Evaluative Utterance in the English Fictional Discourse (19th and the First Half of the 20th Century)

Abstract

The article addresses evaluative utterance, which is considered in terms of its subject-matter, semantics and structure on the material of British and American fictional discourse of the 19 th and the first half of the 20th centuries. The classification of value-related objects of evaluation as reflected in the fictional discourse of the selected periods is presented. The suggested classification incorporates evaluative utterances describing two thematic spheres, i.e. "Human being" and "Surrounding world". The dynamics of positive and negative evaluative utterance types in the period under study is described. The proportion of emotional and rational components in the complex meaning of evaluative utterances is determined. Trends in evolution of semantic types of evaluative utterances in the English fictional discourse of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are brought into the open. Structural types of sentences, in which evaluative attitude is verbalized, are singled out, with their communicative productivity being identified and compared. The structural components of the evaluative predicate are outlined. Frequency value of morphological-and-semantic evaluative means and means of a mixed type is identified in the fictional discourse under analysis. Means of modifying the expressiveness degree in the evaluative utterances are described. The suggested approach to the evaluative utterances in the fictional discourse demonstrates the dynamics of axiological worldview of the speaking community. The growing trends for communicative compression and transparency, for the increase in emotiveness of evaluative utterances and a greater degree of gradation of the evaluative attribute, as well as the corresponding language changes, related to the phenomenon of evaluative utterance, are reflected in the linguistic worldview.