Linguistic representation of psychotypes in the artistic discourse of W. Golding

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of specific lexical representations of psychotypes in the framework of a work of art. The relevance of this article is that linguists are concerned with studies in the field of functional linguistics and psycholinguistics, in which language is considered within the framework of an instrumental function. The aim of the work is to identify specific tokens that reflect the psychotypes of the characters. The material for the study is the lexemes from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The meanings of selected language units convey the personal touch of Ralphs and Jacks nature. The study used contextual description and structural and semantic approach. The article describes their behavior and speech from the perspective of psychology and psycholinguistics. Ralph is a hypertim and Jack is an epileptoid. The contrast of the boys behavior indicates that the hypertim and epileptoid are not able to find a common language in the distribution of social roles. The characteristics of the psychotypes have an impact on the management of the group. Ralph manages the group in the following ways: relying on humanism, mutual understanding; he jokes to defuse the situation; he encourages the guys to save them from the outside, and tries to awaken the humaneness in the guys. Jack uses the following means of controlling the group: authoritarianism, mental intimidation, physical violence. Authoritarianism is expressed through the use of the imperative. Mental intimidation is achieved by using lexemes that reflect physical influences, insults. In addition, mental bullying occurs through body language (piercing gaze, looking down). In conclusion, the author comes to the following conclusion: psychotypes are transmitted mainly through lexemes that reflect body language; hypertim is reflected through language units with positive or neutral connotations, while epileptoid is expressed through language units with negative and neutral connotations.

Keywords

• psychotype
• imperativeness
• epileptoid
• language units
• hypertemic
• verbal and non-verbal communication
• author’s neologism.