DIRECT SPEECH INTRODUCERS IN FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FEATURES

Lexical means that introduce direct speech in texts and form the key images, the poetics of the work, and the author’s style continue to attract the attention of scholars. However, recently, with the development of cognitive, functional and corpus studies, new aspects of the study of direct speech introducers related to frequency have come to the fore. The relevance of the research is connected to the pragmatic effects of using lexemes introducing direct speech in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”, taking into account their comparative frequency. The aim of the article is to present the results of a comprehensive analysis of verbs and combinations introducing speech in the aforenamed novel, to give their semantic, stylistic, and frequency characteristics. The novelty of the work lies in the application of actualized taxonomy of linguistic means introducing direct speech, in the combination of linguistic and quantitative methods of their study. Our hypothesis concerns a specific repertoire of lexemes with emotive semantics and a variety of stylistic coloring, introducing direct speech in the novel “Crime and Punishment”. The results of the study were identification and description of semantic groups of verbs and combinations introducing speech in the novel, their pragmatics and style. It was found that one of the most common in this position are words with the seme ‘scream’. Verbs denoting negative emotions are predominant, actively introducing speech kinemas. Verbs demonstrating communicative intentions of speakers, such as prove, beg, insist, are widely used. The frequency of lexemes introducing direct speech of the main and minor characters in the novel have been studied. The results of the study will allow further comparative analysis of texts by F. M. Dostoevsky and other authors, as well as translations of the novel “Crime and Punishment” into Chinese.