Frame structure of fictional narrative: A linguo-pragmatic aspect (based on V. V. Orlov’s novel “The Apothecary”)

Abstract

The research aims to elucidate the role of frames in the formation and functioning of fictional narratives within a text-discursive space. Based on the authorial digressions in V. V. Orlov’s novel “The Apothecary”, the frames “Recollection” and “Impression” are studied in a linguo-pragmatic aspect. The research is original in that it is the first to explore frames as cognitive structures that organize the process of producing fictional narratives as a foundation of aesthetic communication, thereby defining the ontological characteristics of artistic discourse. As a result, it was found that fictional narratives emerge from the interplay between the reader’s perception of the fictional world and the narrator’s point of view. Without the background knowledge possessed by the reader, the fictional world cannot be characterized linguo-pragmatically as a discursive phenomenon. The sender of artistic discourse constantly compares the author’s imaginative creation with the presuppositional experience of the recipient of artistic discourse, allowing for the deconstruction of frames fixed by ordinary consciousness and simultaneously the creation of frame structures that participate in the formation of fictional narratives, including during the process of metaphorization. Frames objectify the connection between thought and language, verbalizing stereotypical situations. However, in artistic discourse, the standard schemes fixed by frames are subjected to deconstruction, leading to the creation of new frame structures involved in the production of fictional narratives.