Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde

This paper focuses on the indirect means of verbalising the phenomenon of pessimism in the texts of literary fairy tales from the point of view of linguosemiotics. The study aims to identify the linguistic and semiotic means that create the pessimistic discourse of Oscar Wilde's collection The...

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Main Authors: Svitlana Volkova, Valentina Boichuk, Alla Pavliuk, Nataliia Yefremova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University 2023-06-01
Series:East European Journal of Psycholinguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eejpl.vnu.edu.ua/index.php/eejpl/article/view/743
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author Svitlana Volkova
Valentina Boichuk
Alla Pavliuk
Nataliia Yefremova
author_facet Svitlana Volkova
Valentina Boichuk
Alla Pavliuk
Nataliia Yefremova
author_sort Svitlana Volkova
collection DOAJ
description This paper focuses on the indirect means of verbalising the phenomenon of pessimism in the texts of literary fairy tales from the point of view of linguosemiotics. The study aims to identify the linguistic and semiotic means that create the pessimistic discourse of Oscar Wilde's collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Pessimistic discourse is treated as a person-centred type of discourse, represented by a complex system of means that reveals the speaker's pessimistic worldview and is characterised by its aims, style, and tenor. The study employs semantic and lingo-semiotic analysis of the ontological phenomenon of pessimism in fictional texts, using content analysis to ensure the reliability and validity of the results. Furthermore, the four-stage methodological procedure used in this research allows us to define a general literary context of the analysed works, select the research material, determine the frequency characteristics of the symbols as lingo-semiotic means that create the pessimistic tonality and discourse of Oscar Wilde's collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales. The research identifies the symbols of nature (seasons, flowers), the material world (colours, everyday objects), distance and death (as an ontological category) as verbal triggers of the author's pessimism implemented in the narrative through the contextual markers of basic, adjacent and related qualitative features of pessimism reflecting its social, psychological and cognitive aspects. The study contributes to the development of linguistic semiotics, psycholinguistics and discourse studies by enriching the knowledge of idiostyles. The proposed methodology of the given research is considered promising within the framework of different genres.  Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. * Corresponding author: Alla Pavliuk, 0000-0002-6037-4819 allapavliuk@vnu.edu.ua
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spelling doaj.art-9a273023d8134ea9b06ed941cefa62012023-09-03T12:20:13ZengLesya Ukrainka Volyn National UniversityEast European Journal of Psycholinguistics2312-32652313-21162023-06-0110.29038/eejpl.2023.10.1.vol689Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar WildeSvitlana Volkova0Valentina Boichuk1Alla Pavliuk2Nataliia Yefremova3Kharkiv Humanitarian University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy”, UkraineLutsk Pedagogical College, UkraineLesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, UkraineLesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, UkraineThis paper focuses on the indirect means of verbalising the phenomenon of pessimism in the texts of literary fairy tales from the point of view of linguosemiotics. The study aims to identify the linguistic and semiotic means that create the pessimistic discourse of Oscar Wilde's collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Pessimistic discourse is treated as a person-centred type of discourse, represented by a complex system of means that reveals the speaker's pessimistic worldview and is characterised by its aims, style, and tenor. The study employs semantic and lingo-semiotic analysis of the ontological phenomenon of pessimism in fictional texts, using content analysis to ensure the reliability and validity of the results. Furthermore, the four-stage methodological procedure used in this research allows us to define a general literary context of the analysed works, select the research material, determine the frequency characteristics of the symbols as lingo-semiotic means that create the pessimistic tonality and discourse of Oscar Wilde's collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales. The research identifies the symbols of nature (seasons, flowers), the material world (colours, everyday objects), distance and death (as an ontological category) as verbal triggers of the author's pessimism implemented in the narrative through the contextual markers of basic, adjacent and related qualitative features of pessimism reflecting its social, psychological and cognitive aspects. The study contributes to the development of linguistic semiotics, psycholinguistics and discourse studies by enriching the knowledge of idiostyles. The proposed methodology of the given research is considered promising within the framework of different genres.  Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. * Corresponding author: Alla Pavliuk, 0000-0002-6037-4819 allapavliuk@vnu.edu.uahttps://eejpl.vnu.edu.ua/index.php/eejpl/article/view/743english literary fairy tale, indirect indicators of pessimism, linguistic semiotics, pessimism, pessimistic tonality, verbal triggers of pessimism, symbols
spellingShingle Svitlana Volkova
Valentina Boichuk
Alla Pavliuk
Nataliia Yefremova
Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
East European Journal of Psycholinguistics
english literary fairy tale, indirect indicators of pessimism, linguistic semiotics, pessimism, pessimistic tonality, verbal triggers of pessimism, symbols
title Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
title_full Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
title_fullStr Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
title_full_unstemmed Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
title_short Linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
title_sort linguistic and semiotic representation of pessimism in the happy prince and other tales by oscar wilde
topic english literary fairy tale, indirect indicators of pessimism, linguistic semiotics, pessimism, pessimistic tonality, verbal triggers of pessimism, symbols
url https://eejpl.vnu.edu.ua/index.php/eejpl/article/view/743
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AT allapavliuk linguisticandsemioticrepresentationofpessimisminthehappyprinceandothertalesbyoscarwilde
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