The linguistic ecmhanism for the creation and realization of paradoxes in fiction texts. Sense-making potential of paradox (as exemplified in Carroll L. «Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There»)

Abstract

Paradox is one of the most mysterious and interesting phenomena, which is found in all languages and is studied in logical-philosophical, general linguistic, stylistic, rhetorical and aesthetic aspects. The reflection of nonsense on the real, logical relations of things inevitably leads to the linguistic norms violation. When the inconsistency of the linguistic norm brakes the conventional sense making schemes, resulting in an unusual and unexpected interpretation, paradox arises. Linguistic processes under the influence of the paradox in a fiction text acquire a special logic and meaning. The aim of the article is to identify and investigate the linguistic mechanism by which paradoxes are created and realized in the text of a fiction work; to consider the paradox as a means of meanings formation in the fiction text. The study was conducted at different linguistic levels: syntactic, lexico-grammatical, semantic, graphic, stylistic. The article focuses on the actualization of the contradiction in the fiction work, carried out at all linguistic levels in the form of compositional-syntactic or stylistic-morphological opposition. Linguistic means in together with the identified types of paradoxes create a unique storyline of the work under study. The paradox is considered as an artistic device to reveal the nature of the characters, situations, to achieve against the background of the contradiction in the fiction work a comic effect, implementing the subtle irony of the author. A special method of creating ambiguity is word play, leading to the game with the meaning, which can be both true and false. Playing with meaning generates imagery. This is proved by the presence of a variety of stylistic figures in the text of the fiction work, bright unusual metaphors, phraseological units. It was revealed that the moment of paradox realization in the fiction text coincides with the appearance of metaphors. Metaphorical thinking combines the absurd and logical, associating cognitive structures of past experience and new information, creating additional meanings. It is proved that paradox, like metaphor, possesses a unique potential for sense-making, and is a powerful stimulus for cognitive and creative activity.

Keywords

• nonsense
• paradox
• metaphor
• metaphoric thinking
• imagination
• cognitive structures
• associations
• contradiction
• word play
• sense-making