Aphorism as a Holistic Text: Mechanisms of Structural and Semantic Organization

Abstract

The relevance of the undertaken research is due to an integrated approach to the study of aphorism as an integral text. Of particular importance is the inclusion in the scientific paradigm of the study of those communicative factors, extralinguistic and linguistic, which determine the production of the text and its interpretation. The aphorism is considered from the standpoint of communicative stylistics as a special type of text, linguocultural and genre specific. The purpose of the article is to study the main structural mechanisms for the design of aphorism as an integral text and the conditionality of such aphoristic structure of the semantics and pragmatics of aphorism. Research methods form an integral complex, which includes methods of structural-semantic and intertextual analysis, a method of linguistic and philological interpretation. If an aphorism is presented in a literary text as a component of its semantic space and an integral syntactic unit, then it is studied as an integral text, and its semantics acquires a universal meaning, i.e. the structural and functional autonomy of an aphorism is possible only if its original meaning is transformed when extracted from a specific context in the coordinates of a literary text. The mechanisms of the structural and semantic organization of aphorism, identified in the process of research, are determined by certain semantic features of this integral text: first of all, the aphorism should have a laconic volume (no more than three sentences), in the coordinates of which a certain universal idea should be realized that reveals ontological aspects, guides human reflections on the disclosure of universal values, capable of providing answers to important questions of life. The design of an aphoristic statement within an integral text of a larger volume is also conditioned by extralinguistic factors that contribute to the translation of linguoculturally significant meanings using aphorism. The mechanisms of the structural and semantic organization of an aphorism are determined by its significance and expressiveness (taking into account its particular features of expressiveness, emotionality and imagery). Intertextuality can also play an important role in the design of the structure of the aphorism and its functioning in the text.

Keywords

• aphorism
• literary text
• linguistic and stylistic specificity
• structural and semantic features
• context
• pragmatic effect
• value picture of the world