Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Jan 2025)
Stylistically Lowered Lexical Units in Metaphors and Similes in Different Narrative Types (Based on the Material of Modern Russian Prose)
Abstract
This article examines comparative tropes (metaphors and similes) expressed by lexical units belonging to stylistically lower layers of vocabulary: vernacular and jargon, colloquial speech as used in the prose of the early twenty-first century. It is noted that, in contrast to metaphors and similes that function in everyday speech, comparative constructions with uncodified elements in literary prose text are specially modeled to perform figurative and evaluative-expressive functions. The writer’s task is to as plausibly as possible display the linguistic personalities of the characters, their social status and peculiarities of thinking, to tune in to the modern reader’s perception, which reduces the distance between everyday speech and literary language and strengthens the colloquial element in prose. The article refers to novels of modern Russian prose writers such as Sh. Idiatullin, G. Yakhina, D. Rubina, Z. Prilepin, E. Vodolazkin, A. Ivanov, M. Stepnova, O. Slavnikova, etc. The purpose of the work is to determine the functions of stylistically lowered lexical units in comparative tropes and to identify the correlation between such tropes and different types of narrative. Mostly, stylistic lowering occurs when writers use uncodified vocabulary. The article describes its stylistic layers. A distinctive feature of recent times as compared with previous literary periods is noted, such as the presence of computer jargon in modern texts. The study demonstrates that colloquial and slang elements, which are the supporting words of comparative tropes, are found in modern literary prose not only when conveying the characters’ remarks in dialogues, but also in the speech of the narrator both in the first and third person, representing the character’s point of view. In this case, there is an interference of the plane of the narrator and the plane of the character. A comparison of the stylistic registers of metaphors and similes of different characters makes it possible to reveal their characterological traits.
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