THEMATIC LEXICAL-SEMANTIC FIELDS OF PHYSICALITY, ISOLATION AND ABSURDITY: LEXICAL EXPLAINERS (BASED ON THE NOVEL “SON OF SHADOWS” BY OLES ULYANENKO)

Abstract

The article presents linguistic and stylistic markers that construct thematic lexical and semantic fields. It has been revealed that lexical explicants form thematic semantic fields referring to human corporeality and illness; social isolation and marginality; the grotesque and the absurd; the medical and the pathological; children and generation; and the animal and the zoomorphic. Using the example of Oles Ulyanenko’s novel “Son of the Shadow”, the combination of these thematic semantic fields with obscene vocabulary is illustrated, which collectively constructs emotional dissonance and induces in the speech activity of the linguistic subject a sense of threat and dehumanization of both oneself and others. The systematization of lexical markers and stylistic components is represented with the help of infographics. The functioning of these means as both emotional manifestation and construction is described. The functional-pragmatic level, within which a typology was developed – expressiveness, social criticism, and psychological impact – is outlined and analyzed. It was found that expressiveness is explicated by lexical components that form thematic fields denoting destruction in it’s various forms and manifestations; social criticism is manifested in the linguistic subject’s discourse through the dehumanization of the human by combining medical metaphors with animal imagery; psychological impact is marked by the accumulation of lexical components denoting discomfort, psychological rejection, and so on. The analysis confirms that thematic semantic fields of corporeality, illness, isolation, and other destructive manifestations, when combined with obscene vocabulary, construct a linguo-stylistic mechanism for representing emotional dissonance and also serve as a tool for the author’s reflection on the limits of humanity. The methodological basis for identifying and describing these thematic semantic fields is the developed typology, visualized through infographics, which illustrates a communicative strategy that combines shock and irony in the text.