Methodological assumptions of revealing Agatha Christie's idiostyle pattern

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Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Methodological assumptions of revealing Agatha Christie's idiostyle pattern

Farman J. Ramazan Postgraduate Student

Kyiv, Ukraine

The article is focused on the methodological assumptions of reconstructing individual stylistic peculiarities of Agatha Christie's detective fiction and her genre innovations she brought to the development the detective fiction. The object of the research is Agatha Christie's detective fiction, which reveals the relationship between the stylistic language means and the personality of the author. The subject of the study is idiostyle, which we understand as a complex system of typical author's markers of different linguistic status, that interact with each other and create a specific idiostyle pattern. They regulate the reader's reflection of textual meanings, objectified in the author's literary text and lead to their adequate understanding. The aim of the study is to compile a general algorithm for describing idiostyle as a meta-means of understanding the content of any literary text, fulfilled through special TIM and idiostyle pattern of a definite author. The tasks to be performed in the course of the study are as follows: to conduct an in-depth multidisciplinary analysis of existing approaches to the investigation of the idiostyle phenomenon; to clarify and distinguish between the notions of idiostyle and its objective subjectivity; to identify the main types of TIM in literary text, which in their interaction constitute a definite idiostyle pattern. In this research, it is proved that idiostyle, in a broad sense, as a system of subjective objectification and implementation of the author's key message that reveals specific themes and ideas of his literary works. In the narrow sense, idiostyle is a number of typical idiostyle markers (TIM) of idiostyle pattern, which can be traced at different language levels (semantic, syntactic, textual, extralinguistic), that help the author perform his creative language activity within literary text. Special attention is payed to typical idiostyle markers which are viewed as units of different language status, which exhibit the properties of stability, frequency, stable connection, perform a special textual function, have a semantic potential of a definite author and interacting with each other create his specific idiostyle pattern.

Key words: idiostyle, idiostyle pattern, detective fiction, Agatha Christie, methodology.

МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ОСНОВИ РЕКОНСТРУКЦІЇ МОДЕЛІ ІДИОСТИЛЮ АГАТИ КРІСТІ

Фарман Дж. Рамазан аспірант

Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка, Київ, Україна

Наукову розвідку присвячено проблемі авторського стилю у сучасній стилістиці загалом та методиці реконструкції ідіостилю Агати Крісті на матеріалі її детективної прози зокрема. У статті простежено, що різноманітність сучасних підходів до аналізу ідіостилю автора як особливої художньої системи спрямована на створення можливих способів виявлення ідіостилю та утвердження його як системи особливих мовних одиниць. У нашому дослідженні ідіостиль потрактовано як категорію художніх текстів певного автора яка виявляє певні стійкі властивості, що можна реконструювати завдяки стилістичному аналізу різних мовних одиниць. У роботі переконливо показано, що стійкі властивості ідіостилю роблять літературні твори автора впізнаваними, дають змогу ідентифікувати або хоча б припустити його авторство. Процес виявлення певного ідіостилю відбувається підсвідомо, але на основі накопиченого читацького досвіду. У нашому дослідженні під ідіостилем у широкому розумінні ми розуміємо систему суб'єктивної об'єктивації та реалізації ключових інтенцій автора, які розкривають його конкретні теми та ідеї. У вузькому розумінні ідіостиль це низка типових ідіостильових маркерів (ТІМ) на різних рівнях мови, а також екстралінгвістичних ознак, які допомагають автору здійснювати творчу мовну діяльність. У статті доведено, що основою для виділення типових ідіостильових маркерів ми вважаємо такі властивості: 1) частотність маркера в художньому тексті; 2) стабільність у всіх аналізованих літературних творах; 3) семантичний потенціал; 4) стійкий зв'язок із функцією, яку виконує в художньому тексті. Освоєння змісту цих специфічних мовних одиниць, які реалізують ТІМу художньому тексті, пробуджує рефлексію читача, яка складається з дій, у яких цей багатий зміст може бути засвоєний. ТІМрозуміємо як загальновизнану мовну одиницю певного ідіостилю, на основі якого триває розгортання наступних рефлексивних актів. Розпізнавання ТІМ є одним із актів рефлексії, який допомагає читачеві проникнути в художній задум автора, не виходячи за межі змісту художнього тексту. З іншого боку, смисли, породжені художніми текстами автора, також демонструють відносну стабільність у його творах і формують основні теми та ідеї його літературних творів. Отже, важливо підкреслити, що текстовий і семантичний рівні ідіостилю тісно взаємопов'язані, оскільки лише через розуміння літературного твору на текстовому рівні читач може вийти на його семантичний рівень.

Ключові слова: ідіостиль, ідіостильовий патерн, детектив, Агата Крісті, методологія.

Introduction

The focus of this research is on the notion of author's specific stylistic system, which is used in modern poetics under the term “idiostyle”. The emergence of this concept is a quite obvious as the consequence of years of different investigations for a large number of researchers who have tried to understand the true nature and essence of individual style of writing. It is impossible to distinguish one generally accepted trend in the multifaceted study of idiostyle, which is traditionally taken out as a background for many linguistic researches [...]. Often, the analysis of idiostyle affects only one particular level of the language system. The fragmentation of such researches initially impoverishes this notion and does not take into account the necessity to make a deeper analysis of its entire stylistic system, in which the originality of the manifestations of one element does not determine the originality of the style as a whole (Babelyuk, 2019 a,b; Koliasa, 2019a, b).

The presentation of the main material

While analyzing contemporary idiostyle studies we may assume that they are mainly devoted to its lexical and semantic features [...]. Idiostyle is viewed as the author's language, is organized in a certain way and in addition to regular lexical component, includes definite phonetic features, syntactic models, as well as extralinguistic factors (cultural and historical peculiarities, genre canons, ideology). In addition to that, idiostyle can be regarded as a special variant of the language use (in this case, we can also use the term “idiolect”), that carries certain typical for a definite author lexical, syntactic and textual patterns that make it quite recognizable.

The development of problems related to individual authoring systems is a current trend in linguistics. Now we can talk about several directions in the contemporary study of idiostyle. The first, the most traditional approach can be considered as linguopoetic. Its history begins with the birth of the term itself. It is the individual incarnation of the author in literary text that aroused the interest of researchers to search for new specific angles of this notion. An essential difference between the studies of idiostyle within the framework of poetics is the appeal to the very linguistic form in its various manifestations, including phonetic, lexical, wordforming, rhythm-forming, syntactic etc. agatha christie detective

In the most general sense “subjective” is an adjective, that describes something that's based on a person's opinions, individual experience, and biased influences instead of facts. For example, literary criticism and interpretations are subjective, because they reflect the critic's opinion of a literary work rather than the author's intent.

Contemporary stylistics considers any literary text as an objectified subjectivity, which is directed by the reader's reflection in order to identify the messages and meanings necessary to understand the content of literary text. Hence, idiostyle can be treated as a manifestation of “subjectivity” in literary text which is provided by different, quite unusual language means, which are consistent and reproducible in these particular literary works by this particular author. In other words, idiostyle can be presented not only as a system of language means, but also as a tool, a number of meta-means for understanding the author's message of literary work as a literary whole.

Functional and stylistic approach tracks idiostyle as a number of definite principles of constructing any text as a whole with special textual statements, specific features of the punctuation system, means of expressive syntax, which reveal some common peculiarities of functional styles, such as, for example, scientific style or belle-letter style. It is worth mentioning that the idiostyle of a scientist differs significantly from the idiostyle of the authors of literary works, since such factors as freedom or limitation in terms of lexical expression play a significant role in the formation of their idiostyles. It is worth mentioning that the individual style of the author of scientific texts tends to the universalization of notions, the stereotype of presentation to bring the reader's understanding as close as possible to the textual meanings that he puts into the text. In other words, all these techniques that are used in a scientific text are aimed at updating the most significant facts, making them clear and simple for understanding. In contrast, in literary text, which is not devoid of emotionality and imagery, as a scientific one, the author can intentionally create an emotional effect by means of metaphorization and imagery, using other stylistic means of indirect nomination.

Functionally dominant field approach. Within the framework of this approach, idiostyle or in other terminology idiolect of a definite writer. In this case, the idiolect of an individual is one of the variants of the national language (for example, W. Scott, R. Burns, Ch. Dickens). However, the idiolect analysis procedure presented in a scientific article is quite voluminous and complex. The identification of dominants and their functional areas requires the ultimate level of abstraction, since any element of the functional field can also become a dominant, the analysis of which includes a number of extralinguistic connections.

According to cognitive approach idiostyle is a two-tiered concept sphere, consisting of the concepts of cognitive structures, which are the result of their interaction. The organization of concepts is represented by various forms: frames, scenarios, conceptual fields, metaphorical and metonymic models. In this case, the individual author's style consists of semantic invariant complexes or metatropes, reflecting the metalinguistic nature of his thinking.

The psycholinguistic approach to idiostyle is based on its understanding as a system of dominant concepts that reflect key features of the author's creative thinking. The concept in this case is understood as an image, a set of meanings derived from the text.

Stylometric approach presupposes the use of statistical data (Burrows, 1992; Hoover, 2008; Uzuner, 2002) and methods of corpus stylistics (Mahlberg, 2013) in the stylistic analysis of literary text. A new branch of linguistics, called stylometry, uses methods of linguistic statistics and formal poetics to analyze a large amount of data and create text corpora, containing language elements at different language levels, lexical units of one author systematized according to the principle of frequency, which reveal the idiostyle features of a particular author and show the difference between his system and other authors' systems.

Communicative and stylistic approach. According to many modern researchers of the problem of idiostyle, the formation of its core is based on the lexico-semantic language basis. Words, or lexical units, form the concept sphere of the author, which makes it possible to understand the essential questions of the author's literary work. This approach considers idiostyle as special individual-author's features of his worldview and textual activity, reflected in literary text as a form of communication, including a dialogue with the reader. Idiostyle within the framework of this scientific paradigm is studied by analyzing various linguistic ways of representing different textual meanings, as well as the semantics and pragmatics of textual units that exhibit the properties of communicative author's universals.

In this research, we understand idiostyle, in a broad sense, as a system of subjective objectification and implementation of the author's key message that reveals specific themes and ideas of his literary works. In the narrow sense, idiostyle is a number of typical idiostyle markers (TIM) of idiostyle pattern, which can be traced at different language levels (semantic, syntactic, textual, extralinguistic), that help the author perform his creative language activity within literary text.

Typical idiostyle markers are viewed as units of different language status, which exhibit the properties of stability, frequency, stable connection, perform a special textual function, have a semantic potential of a definite author and interacting with each other create his specific idiostyle pattern.

In the proposed scheme for analyzing TIM of idiostyle pattern, we can also single out language, stylistic and extralinguistic and interpretative levels (see Fig. 1). Within the framework of the language level, we consider it necessary to analyze lexical, derivational and syntactic markers of idiostyle, as well as the author's punctuation marks and graphic means.

At the stylistic level different stylistic means are analyzed within the framework of a separate level of idiostyle pattern, in which it is advisable to consider markers of indirect nomination and syntactic stylistic markers with the involvement of the scheme of construction of meanings.

The previous two levels of idiostyle pattern are closely connected with the extralinguistic level which often predetermines the choice and use of definite language elements. Here accentual are cultural peculiarities of the time of the author's activity, literary epoch and common genre conventions.

At the interpretative level of idiostyle pattern it is necessary to consider typical plot structure of a literary work, language markers of its spacial and temporal organization and narrative structure, as well as ways of representing the author's modality.

The extralinguistic level may seem not important at all, but it is significant for understanding the literary epoch of the author, common genre convention and hence, the main idea of a literary work. For example, Agatha Christie's detective fiction can be regarded as one of the most recognizable sub-genres of crime fiction, where a narrative, usually written from the point of view of a detective (professional, amateur or retired) about a definite crime which plot hinges present a rather specific image of a detective who keeps clues to himself, making a startling revelation of guilt and innocence in a final meeting of all the characters.

The algorithm of idiostyle analysis consists of а sequential consideration of the previously declared levels of idiostyle pattern:

1. The analysis of special lexical TIM in order to identify metasemantic units using the quantitative and content analysis program;

2. The component analysis of word-building processes in order to identify TIM in the field of author's word creation;

3. The identification of TIM at the syntactic level of idiostyle pattern;

4. The analysis of TIM, which consists in the consistent consideration of special use of copyright punctuation marks and graphic means in literary text;

5. Consideration of typical models of rhythmic organization of literary text. In prose works, rhythm-forming models can be identified by analyzing the syntactic level of idiostyle pattern;

6. Consistent consideration and identification of TIM of building temporal structure of literary works and their spatial organization;

7. The analysis of special semasiological and syntactic stylistic devices as TIM of a definite idiostyle;

8. Finding TIM as tools of representing peculiarities of plot structure, narrative structure and the author's modality;

Conclusion

The notion of idiostyle naturally fits into the anthropocentric paradigm of the study of linguistic phenomena. It is obvious that the development of ideas about the problem of style from an impersonal metaphorical definition of style as an expression of the content of culture to the recognition of the role of the author as the main style-forming factor of the work is quite obvious. The difference between the terms style and idiostyle is manifested in the following: the notion of “style” is applicable to all spheres of human activity, we can talk about the style of communication, the style of the interior, the style of painting, the style of personnel management, etc. This notion comprises a set of certain characteristics, properties or features of an object, phenomenon or process, which are characterized by the integrity of the form of their expression and content. In other words, the concept of idiostyle is the object of scientific research in various areas of linguistics, as it is primarily associated with linguistic manifestations in literary text. The main organizing factor of idiostyle is the personality of the author, who creates a unique artistic reality using an individual version of the national language.

When investigating idiostyle of any author, we must have an idea of a certain invariant scheme for its description, which, in addition to a set of components, will also include the nature of the connections between them, indicate its properties, mechanisms of formation, etc. When solving these problems, it is necessary to synthesize knowledge and achievements in the field of solving this issue using idiostyle pattern scheme, which takes into account and combines the accumulated experience, provides in this case the only correct, to our minds, methodological solution. It allows us enriching the entire experience of idiostylistic description with philological and hermeneutic content, revealing the meaning-forming potential of the author's stylistic features by selecting typical idiostyle markers which compose idiostyle pattern of an individual author.

Bibliography

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References

1. Adorno, T. (2001). Metaphysics: Concept and Problems (R. Tiedemann, Ed.; E. Jephcott, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

2. Babelyuk, O. (2019a). Decoding Poetic Colouring of Detective Stories: Principles of Reading. In traditions and innovations in teaching philological disciplines, 18-36. Liha-Pres.

3. Babelyuk, O. (2019b). Structural Peculiarities of Detective Stories. In vectors of the development of philological sciences at the modern stage, 21-38. Liha-Pres.

4. Clifton, C., Cutler, A., McQueen, J. M., & van Ooijen, B. (1999). The processing of inflected forms. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(6), 1018-1019. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x99272226

5. Dehaene, S. (2014). Consciousness and the brain: Deciphering how the brain codes our thoughts. Penguin Books.

6. Gao, L., Nguyen, D., Moodie, M., Brennan, A., Dinh, D., Reid, C., Duffy, S. J., Clark, D. J., Hiew, C., Oqueli, E., Stub, D., & Ajani, A. (2023). Corrigendum to “temporal change in the remaining life expectancy in people who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention”, The American journal of cardiology, Volume 187, 15 January 2023, 154-161. The American Journal of Cardiology, 190, 125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2022.12.020

7. Gossman, L., Medvedev, P. N., Bakhtin, M. M., & Wehrle, A. J. (1979). The formal method in literary scholarship: A critical introduction to sociological poetics. Comparative Literature, 31(4), 403. https://doi.org/10.2307/1770299

8. Koliasa, O. (2019a). Presentation of Images in Detective Stories. In traditions and innovations in teaching philological disciplines, 142-59. Liha-Pres, 2019.

9. Koliasa, O. (2019b). Detective Stories: From classical al to Postmodern. Definition and History. In vectors of the development of philological sciences at the modern stage, 95-113. Liha-Pres, 2019.

10. Mahlberg, M. (2013). Corpus Stylistics and Dickens's Fiction. Routledge.

11. Wolfflin, H. (1994). Classic art: An introduction to the Italian renaissance (5th ed.). Phaidon Press.