ЛІНГВАЛЬНІ МАРКЕРИ ОЦІНКИ В АНГЛОМОВНОМУ ХУДОЖНЬОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

Н. Бігунова

doi:10.26661/2414-1135-2025-97-3

Н. Бігунова Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9460-9700

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26661/2414-1135-2025-97-3

Keywords: the category of evaluation, evaluation, discourse, linguistic markers, lexical means, grammatical means, morphology of evaluation

Abstract

The research aims at finding a solution for the challenging problem of identifying linguistic markers of evaluation in English-language fictional discourse. This research had a broad range of objectives. The first objective is the review of the research carried out by foreign and Ukrainian linguists into evaluation criteria, types of evaluative semantics; clarification of the concept of an evaluative continuum and its poles; identification and brief analysis of lexical, grammatical and stylistic means of expressing evaluation used by characters in English-language fictional discourse. Evaluation is embedded in a social context and is studied as an interpersonal meaning from the perspective of discourse semantics. It has been established that in discourse, evaluation is not independent, it is a member of the communication process and it classifies objects in a value-based “picture of the world”. The potential of evaluative statements is realised in speech. The article challenges the traditional distinction of three types of evaluation: neutral, positive, and negative. The understanding of evaluation as a mental judgment has been put forward, which can be an expression of a positive, negative and mixed attitude. The concept of neutral evaluation has been questioned. The paper offers the opposition «evaluativeness» – «non-evaluativeness». If an object belongs to the individual’s sphere of interests, the evaluation is formed: positive, negative, mixed. If an object does not present any interest for the individual, evaluation is not formed either in mind, or in speech. Contextual-interpretive analysis of evaluative utterances said by the characters of modern English-language fiction shows that the speaker’s attitude to the object of evaluation is mainly expressed with the help of lexical means (evaluative adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs). The expressive potential of evaluative adjectives is enhanced by the use of intensifiers, as well as by the use of comparative and superlative degrees of comparison. At the morphological level, the roots of evaluative words acquire an intensified or diminished emotional-evaluative meaning by means of certain affixes, prefixes, suffixes. The most active syntactic markers of evaluation are negative-exclamatory and negative-interrogative sentences. Stylistic markers of evaluation in English-language fictional discourse are epithet, metaphor, irony, sarcasm, repetition, gradation, asyndeton, polysyndeton, and attachment.

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LINGUISTIC MARKERS OF EVALUATION IN ENGLISH FICTIONAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

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