Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Jul 2024)
Antonyms in 19th-Century Prose: Quantitative Analysis and Its Idiostylistic Interpretation
Abstract
This article explores the use of corpora to identify characteristic and individual authorial peculiarities in the use of antonyms in nineteenth-century prose, based on sources such as major antonym dictionaries and corpora for texts by A. P. Chekhov, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, and L. N. Tolstoy. The analytical unit in question is a lexical bigram, i.e. two words in a single phrase, five words apart — left or right. The selection consists of 1933 antonym pairs in context. Comparative statistical analysis has revealed the existence of antonyms used by all the authors in question, a certain “core” of Russian literary antonymy. The most ubiquitous are juxtapositions with semantics such as: alive and dead, good and evil, as well as categories of time, space and emotion. The author identifies textual preconditions for the emergence of antonymous pairs. They are reflections on complex questions of existence, human psychology, interpersonal relationships, social life, etc. Antonyms are often used to describe a person’s appearance, character and psychological state. The article identifies idiostylistic features of the use of antonyms in the works of five Russian writers. A. P. Chekhov’s works are characterised by the use of antonyms to describe emotional and physical qualities of a person. In Dostoevsky, antonymy is prominent in themes of belief and disbelief. I. A. Goncharov points to controversies in the philosophy of life, while in Frigate “Pallada” he appears as a traveller, noting contrasting or complementary qualities of different ethnic groups. Rare examples of authorial use of antonymy in Turgenev’s work support the idiostylistic importance of emotional traits. Antonymy in Tolstoy’s prose is primarily linked to social and family spheres, to the understanding of history, and to the development of the state. The article outlines further directions for research on authorial antonyms based on a wider range of material.
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