staged three Chekhov stories: “Lady with the Lapdog,” “The Black Monk,” and “Rothschild's Fiddle. The actors give voice to virtually every word of the literary texts, even in the form of spoken stage remarks such as “he said” and “she said.” While the shows are performed independently, Ginkas views them as a trilogy which he has titled Life is Beautiful. According to Ginkas, the central narrative thrust of all three shows, and of Chekhov's work in general, is man's desire and failure to live life fully. He highlights the Chekhovian tension between the beauty of life and the tragedy of how it is lived. Drawing on Bakhtinian concepts, this article examines how Ginkas's trilogy reveals but does not resolve this terribly beautiful nature of life. By placing Chekhov's narration into the mouths of his actors, Ginkas actualizes the character zones found in Chekhov's authorial prose. This does not result in a flattening of the voices, as Bakhtin had feared; instead, Ginkas actively dialogizes the voices through the use of interruptions, repetitions and incongruities between word and action. Ginkas further activates Chekhov's language by inserting excerpts from an early Chekhov feuilleton, folk songs, and opera into the performances. Through this reaccentuation of the prosaic text and the heteroglossic interpolation of additional texts, Ginkas repeatedly and unexpectedly shifts between the tragic and the comic, the terrible and the beautiful, highlighting the unfinalizability of his performed prose.

The Poetic Symbol of Gemstone in the Philosophical Articles of Vyacheslav Ivanov

Intersections of lyric and prosaic texts are the significant points in the system of symbols in the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov. The article considers the image-symbol “gemstone” as a method for prosaic texts poetization which helps the author illustrate his philosophical conception more precisely and more capaciously. Vyacheslav Ivanov realizes the potential of the symbol in the system of individual paradigms developing around each stone. The pearl is a symbol of harmony between the world and the spirit, of reflection of the universal essence in a small particle of matter. The diamond is a symbol of heavenly inspiration as the supreme aesthetic sense. The emerald is a symbol of spiritual earthly life. The agate is a sign of presence of the female element dealing with mysteries. In his philosophical works, the author uses gemstone themes in the structure of extended tropes that constitute the paradigms. The pearl goes well with the water theme; the diamond matches the heavenly themes, spiritual giftedness; the emerald is embedded in the paradigm of symbolic meanings of the green colour; the agate fits in the paradigm of the meaning of reflectivity. The essence of the gemstone symbol is not only in the ability to reflect something visible, but also in the ability to keep the hidden, inaccessible to an ordinary sight. The generalized image of gemstone reveals the aesthetic value of artistic expression. The gemstone is a symbol of relation between the visible world phenomena and their transcendent true essence, manifested in the works. A poet and writer, like a miner or a jeweler, needs to discover, mine and process this most real meaning, and then the secret of achieving the ideal will be revealed to the person.

Revising the Characteristics of the Non-Classical Prose: F. V. Bulgarin and V. A. Odoevsky

In modern literary science the “classic” literature is generally distinguished from the “non-classic” Though, there is still not clear what literature should be called non-classic. In current paper we make an attempt to find some features common for non-classic prose using writings of F. V. Bulgarin and V. F. Odoevsky as examples, because their aesthetic ideaswere quite differentand both names are not well-known for modern reader. Our material is represented with two texts that could seem to have nothing in common with each other — didactic essays created by Bulgarin in 1820s and 1840s, and Odoevsky’s series “Russian nights” (1843). Analysis of the text structure shows the basic characteristics of a non-classic prosaic text.

“Shall I compare thee”: The neural basis of literary awareness, and its benefits to cognition

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to explore the neural and cognitive basis of literary awareness in 24 participants. The 2×2 design explored the capacity to process and derive meanings in complex poetic and prosaic texts that either did or did not require significant reappraisal during reading. Following this, participants rated each piece on its ‘poeticness’ and the extent to which it prompted a reappraisal of meaning during reading, providing subjective measures of poetic recognition and the need to reappraise meaning. The substantial shared variance between these 2 subjective measures provided a proxy measure of literary awareness, which was found to modulate activity in regions comprising the central executive and saliency networks. We suggest that enhanced literary awareness is related to increased flexibility of internal models of meaning, enhanced interoceptive awareness of change, and an enhanced capacity to reason about events. In addition, we found that the residual variance in the measure of poetic recognition modulated right dorsal caudate activity, which may be related to tolerance of uncertainty. These findings are consistent with evidence that relates reading to improved mental wellbeing.

Evaluation of the translator’s mastery of a prosaic text translation

Evaluation of the translator’s mastery of a prosaic text translation

LEXICAL SEMANTIC FIELD OF VERBALIZATION OF «DESTINY» IN M. Y. LERMONTOV`S POETIC AND PROSAIC TEXTS OF 1828-1839-H PERIOD

This article is devoted to contemplation of lexical items presenting the lexical semantic field «destiny» in M. Y. Lermontov`s poetic and prosaic texts. The aim of this work is determination of the content of the concept «destiny» in Lermontov`s creativities. To investigate the lexical-semantic field «destiny» was chosen the most significant for the understanding of the poet`s works of 1828-1839 period. Method of research is the direction of Cognitive analysis of the form to meaning. Scientific novelty of the paper is that the linguistic analysis performed for the first the concept «destiny» in the works of Lermontov. The study of lexical-semantic field «destiny» in poetry and prose Lermontov`s texts has allowed us to draw the following conclusions: 1) the concept «destiny» refers to the most important concepts in Lermontov`s idiostyle; 2) the content of the concept «destiny» in the poet`s creativities includes a characteristic semantic content of the coincident category in the Russian language picture of the world; 3) the concept «destiny» is linked to the works of Lermontov with the categories of time and space, as well as the categories of material and non-material world. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-10-33

ЖАНРОВІ ГІБРИДИ, АБО ПРИЙОМИ КІНО В ЛІТЕРАТУРНОМУ ТЕКСТІ

One of the versions of loosening the structure of the classical genre throughthe „filmed” novel by Skrypnyck Intelligent is analyzed, namely the use of cinematic techniques within a prosaic text. The article distinguishes the most notable, implemented in the structure of a work of art, indicative signs of cinematic techniques that outline the semantic field of „self-esteem” of the author.

Daleka blizina usmeni i zavičajni motivi u "Malim glagoljašima" Daniela Načinovića

Daniel Načinović (1952) istaknuti je, plodan i svestran, hrvatski književnik srednje generacije iz Istre. Od svojih književnih početaka piše i za djecu. I površna bi analiza njegova dječjega djela, uz modernost, ukazala na još tri dominantne osobitosti: zavičajnost, usmenu baštinu i svojevrsnu prigodnost ili, bolje, prigodnu inspirativnost. Za propitivanje i analizu usmenih i zavičajnih motiva najpogodnijima se čine ove tri "ilustrirane knjige": "Burrra", "Kravata Velog Jože ili vilinska svadba u pulskoj Areni" i "Mali glagoljaši". "Mali glagoljaši" priča su o dvoje zagrebačke djece, sestri i bratu Karmeli i Dubravku, koji za ljetnog raspusta dolaze u Roč (u Istri) u "Malu glagoljašku akademiju" učiti glagoljicu. Priča se sastoji od proznoga teksta u koji je umetnuto sedam pjesama naslovljenih glavnim brojevima od 1 do 7. Prozni je tekst pisan standardom, a pjesme čakavskim dijalektom. Djeca iz Zagreba u Istru i natrag putuju "Zvonimirtransom", to jest lete na konju s kraljem Zvonimirom, a u Roču dočekuje ih poznati glagoljaš žakan Juri. Prozni i pjesnički tekst obiluju usmenim i autorovim zavičajnim motivima. Kralj Zvonimir malim Zagrepčanima tumači Istru i njezinu ljepotu bogatstvom graditeljske, glazbene i usmene tradicije. Čakavski dijalekt stiha u "Malim glagoljašima" odavanje je počasti glagoljašima, "začinjavcima" hrvatske pismenosti i književnosti. Autor je naglasio likovnu ljepotu glagoljičkog pisma i "mudrost" glagoljice. Čitajući nazive slova glagoljičke azbuke, dobivamo i poruku: "Ja (koji) slova poznajem velim (da) dobro je živjeti". Učeći glagoljička slova djeca se uče potrebi za znanjem, vedrinom i životnim optimizmom. I ne samo to: iz pjesama se dade iščitati da je učenje glagoljice ravno stvaranju ili otkrivanju svijeta. Kralj Zvonimir i žakan Juri povijesne su ličnosti, ali će ih djeca doživjeti kao likove iz legende i predaje, posebno kralja Zvonimira. "Mali glagoljaši" fantastična je dječja priča. Dvojnost predaje (i povijesti) i sadašnjosti prividna je. Prošlost određuje našu duhovnost, našu pripadnost i naš identitet. S kraljem Zvonimirom i žakanom Jurjem djeca se ne mogu identificirati, jer oni nisu mitskoga podrijetla, ali s glagoljašima i Kraljem mogu razgovarati kao s nekim "iz daleke, daleke blizine".