The language of fiction, its originality, linguistic means. Language of fiction

Stylistics is a developed area of ​​the science of literature, which has a rich and fairly strict terminology. The palm in constructing the theory of artistic speech belongs to the formal school (V.B. Shklovsky, R.O. Yakobson, B.M. Eikhenbaum, G.O. Vinokur, V.M. Zhirmunsky), whose discoveries had a serious impact on subsequent literary criticism. Particularly important in this area are the works of V.V. Vinogradov, who studied artistic speech in its correlation not only with the language that meets the literary norm, but also with the common language.

The concept and terms of stylistics have become the subject of a number of textbooks, in the first place among which it is natural to put the books of B.V. Tomashevsky, which retain their relevance to this day. Therefore, in our work, this section of theoretical poetics is given concisely and summarily, without characterizing the corresponding terms, which are very numerous (comparison, metaphor, metonymy, epithet, ellipsis, assonance, etc.).

§ 1. Artistic speech in its connections with other forms of speech activity in literature

The speech of literary works, like a sponge, intensively absorbs a variety of forms of speech activity, both oral and written. For many centuries, writers and poets have been actively influenced oratory and principles of rhetoric. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the ability to “find possible means of persuasion regarding any given subject.” Originally (in Ancient Greece) rhetoric is a theory of eloquence, a set of rules addressed to speakers. Later (in the Middle Ages), the rules of rhetoric were extended to the writing of sermons and letters, as well as to literary prose. The purpose of this field of knowledge is to “teach the art of creating texts of certain genres” - to encourage speakers to speak in a way that is impressive and persuasive; the subject of this science is “conditions and forms of effective communication.”

Rhetoric has provided rich food for literature. Over the course of a number of centuries, artistic speech education (especially in the field of high genres, such as epic, tragedy, ode) was guided by the experience of public, oratorical speech, subject to the recommendations and rules of rhetoric. And it is no coincidence that the “pre-romantic” eras (from antiquity to classicism inclusive) are characterized as a stage of rhetorical culture, the features of which are “the cognitive primacy of the general over the particular” and “the rational reduction of a specific fact to universals.”

During the time of romanticism (and later), rhetoric in its significance for literature began to cause doubt and distrust. So, V.G. Belinsky, in articles of the second half of the 1840s, persistently contrasted the rhetorical principle in the works of writers (as outdated) with naturalness, which is good for modern times. By rhetoric he meant “a voluntary or involuntary distortion of reality, a false idealization of life.” Literature by that time had noticeably weakened (although not completely eliminated) its long-standing connections with oratorical floridity.

European culture, noted Yu.M. Lotman, during the 17th–19th centuries. evolved from an attitude towards observance of rules and norms - from rhetorical complexity (classicism) to stylistic simplicity. And informal conversational speech, not dictated by the principles of rhetoric, more and more insistently moved to the forefront of verbal art. Creativity of A.S. Pushkin in this regard is, as it were, at the turn, at the “junction” of two traditions of speech culture. His works often constitute a fusion of rhetorical and colloquial speech. Also significant is the barely noticeable parody of the oratorical introduction to the story “The Station Agent,” the tonality of which is sharply different from the subsequent ingenuous narrative; and stylistic heterogeneity of “The Bronze Horseman” (odic

introduction and a sad, unadorned story about the fate of Eugene); and the difference in the speech manner of the heroes of “Mozart and Salieri”, conversationally easy in the first and rhetorically elevated, solemn in the second.

Spoken speech(linguists call it “uncodified”) is associated with communication (conversations) of people, primarily in their private lives. It is free from regulation and tends to change its forms depending on the situation. Conversation(conversation) as the most important form of human culture strengthened and declared itself already in antiquity. Socrates in Plato's dialogues "Protagoras" and "Phaedo" says: "Mutual communication in conversation is one thing, but public speaking is quite another." And he notes that he himself is “not at all involved in the art of speech,” for the speaker is often forced to say goodbye to the truth in order to achieve his goal. In his treatise “On Duties” (Book 1. § 37), Cicero characterized conversation as a very important “link” of human life: “oratory speech is of great importance in gaining fame,” but “affection attracts the hearts of people.” and accessibility of conversation." Conversation skills have formed a powerful, centuries-old cultural tradition that is now in crisis.

Conversation as the most important type of communication between people and the colloquial speech that carries it out are widely reflected in Russian classical literature. Let us remember “Woe from Wit”, “Eugene Onegin”, poems by N.A. Nekrasov, novels and stories by N.S. Leskov, plays by A.N. Ostrovsky and AP. Chekhov. Writers of the 19th century, one might say, reoriented themselves from declamatory-oratorical, rhetorical-poetic formulas to everyday, relaxed, “conversational” speech. So, in Pushkin’s poems, according to L.Ya. Ginzburg, a kind of “miracle of transforming an ordinary word into a poetic word” occurred,

It is significant that in the 19th–20th centuries. Literature in general is perceived by writers and scientists as a unique form of interview (conversation) between the author and the reader. According to the English novelist R. Stevenson, “literature in all its forms is nothing more than the shadow of a good conversation.” A.A. Ukhtomsky considered the fundamental basis of all literary creativity to be an unquenchable and insatiable thirst to find an interlocutor after one’s heart. Writing, according to the scientist, arises “out of grief” - “due to the unsatisfied need to have an interlocutor and friend in front of you.”

Such judgments by Barthes are based on the concept of “archewriting” put forward by the modern French philosopher J. Derrida. Its essence is as follows: in the history of world culture, writing is primary in relation to oral speech; it is based on the play of consciousness seeking a “sign expression.” This game is called archewriting. Derrida suggests that Socrates did not exist at all, that his image is an invention of Plato, his hoax for the sake of his own glory.

In writing, according to Barthes and Derrida, the word loses its personal and communicative character, which, we note, corresponds to much in the artistic practice of recent decades (for example, the French “new novel”). The orientation of literature - if we bear in mind its centuries-old experience - towards written forms of speech, however, is still secondary in relation to its connections with oral speaking.

“Absorbing” various forms of non-fictional speech, literature easily and willingly allows deviations from the linguistic norm and carries out innovations in the sphere of speech activity. Writers and poets are able to act as language creators, a clear example of this is the poetry of V. Khlebnikov. Artistic speech not only concentrates the riches of national languages, but also strengthens and further creates them. And it is in the sphere of verbal art that the literary language is formed. An indisputable confirmation of this is the work of A. S. Pushkin.

§ 2. Composition of artistic speech in literature

Artistic speech means are heterogeneous and multifaceted. They constitute a system, which was emphasized in the writings written with the participation of P.O. Jakobson and J. Mukarzhovsky “Theses of the Prague Linguistic Circle” (1929), which summarizes what the formal school has done in the field of studying poetic language. The main layers of artistic speech are indicated here.

This is, firstly, lexical and phraseological means, i.e., a selection of words and phrases that have different origins and emotional “sounds”: both commonly used and non-commonly used, including new formations; both native and foreign languages; both meeting the norm of literary language and deviating from it, sometimes quite radically, such as vulgarisms and “obscene” language. Adjacent to lexico-phraseological units are morphological(actually grammatical) phenomena of language. These are, for example, diminutive suffixes rooted in Russian folklore. One of the works of P.O. is devoted to the grammatical side of artistic speech. Yakobson, where the experience of analyzing the system of pronouns (first and third person) in Pushkin’s poems “I loved you...” and “What’s in my name” was undertaken. “Contrasts, similarities and contiguities of different tenses and numbers,” the scientist asserts, “verbal forms and voices actually acquire a leading role in the composition of individual poems.” And he notes that in this kind of poetry (ugly, that is, devoid of allegories), “grammatical figures” seem to suppress allegorical images.

This is, secondly, speech semantics in the narrow sense of the word: figurative meanings of words, allegories, tropes, primarily metaphors and metonymies, in which A.A. Potebnya saw the main, even the only source of poetry and imagery. In this aspect, artistic literature transforms and further creates those verbal associations with which the speech activity of the people and society is rich.

In many cases (especially characteristic of poetry of the 20th century), the boundary between direct and figurative meanings is erased, and words, one might say, begin to wander freely around objects without directly denoting them. In most of St.'s poems. Mallarmé, A. A. Blok, M.I. Tsvetaeva, O.E. Mandelstam, B.L. Pasternak is dominated not by ordered reflections or descriptions, but by outwardly confused self-expression - speech “excitedly”, extremely saturated with unexpected associations. These poets liberated verbal art from the norms of logically organized speech. The experience began to be embodied in words freely and uninhibitedly.

The bow began to sing. And the clouds are stuffy

He stood over us. And nightingales

We dreamed about it. And the camp is obedient

Slipped into my arms...

It was not the nightingale that sang,

When the string broke,

All around she sobbed and rang,

Like silence in a spring grove...;

How is it, in the sobbing sounds

The May thunderstorm was approaching...

Shy hands came closer,

And the closed eyes burned...

The imagery of this Blok poem is multifaceted. Here is an image of nature - forest silence, the singing of a nightingale, a May thunderstorm; and an excited story-memory of a rush of love passion; and a description of the impressions of the sobbing sounds of the violin. And for the reader (by the will of the poet) it remains unclear what is reality and what is a product of the fantasy of the lyrical hero; where is the boundary between what is indicated and the speaker’s mood. We are immersed in a world of experiences that can only be described in this way - in the language of hints and associations. “Is a thing the master of words? - wrote O.E. Mandelstam, referring to contemporary poetry. - The word is Psyche. The living word does not designate an object, but freely chooses, as if for housing, this or that objective significance, thinginess, a lovely body. And the word wanders freely around the thing, like a soul around an abandoned but unforgotten body.”

Further (thirdly, fourthly, fifthly...) artistic speech includes layers addressed to the reader’s inner ear. These are the beginnings of intonation-syntactic, phonetic, rhythmic, to which we will turn.

§ 3. Literature and auditory perception of speech

Verbal and artistic works are addressed to the auditory imagination of readers. “All poetry, at its very origin, is created for perception by the ear,” noted Schelling. Artistically significant (especially in poetic speech) phonetic side of works, on which at the beginning of our century German “auditory philology” was focused, and after it - representatives of the Russian formal school. The sound of artistic speech is interpreted by scientists in different ways. In some cases, it is argued that the speech sounds (phonemes) themselves are carriers of a certain emotional meaning (for example, L. Sabaneev believed that “A” is a joyful and open sound, and “U” expresses anxiety and horror, etc.). In other cases, on the contrary, it is said that the sounds of speech themselves are emotionally and semantically neutral, and the artistic and semantic effect is created by combining this sound composition with the subject-logical meaning of the utterance. B.L. Pasternak argued: “The music of the word is not an acoustic phenomenon at all and does not consist in the euphony of vowels and consonants, taken separately, but in the relationship between the meaning of speech and its sound.” The origins of this view of the phonetics of artistic speech are in the philosophy of language developed by religious thinkers of the early 20th century: the name-slavists, as well as S.N. Bulgakov, who argued that “without a sound body there is no word” and that the secret of speech lies in the “fusion” of the meaning of words with their form. The connection in a literary word between sound and meaning (name and object), denoted by the terms onomatopoeia And sound meaning, examined in detail by V.V. Veidle. The scientist argued that sound meaning is born from the organic combination of the sounds of words with intonation, rhythm, as well as the direct meaning of the statement - its “banal meaning”.

In the light of such an interpretation of artistic phonetics (as it is often called - euphony, or sound writing), the concept paronymies, widely used in modern philology. Paronyms are words that have different meanings (same root or different roots), but are close or even identical in sound (betray - sell, campaign - company). In poetry (especially of our century: Khlebnikov, Tsvetaeva, Mayakovsky) they act (along with allegories and comparisons) as a productive and economical way of saturating speech with emotional and semantic meaning.

A classic example of filling an artistic statement with sound repetitions is the description of the storm in the chapter “Sea Mutiny” of the poem by B.L. Pasternak “Nine hundred and fifth year”:

Antediluvian space

It becomes furious with foam and wheezes.

Swift surf

Goes Satan

From the rush of work.

Everything is falling apart

And in its own way it howls and dies,

And, a pig from the mud,

It hits the piles in its own way.

Phonetic repetitions are present in the verbal art of all countries and eras. A.N. Veselovsky convincingly showed that folk poetry has long been closely attentive to the consonances of words, that sound parallelism is widely represented in songs, often in the form of rhyme.

Along with the acoustic-phonetic, another is also important, closely related to it, intonation-voice aspect of artistic speech. “A bad artist of prose or verse is one who does not hear the intonation of the voice that composes his phrase,” noted A. Bely. The same can be said about the reader of works of fiction. Intonation is a set of expressively significant changes in the sound of the human voice. The physical (acoustic) “carriers” of intonation are the timbre and tempo of the sound of speech, the strength and pitch of the sound. A written text (if it is subjectively colored and expressive) bears a trace of intonation, which is noticeable primarily in syntax statements. The writer’s favorite type of phrase, the alternation of sentences of various kinds, deviations from the syntactic “stereotype” of emotionally neutral speech (inversions, repetitions, rhetorical questions, exclamations, appeals) - all this creates the effect of the presence of a living voice in the literary and artistic text. The meaning of intonation in poetic works and its types (chanted, declamatory, spoken verse) is discussed in the work of B.M. Eikhenbaum "Melody of Russian lyric verse". The intonation and vocal expressiveness of speech gives it a special quality - the flavor of unintentionality and improvisation: there is a feeling of the momentary emergence of a statement, the illusion of its creation as if in our presence. At the same time, the intonation-voice principles of artistic speech (as well as phonetic ones) give it an aesthetic character in the original and strict sense: the reader perceives the work not only with the power of imagination (fantasy), but also with inner hearing.

§ 4. Specifics of artistic speech in literature

The question of the properties of artistic speech was intensively discussed in the 1920s. It was noted that in verbal art the aesthetic function of speech dominates (P.O. Yakobson), that artistic speech differs from everyday speech in its focus on expression "(B.V. Tomashevsky). In the work that summed up what the formal school has done in the field of studying poetic language, we read : “Poetic creativity strives to rely on the autonomous value of the linguistic sign<…>Means of expression<…>those who strive to automate in the activity of communication, in poetic language strive, on the contrary, to actualize<…>The organizing means of poetry is precisely the focus on verbal expression.” It is also said that in art (and only in it) attention (both the poet and the reader) is directed “not to the signified, but to the sign itself.” Rightly emphasizing the enormous importance of speech forms in literary works, representatives of the formal school at the same time contrasted “poetic language” with “language of communication” with excessive harshness.

Later judgments about artistic speech are free from such extremes. Yes, Tsv. In the 1970s, Todorov largely complemented and deepened the concept of poetic language, developed half a century earlier. The scientist relies on the concept discourse. This is a kind of linguistic community given after the language, but before the utterance. Discourses are distinguished: scientific, everyday-practical (within its framework - epistolary), official-business, literary-artistic (within the latter - genre discourses). Todorov argues, firstly, that each of the discourses has its own norms, rules, trends in speech production, its own principles of organizing utterances, and, secondly, that the discourses are not separated by rigid (impassable) boundaries and invariably interact. And he concludes: there are no rules for all literary phenomena without exception and only for them alone; the features of “literariness” are also found outside of literature, and in it itself - not always to the fullest extent. According to the scientist, there is no homogeneous literary discourse. In Todorov’s concept, the traditional, going back to the formal school, “the opposition between literature and non-literature gives way to a typology of discourses” that are largely similar to each other. The most important thing is that the scientist sees the specificity of literary discourse not only in the speech fabric of the work, but also in its subject composition, which is deeply significant. The essence of literature, writes Todorov, referring to fiction, is that it “uses sentences that are neither true nor false from a logical point of view.” And he notes that verbal art is characterized by “a tendency towards orderliness and actualization of all symbolic possibilities inherent in the sign.”

So, the speech of literary works is much more than other types of statements, and, most importantly, it necessarily gravitates towards expressiveness and strict organization. In its best examples, it is maximally saturated with meaning, and therefore does not tolerate any redesign or reconstruction. In this regard, artistic speech requires the perceiver to pay close attention not only to the subject of the message, but also to its own forms, to its integral fabric, to its shades and nuances. “In poetry,” wrote P.O. Jacobson, “any speech element turns into a figure of poetic speech.”

In many literary works (especially poetic ones), the verbal fabric differs sharply from other types of statements (the poems of Mandelstam and early Pasternak, which are extremely rich in allegories); in others, on the contrary, it is outwardly indistinguishable from “everyday”, colloquial speech (a number of literary and prose texts of the 19th–20th centuries). But in works of verbal art there is invariably present (even if implicitly) expressiveness and orderliness of speech; here its aesthetic function comes to the fore.

§ 5. Poetry and prose

Artistic speech realizes itself in two forms: poetic ( poetry) and non-poetic ( prose).

Initially, the poetic form decisively prevailed both in ritual and sacred, as well as in artistic texts. Rhythmically ordered utterances, notes M.L. Gasparov, were felt and thought of as highly significant and “more than others contributing to the cohesion of society”: “Because of their increased significance, they are subject to frequent and accurate repetition. This forces you to give them a form that is convenient for memorization. It is more convenient to remember something that can be retold not with any words and phrases, but only with specially selected ones.” The ability of poetic speech to live in our memory (much greater than that of prose) is one of its most important and undeniably valuable properties, which determined its historical primacy as part of artistic culture.

In the era of antiquity, verbal art made its way from mythological and divinely inspired poetry (whether epic or tragedy) to prose, which, however, was not yet strictly artistic, but oratorical and businesslike (Demosthenes), philosophical (Plato and Aristotle), historical (Plutarch , Tacitus). Fictional prose existed more as part of folklore (parables, fables, fairy tales) and did not move to the forefront of verbal art. She won rights very slowly. Only in modern times did poetry and prose in the art of words begin to coexist “on equal terms”, with the latter sometimes coming to the fore (this is, in particular, Russian literature of the 19th century, starting from the 30s).

Bearing in mind the prevailing tendency of the centuries-old existence of verbal art, theorists of the 19th century. (Hegel, Potebnya) contrasted poetry and extra-artistic prose. Scientists have focused on examining the differences between poetic and artistic prose works only in our century. Nowadays, not only the external (formal, actual speech) differences between poetry and prose have been studied (the sequential rhythm of poetic speech; the need for a rhythmic pause between the verses that constitute the basic unit of rhythm - and the absence, at least the optionality and episodic nature of all this in artistic -prose text), but also functional differences. So, Yu.N. Tynyanov, introducing the concept of “unity and closeness of the verse series,” showed that verse is<…>as if a “superword” with a transformed, updated and enriched meaning: “Words find themselves inside verse series<…>in stronger and closer correlations and connections,” which significantly activates the semantic (emotional and semantic) beginning of speech.

The forms of poetic speech are very diverse. They have been carefully studied. Poetry is one of the well-developed literary disciplines. There are serious textbooks with references to scientific research in this area. Therefore, poetry concepts and terms (systems of versification, meters and meters, stanzas, rhymes and their types) are not described in our book.

The verse forms (primarily meters and sizes) are unique in their emotional sound and semantic content. M.L. Gasparov, one of the most authoritative modern poeticists, argues that poetic meters are not semantically identical, that a certain “semantic halo” is inherent in a number of metric forms: “The rarer the size, the more expressively it recalls the precedents of its use: the semantic richness of the Russian hexameter or imitations the epic verse is great<…>iambic tetrameter (the most common in Russian poetry. - V.H.) - insignificant. In a wide range between these two extremes there are practically all sizes and their varieties." Let us add to this that, to some extent, the “tonality” and emotional atmosphere of the three-syllable meters (greater stability and rigor of the flow of speech) and disyllabic meters (due to the abundance of pyrrhichs - greater dynamism of rhythm and spontaneous variability of the character of speech) are different; poems with a large number of stops (the solemnity of the sound, as for example in Pushkin’s “Monument”) and a small one (the color of playful lightness: “Play, Adele, / Do not know sadness”). Further, the coloring of iambic and trochee is different (the foot of the latter, where the rhythmically strong place is its beginning, is akin to a musical beat; it is no coincidence that the melodious dance part is always trochaic), syllabic-tonic poems (a given “evenness” of speech tempo) and actually tonic, accent (necessary, pre-ordained alternation of speech slowdowns and pauses - and a kind of “tongue twister”). And so on…

A special flavor for Russian syllabic-tonic verse of the 19th–20th centuries. gives lack of rhyme. Thus, white iambic pentameter, firmly established in poetic dramaturgy after the translation by V.A. Zhukovsky's "The Maid of Orleans" by F. Schiller (mainly thanks to Pushkin: "Boris Godunov", "little tragedies", as well as the poems "He lived between us..." and "Again I visited..."), subsequently became involved in lyric poetry (especially - “Silver Age”) a stable expression of a certain (albeit difficult to define) emotional and semantic principle. A.A. cycles Blok (“Free Thoughts”) and A.A. Akhmatova (“Epic Motifs”, “Northern Elegies”), a number of poems by I.A. Bunin (“In the Steppe”, “Vesnyanka”, “Excerpt”, “In Moscow”, “Aeschylus”, “Sunday”) and Vl. F. Khodasevich (“Monkey”, “Meeting”, “November 2”, “Music”), “Alpine Horn” Vyach. I. Ivanova, “I will not see the famous “Phaedra” ...” O.E. Mandelstam, “Ezbekiye” N.S. Gumilyov, written in this particular meter, despite the seriousness of their differences, are similar in their deep tonality, sublime, leisurely calm, but internally tense. Combining the rigor inherent in verse and the “prosaic” freedom of speech, they convey the kindred attention of the lyrical heroes to the “ordinary” reality close to them, and at the same time they are epically weighty, large-scale, and powerfully capture the spheres of fate, history, and everyday life.

The verse form “squeezes” the maximum expressive potential out of words, with particular force it draws attention to the verbal fabric as such and the sound of the statement, giving it, as it were, the utmost emotional and semantic richness.

But artistic prose also has its own unique and undeniably valuable properties, which poetic literature possesses to a much lesser extent. When turning to prose, as shown by M.M. Bakhtin, the author is exposed to the wide possibilities of linguistic diversity, the combination in the same text of different manners of thinking and speaking: in prose artistry (most fully manifested in the novel) what is important, according to Bakhtin, is “the dialogical orientation of the word among other people’s words,” while as a rule, poetry is not inclined towards heteroglossia and is largely monological: “The idea of ​​a plurality of linguistic worlds, equally meaningful and expressive, is organically inaccessible to poetic style.” Note that the scientist, speaking about poetic style, states not a rigid pattern (in a number of poetic works, such as “Eugene Onegin”, “Woe from Wit”, “The Twelve”, heteroglossia is represented very widely), but a significant tendency in the poetic form (affected by the main image in the lyrics).

Poetry, therefore, is characterized by an emphasis on verbal expression; the creative, speech-making principle is clearly expressed here. In prose, however, the verbal fabric can turn out to be neutral: prose writers often gravitate towards a stating, denoting word, unemotional and “non-style”. In prose, the visual and cognitive capabilities of speech are most fully and widely used, while in poetry its expressive and aesthetic principles are emphasized. This functional difference between poetry and prose is already fixed by the original meanings of these words - their etymology ( etc. - gr 26 ..

The language of fiction is a kind of mirror of literary language. Rich literature means rich literary language. And it is no coincidence that great poets and writers, for example Dante in Italy, Pushkin in Russia, become the creators of national literary languages. Great poets create new forms of literary language, which are then used by their followers and all those who speak and write in this language. Artistic speech appears as the pinnacle achievement of language. In it, the capabilities of the national language are presented in the most complete and pure development.

The artistic style differs from other functional styles of the Russian language by its special aesthetic function. If colloquial speech performs a communicative function - the function of direct communication, scientific and official business - the function of a message, then the artistic style performs an aesthetic function, the function of an emotional-figurative impact on the reader or listener.

This means that artistic speech should arouse in us a sense of beauty, beauty. Scientific prose affects the mind, artistic prose affects the feeling. A scientist thinks in concepts, an artist - in images. The first one argues, analyzes, proves, the second one draws, shows, depicts. This is the specificity of the language of fiction. The word performs an aesthetic function in it.

Of course, this function is characteristic to a certain extent of other styles. Each of them strives to be expressive in their own way. However, for an artistic style, the focus on expressiveness is the main, determining one.

The word in a work of art seems to be doubled: it has the same meaning as in the general literary language, as well as an additional, incremental one, associated with the artistic world, the content of this work. Therefore, in artistic speech, words acquire a special quality, a certain depth, and begin to mean more than what they mean in ordinary speech, while remaining outwardly the same words.

This is how ordinary language is transformed into artistic language; this, one might say, is the mechanism of action of the aesthetic function in a work of art.

The peculiarities of the language of fiction include an unusually rich, varied vocabulary. If the vocabulary of scientific, official business and colloquial speech is relatively limited thematically and stylistically, then the vocabulary of artistic style is fundamentally unlimited. The means of all other styles can be used here - terms, official expressions, colloquial words and phrases, and journalism. Of course, all these various means undergo aesthetic transformation, fulfill certain artistic tasks, and are used in unique combinations. However, there are no fundamental prohibitions or restrictions regarding vocabulary. Any word can be used if it is aesthetically motivated and justified.

Here, for example, is an excerpt from L. Leonov’s novel “Russian Forest,” in which special vocabulary is widely and uniquely used. Its use is motivated by the fact that it is a fragment of a lecture by the hero of the work, Professor Vikhrov.

This is how darkness and disorder sets in in nature. The springs are extinguished, the lakes become peaty, the creeks are filled with arrowleaf and kuga... Thus a monster enters our house, getting rid of which will require immeasurably more effort than we spent on expelling the forest. According to popular belief, the forest attracts water and then releases it in a cloud on its further journey. This means that he harnesses every drop of water into double and triple work. The larger the forests, the more often the rain will touch the ground with the constant two hundred millimeters of precipitation that we receive on average from the ocean per year.

Colloquial speech is close to the language of fiction in its naturalness and simplicity of expression, democracy, and accessibility. It is widely used not only in dialogues, but also in the author’s speech.

Journalism is attracted to fiction by the possibility of an immediate, direct assessment of what is depicted. Artistic speech is an objectified picture of the world. When the writer has a need for evaluation, the need to speak on his own behalf, journalistic digressions appear in the work.

However, such diversity does not lead to chaos or lexical diversity, since each linguistic means in a work of art is motivated meaningfully and stylistically, and all together they are united by their inherent aesthetic function.

Such a wide range in the use of speech means is explained by the fact that, unlike other functional styles, each of which reflects one specific aspect of life, the artistic style, being a kind of mirror of reality, reproduces all spheres of human activity, all phenomena of social life. The language of fiction is fundamentally devoid of any stylistic closure; it is open to any styles, any lexical layers, any linguistic means. This openness determines the diversity of the language of fiction.

One of the features of fiction is artistic and figurative speech concretization.

An important feature of the artistic style is the individuality of the style. Every great writer develops his own style of writing, his own system of artistic techniques.

Masters of words create amazingly vivid visual and expressive means of language (tropes), constantly replenishing its treasury, from which any native speaker can take handfuls of countless treasures.

Epithet and comparison. How many of them have been invented! Many have become habitual and have lost their brightness.

The most amazing and widespread among visual and expressive means is metaphor, or hidden comparison.

Some writers use a very common trope in an original way - allegory, i.e. the embodiment of an abstract concept or idea in a specific artistic image.

Can be very expressive personification - transferring human properties to inanimate objects and abstract concepts.

Very expressive figure of speech gradation- an arrangement of words in which each subsequent one contains an increasing meaning, due to which the overall impression produced by the group of words increases. Gradation allows you to convey the deep experiences of a person in a moment of shock. Here, for example, is how Hamlet’s feelings are described in Shakespeare’s tragedy (translated by Mich. Lozinsky):

Thus, the essence of individuality is not in the absolute novelty of metaphors, images, combinations of words, but in the constant renewal of poetic formulas and their change.

However, clichés are completely unacceptable in the language of fiction - mechanically applied walking epithets, frequently used comparisons that are unable to evoke any emotions, and cliched expressions.

The language of fiction has a strong impact on the literary language and constitutes its main wealth.

Features of artistic speech.

1. Imagery. A word in artistic speech contains not only meaning, but in combination with other words it will create an image of an object or phenomenon. The generally accepted meaning of an object acquires a concrete form, as it were, which makes the object visible, tangible and perceptible.

2. Emotionality. Literary speech is emotionally charged, so it affects the reader, causing appropriate emotions. This feature manifests itself in different ways.

3. Semantic capacity. Artistic speech is particularly brevity, accuracy and expressiveness.

Imagery, emotionality and semantic capacity are achieved through the entire structure of artistic speech by the selection of words, that is, vocabulary, a special combination of words, that is, syntax; phonetic features of the language are often used.

The peculiarity of the language of fiction is that it is an open system and is not limited in the use of any language capabilities. The author of a literary text boldly uses all the resources of the language, and the only measure of the legitimacy of such use is only artistic expediency. Not only those lexical and grammatical features that are characteristic of business, journalistic and scientific speech, but also the features of non-literary speech - dialect, colloquial, slang - can be adopted by a literary text and organically assimilated by it.

On the other hand, the language of fiction is more sensitive to the literary norm, taking into account a large number of prohibitions (the meaning of the gender of inanimate nouns, subtle semantic and stylistic nuances, and much more). In ordinary speech, the words “horse” and “steed” are synonyms, but in a poetic context they are irreplaceable: Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you put your hooves? In M.Yu. Lermontov’s poem “A golden cloud spent the night on the chest of a giant’s cliff...” the gender of the nouns cloud and cliff are contextually significant, serving as the basis not only for personification, but also for creating an artistic image of the poem, and, if you replace them with synonyms, for example, mountain and a cloud, the result will be a completely different poetic work. The linguistic fabric in a literary text is created according to more strict laws, which require taking into account the smallest stylistic and expressive properties of the word, its associative connections, the ability to be divided into component morphemes, and to have an internal form.

A work of art may include words and grammatical forms that are outside the boundaries of literary language and are rejected in non-fiction speech. A number of writers (N. Leskov, M. Sholokhov, A. Platonov and others) widely use dialectisms in their works, as well as rather rude figures of speech characteristic of common speech. However, replacing these words with literary equivalents would deprive their texts of the power and expressiveness that they possess.

Artistic speech allows any deviations from the norms of literary language, if these deviations are aesthetically justified. There are an infinite number of artistic motives that allow the introduction of non-literary linguistic material into a literary text: this includes recreating the atmosphere, creating the desired color, “lowering” the object of the story, irony, means of indicating the image of the author, and others. Any deviations from the norm in a literary text occur against the background of the norm and require the reader to have a certain “sense of the norm”, thanks to which he can assess how artistically significant and expressive the deviation from the norm is in a given context. The “openness” of a literary text does not foster disdain for the norm, but the ability to appreciate it: without a keen sense of the general literary norm, there is no full perception of expressively intense, figurative texts.

The “mixing” of styles in fiction is determined by the author’s intention and the content of the work, i.e. stylistically marked. Elements of other styles in a work of art are used for aesthetic function.

Language, naturally, is inherent not only in literary creativity, it covers all aspects of the surrounding reality, so we will try to determine those specific features of language that make it a means of artistic reflection of reality.

The function of cognition and the function of communication are two main, closely related aspects of language. In the process of historical development, a word can change its original meaning, so much so that we begin to use some words in meanings that contradict them: for example, red ink (from the word black, blacken) or a cut piece (break off), etc. These examples suggest that the creation of a word is the knowledge of a phenomenon; language reflects the work of human thought, various aspects of life, and historical phenomena. It is estimated that there are about 90 thousand words in modern usage. Each word has its own stylistic coloring (for example: neutral, colloquial, colloquial) and history, and, in addition, the word acquires additional meaning from the words surrounding it (context). An unfortunate example in this sense was given by Admiral Shishkov: “Carried by fast horses, the knight suddenly fell from his chariot and left his face bloody.” The phrase is funny because words of different emotional connotations are combined.

The task of selecting certain speech means for a work is quite complex. Usually this selection is motivated by the imagery system underlying the work. Speech is one of the important characteristics of the characters and the author himself.

The language of fiction contains a huge aesthetic principle, therefore the author of a work of fiction not only generalizes linguistic experience, but also to some extent determines the speech norm and is the creator of language.

The language of a work of art. Fiction is a set of literary works, each of which represents an independent whole. A literary work that exists as a completed text, written in one language or another (Russian, French) is the result of the writer’s creativity. Usually the work has a title; in lyric poems, its functions are often performed by the first line. Centuries-old tradition external design The text emphasizes the special significance of the title of the work: during manuscript writing, and after the invention of printing. Various works: typological properties on the basis of which a work is classified as a certain literary family(epic, lyric, drama, etc.); genre(story, short story, comedy, tragedy, poem); aesthetic category or mode of art(sublime, romantic); rhythmic organization of speech(verse, prose); style dominance(life-likeness, conventionality, plot) ; literary trends(symbolism and acmeism).

Fine and expressive means of poetic language. The languages ​​of spiritual culture are more monological: they serve primarily to identify content, whether emotional or mental, but embodied in a completely adequate way. Their essence lies in the flexibility of expressive means, albeit sometimes at the expense of their accessibility: neither a priest, nor a poet, nor a scientist will ever sacrifice accuracy and adequacy of expression in the name of ease of perception. Language came to be seen as expression, art as communication; the result was the grammaticalization of art history. Later, expressiveness, understood as a special function of language, was separated from its proper poetic function, which appears in the reflectivity of the word, in its turning towards itself, or in focusing on the message for its own sake.

Firstly, the speech form of the work can be prosaic or poetic - this is understandable and requires no comment. Secondly, it can be distinguished monologism or heteroglossia. Monologism presupposes a single speech style for all the characters in the work, which, as a rule, coincides with the speech style of the narrator. Heterogeneity is the development of different qualities of speech manners; in it, the speech world becomes the object of artistic depiction. Monologism as a stylistic principle is associated with an authoritarian point of view on the world, heteroglossia - with attention to various options for understanding reality, since the different qualities of speech manners reflect the different qualities of thinking about the world. In heteroglossia, it is advisable to distinguish two varieties: one is associated with the reproduction of the speech manners of different characters as mutually isolated, and the case when the speech manners of different characters and the narrator interact in a certain way, “penetrate” each other. The last type of heteroglossia in the works of M.M. Bakhtin received the name polyphony. Thirdly, and finally, the speech form of a work can be characterized nominality or rhetoric. Nominativity presupposes an emphasis, first of all, on the accuracy of the literary word when using neutral vocabulary, simple syntactic structures, the absence of tropes, etc. In nominativity, the object of the image itself is emphasized, in rhetoric - the word depicting the object. Spoken speech(linguists call it “uncodified”) is associated with communication (conversations) of people, primarily in their private lives. It is free from regulation and tends to change its forms depending on the situation. Conversation(conversation) as the most important form of human culture strengthened and declared itself already in antiquity. The verbal fabric of literary works, as can be seen, is deeply connected with oral speech and is actively stimulated by it. Literary speech often also takes the form of written forms of non-fiction speech (numerous novels and stories of an epistolary nature, prose in the form of diaries and memoirs).

Artistic speech is the first element of literature. This is thinking in images. The material carrier of the imagery of literature is the word.

Verbal and speech structure - to attract attention.

Artistic language = poetic language = external form.

Artistic speech is more correct!!!

A. B. Esin: “Fiction uses one of the existing national languages, rather than creating its own.”

Artistic style - concept, types of speech, genres

All researchers talk about the special position of the style of fiction in the system of styles of the Russian language. But its isolation in this general system is possible, because it arises from the same basis as other styles.

The field of activity of the style of fiction is art.

The “material” of fiction is the common language.

He depicts in words thoughts, feelings, concepts, nature, people, and their communication. Each word in an artistic text is subject not only to the rules of linguistics, it lives according to the laws of verbal art, in a system of rules and techniques for creating artistic images.

Form of speech - predominantly written; for texts intended to be read aloud, prior recording is required.

Fiction uses all types of speech equally: monologue, dialogue, polylogue.

Type of communication - public

Genres of fiction known - thisnovel, story, sonnet, short story, fable, poem, comedy, tragedy, drama, etc.

all elements of the artistic system of a work are subordinated to the solution of aesthetic problems. The word in a literary text is a means of creating an image and conveying the artistic meaning of the work.

These texts use the entire variety of linguistic means that exist in the language (we have already talked about them): means of artistic expression, and both means of the literary language and phenomena outside the literary language can be used - dialects, jargon, means of other styles and etc. At the same time, the selection of linguistic means is subject to the artistic intention of the author.

For example, the character's surname can be a means of creating an image. This technique was widely used by writers of the 18th century, introducing “speaking surnames” into the text (Skotinins, Prostakova, Milon, etc.). To create an image, the author can, within the same text, use the possibilities of word ambiguity, homonyms, synonyms and other linguistic phenomena

(The one who, having sipped passion, only gulped down mud - M. Tsvetaeva).

Repetition of a word, which in scientific and official business styles emphasizes the accuracy of the text, in journalism serves as a means of enhancing impact, in artistic speech can underlie the text and create the artistic world of the author

(cf.: S. Yesenin’s poem “You are my Shagane, Shagane”).

The artistic means of literature are characterized by the ability to “increase meaning” (for example, with information), which makes it possible for different interpretations of literary texts, different assessments of it.

For example, critics and readers assessed many works of art differently:

• drama by A.N. Ostrovsky called “The Thunderstorm” “a ray of light in a dark kingdom,” seeing in its main character a symbol of the revival of Russian life;
• his contemporary saw in “The Thunderstorm” only “a drama in a family chicken coop”,
• modern researchers A. Genis and P. Weil, comparing the image of Katerina with the image of Flaubert’s Emma Bovary, saw many similarities and called “The Storm” “the tragedy of bourgeois life.”

There are many such examples: interpretation of the image of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Turgenev's, Dostoevsky's heroes.

The literary text has author's originality - author's style. These are the characteristic features of the language of the works of one author, consisting in the choice of heroes, compositional features of the text, the language of the heroes, and the speech features of the author’s text itself.

So, for example, for the style of L.N. Tolstoy is characterized by a technique that the famous literary critic V. Shklovsky called “detachment.” The purpose of this technique is to return the reader to a vivid perception of reality and expose evil. This technique, for example, is used by the writer in the scene of Natasha Rostova’s visit to the theater (“War and Peace”): at first, Natasha, exhausted by separation from Andrei Bolkonsky, perceives the theater as an artificial life, opposed to her, Natasha’s, feelings (cardboard scenery, aging actors), then, after meeting Helen, Natasha looks at the stage through her eyes.

Another feature of Tolstoy’s style is the constant division of the depicted object into simple constituent elements, which can manifest itself in the ranks of homogeneous members of a sentence; at the same time, such dismemberment is subordinated to a single idea. Tolstoy, fighting against the romantics, developed his own style and practically abandoned the use of figurative means of language.

In a literary text we also encounter the image of the author, which can be presented as an image - a narrator or an image of a hero, a narrator.

This is a conventional image . The author ascribes to him, “transfers” the authorship of his work, which may contain information about the writer’s personality, facts of his life that do not correspond to the actual facts of the writer’s biography. By this he emphasizes the non-identity of the author of the work and his image in the work.

• actively participates in the lives of the heroes,
• included in the plot of the work,
• expresses his attitude to what is happening and characters