STRUCTURAL AND TYPOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT GENRE: BASED ON ENGLISH LAST WILLS AND TESTAMENTS OF 1837-1858

Abstract

The article analyses structural and typological parameters of English Last Wills and Testaments of 1837- 1858. The author focuses on the structural peculiarities the studied texts. The following structural components are singled out: title, introduction of a testator, testamentary part, appointing an executor (rix), revocation, and witnessing. Binomial constructions are the characteristic feature of the title of Last Will and Testament and its testamentary part: will and testament, give and bequeath, give and device, order and direct. They strengthen similar or equivalent essentials. The testamentary part of Last Will and Testament is characterized by the usage of determiner said: said wife, said son, said workshop, said daughter. A number of Last Wills and Testaments within the given period have spiritual part, in which the testator gives and bequeaths his soul to God. This part starts with a phrase In the name of God, Amen with some variations. The types of English Last Wills and Testaments are defined: based on property distribution (simple / natural / of mixed type), based on the instructions of the testator (obligations received from the testator and on condition), and based on the testator’s sex. The article also gives introduction to the Acts of the Parliament of England which determine the structure and plot of investigated documents within the given period. Lack of scientific research on Last Wills and Testaments determines the necessity for further research on lexicaland- semantic and lingual-and-pragmatic features of the speech genre of Last Will and Testament.