This article is devoted to the study of the linguistic personality of Joseph Brodsky. Based on the classification developed by Y. N. Karaulov, aspects of Brodsky's linguistic personality are considered. The author of the article names the dominant elements of the poet's work.
Keywords : linguistic personality, lexeme, concept, intertext.
Статья посвящена исследованию языковой личности Иосифа Бродского. На основе классификации, разработанной Ю. Н. Карауловым, рассматриваются аспекты языковой личности Бродского. Автор статьи называет доминирующие элементы творчества поэта.
Ключевые слова: языковая личность, лексема, концепт, интертекст.
The study of linguistic personality in Russian linguistics is primarily associated with the scientific work of Yu. N. Karaulov. The scientist's definition is considered classic. The linguist writes that linguistic personality is «a personality expressed in language (texts) and through language, a personality reconstructed in its main features on the basis of linguistic means» [4, p. 38]. According to the researcher, this concept is closely related to ethnocultural and national features of individuality, but linguistic personality is not identical to national character; it only reflects its features.
If we consider the levels of the linguistic personality complexes of I. A. Brodsky within the framework of the research of Yu.N. Karaulov, the following features can be identified:
1. The verbal-semantic (lexicon) level includes the fund of grammatical knowledge of the individual. The units of this level are individual words that together make up a verbal-associative network. Thus, a significant lexical layer in the poetic texts of Joseph Brodsky is represented by biblical expressions — lexemes taken from religious texts, as well as semantically processed in the context of the linguistic personality of the poet. The vocabulary in the texts of I. A. Brodsky represents a combination of high and low styles of speech. Thus, various vocabulary layers come together: urban and prison slang, bookish vocabulary, taboo expressions and colloquial speech. For example, in the poem «Frozen Kissel Bank. Hiding in Milk»... (1985) I. A. Brodsky turns to the motif of Christmas, but represents it by combining biblical expressions and stylistically low vocabulary:
«A room with a lampshade. Angels in the distance
chattering like waiters pouring out of the kitchen.
I write to you this from the other end of the earth
on the day of Christ's birth» [3, p. 279].
The lexeme «they are making a noise», the phrase «waiters pouring out of the kitchen» and the biblical expressions «Angels», «Christ» are in the same row — colloquial and elevated vocabulary are combined. In the work «Speech about Spilled Milk» the poet also replaces the high with the low, using debased vocabulary and biblical expressions in some poetic lines: « Drug addicts will pin shoulder straps on themselves. / They will hang a syringe instead of an icon / Of the Savior and Saint Mary» [2, p. 187].
I. A. Brodsky also frequently turns to mythologemes. This is due to the poetic interest in the chronotope of Antiquity, as well as to the mythological images generated in that era. The vocabulary associated with Antiquity is frequently represented by anthroponyms (names of heroes and gods: Urania, Muse, Odysseus, Opheus, Artemis, Dido, Aeneas, etc.), toponyms (Lethe (river), Hades, Ithaca, Carthage, etc.). The familiar antique images in the poetic text of Joseph Brodsky are «overgrown» with new contexts associated with the conceptual picture of the world of the author.
2. The linguacognitive level (thesaurus) captures the «image of the world» or the system of knowledge about the world of the individual. At this level, we can also talk about concepts that reflect the individuality of human consciousness. The poet’s works include such concepts as Memory, Time and Space, Man and Thing, Nobody and Nothing, House-Foreign Land, Loneliness, which are interconnected with each other and can intersect. For example, the concepts Nobody and Nothing and House-Foreign Land are characterized by semantic interaction: « Everything in the house is alien to the new tenant. / A hasty glance slides over all the objects, / Whose shadows are so unbecoming to the stranger, / That they themselves suffer from this. / But the house does not want to be empty any longer » [1, p. 184]. In the poetic text «Everything is alien in the house to the new tenant», the lyrical hero is an alien, he left his home, so he is nobody in this new world for him.
3. The motivational level reflects the pragmaticon of the personality, that is, the system of its goals, motives, attitudes and intentionalities. The author encodes the meaning of the text, creates images that the reader must decode. The addressee deciphers these meanings and images as he personally understands them, based on cultural and linguistic knowledge. In addition, the main text- and meaning-forming category in the work of I. Brodsky is intertextuality. The author reveals the cognitive base of the reader: will he be able to decipher and determine the contexts of Russian and world culture and literature within the author's images. In one text, I. Brodsky can use several intertexts, the specificity of their functioning is that they can overlap one another. Thus, Joseph Brodsky builds the text «Petersburg Novel» from Pushkin's images, creating a mosaic of «other voices». In his author's text, a reference to several heroes from the works of A. S. Pushkin becomes obvious. This is Evgeny from the poem «The Bronze Horseman», Evgeny Onegin, Aleko from the text «Gypsies»: « Aleko, Lord, Aleko, / just get out alive. / Aldan, the twentieth century, / praise to the field seasons » [1, p. 58]. The reference to Pushkin's work is contained in the very title of this poetic text, because the city on the Neva associatively refers to the image of the Russian poet. Also in the text of I. Brodsky, in addition to the famous characters, Pushkin's lines from the work «The Prisoner» are recreated in the author's manner: « As along the brown barracks, / I look through the dark bars » [1, p. 49]. Thus, Joseph Brodsky creates a hypertext consisting of many «echoes» with other texts. The work of I. Brodsky is a new dimension of poetry, a space in which many «voices» and elements of other texts intersect. The content, ideology and subject matter in the poetic texts of I. A. Brodsky are heterogeneous. The author's works contain the voices of other writers and poets, hence the heterogeneity of the author's communicative intention.
Thus, the poet’s linguistic personality in all its versatility is manifested in the texts he creates as a continuer of the traditions of Russian literature, which is why his poetic texts frequently contain archetypal images, plots and motifs of national literature.
References:
- Бродский, И. А. Сочинения Иосифа Бродского: в 7 т. — Т. 1. — СПб.: Пушкинский фонд, 2001. — 304 с. — С. 184.
- Бродский, И. А. Сочинения Иосифа Бродского: в 7 т. — Т. 2. — СПб.: Пушкинский фонд, 2001. — 440 с. — С. 187.
- Бродский, И. А. Сочинения Иосифа Бродского: в 7 т. — Т. 3. — СПб.: Пушкинский фонд, 2001. — 312 с. — С. 279.
- Караулов, Ю. Н. Русский язык и языковая личность: монография. — Изд. 7-е. — М.: ЛКИ, 2010. — 264 с. — С. 38.
