Semantic peculiarities of linguistic means of expression modality in fiction (based on the fairy tale by Lewis Carroll «Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland»)

Aim. The article is devoted to the research of the category of modality and the semantic peculiarities of linguistic means of its expression in the genre of fiction. The fairy tale by Lewis Carroll “Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland” published in 1865 was selected as the main research material. The book is considered to be one of the best examples of literary works in the absurd genre. The plot of this tale is based on the improbability of the events, which enabled the authors to study epistemic qualifiers reflecting the degree of probability of this or that event.

Methodology. Applying the methods of entire selection, structurally-semantic and stylistic analysis, the authors described lexical, lexico-grammatical, grammatical and graphical means of modality expression. The statistical method enabled the researchers to make conclusions about the usage frequency of these means.

Results. The authors of the research identified lexical means of modality expression (modal words, verbs with a modal meaning, adjectives, auxiliary verbs, interjections), lexico-grammatical (modal verbs and fixed modal expressions), grammatical (oblique moods, exclamatory sentences, rhetorical questions), graphical (marked words). Apart from this, the authors described the semantic shades of these means (possibility, doubt, certainty, supposition, disappointment, a polite request, advice, recommendation, wish, perplexity, surprise), which reflect emotional involvement and characteristic traits of the tale characters, creating a special coloring and mood of the book.

Research implications. The results of the research along with their theoretical importance may be applied in the pedagogical practice of higher school, particularly in the courses of linguistic semantics, theoretical grammar, stylistics and others.

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