The category of seemingness and its functioning in Herbert G. Wells’s novel “The Time Machine”

Abstract

The aim of the research is to reveal the specific features of the epistemic category of seemingness functioning in an English novel of a science fiction genre. The article undertakes a versatile approach to the phenomenon of seemingness viewed from different angles, namely, a logic-philosophical, psychological and linguistic ones. Linguistic criteria identifying the category of seemingness have been clarified. Scientific originality of the research lies in describing the peculiarities of the category of seemingness as represented in H. G. Wells’s novel. The research findings reveal a diversity of lexico-syntactic denominations of seemingness constituting the corresponding semantic field thus forming its centre or periphery. The modus of seemingness embraces various types of perception, those of a visual, aural, tactile, olfactory and kinaesthetic ones. The results of the research indicate that seemingness in the novel tends to interact with the category of evaluation. As the study shows, the modus of seemingness in the novel is inseparable from the first-person narration describing the incredible events in the world of fantastic future as seemingly indefinite, unverified and illusory.