Temporal Models of Expansion of the Present Tense in the Grammatical System and Literary Text (With Reference to Krokhotki by A. I. Solzhenitsyn)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to carry out a conceptual analysis of the usage of present forms in the mini-stories Krokhotki (Eng. Miniatures or Prose Poems) by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. The author tries to show the relevance of grammatical semantics to the study of perception of time in a given language community. The features of the Russian tense system are defined by the interaction of tense and aspect. Imperfective present forms express all types of present semantics bringing together the current, generalised, and metaphorical present (Praesens Historicum). Thus, there appears a mechanism of expansion of the present in the Russian language. The image of time in the Krokhotki, defined in literary studies as “coarsening of a moment”, becomes particularly important in connection with the comprehension of changes in the perception of ontological parameters of time described in sociology. Such changes occur under the influence of modern computer technologies and the global Internet. More particularly, the notions of experiencing a moment in a linear flow of time, and the boundaries of the present time change. The model of time in Krokhotki is characterised, on the one hand, by the effects of time dilation and concentration of the narrator on the current moment with maximum detail of all aspects of the depicted events, and on the other — by the expansion of boundaries of the current moment due to its generalisation. This is how the full conceptual potential of the present tense is implemented. A wide range of grammatical semantics of the present tense allows for the creation of a multi-dimensional image of time, revealing the value of life moments with maximum detail of all aspects of the depicted events and generalisations of their significance. Such an image of a moment of time serves as a semantic dominant of the whole literary work consisting of 17 miniatures. The composition of two cycles of miniatures in the Krokhotki is very important for the image of time, too; each cycle ends in miniatures in the form of prayers. As a literary genre, the poetic prayer, keeping the basic features of a religious prayer, gets some features inherent in lyrical literary work: it allows the artist to reveal the deep layers of the creative and the human “I” and to express what generally refers to the area of the ineffable. The analysis of temporal patterns of language is important to determine the cognitive landmarks in the cognition of time ontology preserved in the Russian language.

Keywords

• темпоральные модели
• настоящее время
• филологический анализ художественного текста
• А. И. Солженицын
• «Крохотки».