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Artistic Resources of Punctuation in V.V. Nabokov’s Works: from Linguistic to Figurative Sign
 
PIIS160578800023674-7-1
DOI10.31857/S160578800023674-7
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Alexander V. Ledenev 
Affiliation:
Shenzhen MSU-BIT University
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Address: No. 1, International University Park Road, Dayun New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 518172, PRC; 1 Bld. 51 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia
Inessa N. Korzhova
Affiliation:
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Moscow university for industry and finance
Address: 1 Bld. 51 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia; 80 Leningradsky Prospekt, Moscow, 125190, Russia
Journal nameIzvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka
EditionVolume 81 Issue 6
Pages16-25
Abstract

The article examines the artistic resources of punctuation marks in V.V. Nabokov’s works. It is known that the writer closely monitored the preservation of the author's punctuation in the translations of his books and left judgments about Flaubert’s punctuation as a significant stylistic feature. The writer's repeated reference to punctuation marks as a source of metaphors allows us to talk about the semantics of signs. The article focuses on the works of Nabokov, created in two languages and belonging to all three modes of literature. The possibility of considering English-language works together with those written in Russian is due to the mutual interference of the principles of punctuation and the very output of the graphic system beyond the purely linguistic level. The article examines the use of ellipsis, dashes, brackets and exclamation marks as elements of a figurative system rather than punctuation (based on syntax). So, the use of ellipsis and less often dashes is stable to indicate the non-verbalized essence of being, the underside of life. Brackets are associated with the sphere of theatricality in a broad sense, they mark the claims of the characters to authorship in their own lives. It is possible to use brackets to separate several narrative streams. There are cases when the inclusion of the meta description of the sign does not agree with the punctuation that forms these fragments. Such cases indicate the unreliability of the narrator. A special phenomenon is the iconic use of punctuation marks, when their semantic parameters are set by a graphic appearance. For example, the ellipsis visually resembles the traces left, and the brackets are a circle. The dash becomes a visible sign of speed, vector of movement or connection, internal kinship. The considered material allows us to see in Nabokov’s punctuation marks units that have their own semantics, relatively stable throughout the author’s work. We stipulate that this position cannot be applied to every use of the punctuation mark. The cases when punctuation marks become elements of the figurative, and not only the linguistic level, are individualized and determined by the broad context of the work.

KeywordsNabokov, poetics, punctuation, metalanguage level, semantics, iconic sign
Received19.12.2022
Publication date19.12.2022
Number of characters26979
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