Individual Style of Dostoevsky: Dimensions of Investigation

Abstract

The article examines the existing approaches to the study of the individual style of the writer. We call these approaches models of individual style. We distinguish lexical model, syntactical model, narrative model and the model of intertextual relations. Specific features of the lexical model consist of the frequency distribution of certain words in text formation. The frequency distribution of lexical items reflects the importance of certain meanings and conceptual areas for a given author. The syntactic model of individual style is based on identifying characteristic syntactic constructions that have a high frequency rank for a particular author. The narrative model characterizes the way the story is organized. The units of the narrative model are the components of the plot and the operations that are performed on these components (moving, eliminating fragments of the narrative, combining episodes and scenes, introducing some components of the plot into others). Intertextual relations, that is, a set of semantic and formal references to other texts of the same or other authors, form an intertextual model, which also is unique for every writer. The above mentioned models complement each other and, taken together, make it possible to describe the specific features of the unique speech practices of the writer. Models of individual style are illustrated by the examples from Dostoevskys works. Modern corpus data technologies make it possible to more strictly develop the models of individual style, enhancing their objectivity by the implementation of quantitative methods. This article is a part of a project, initiated by Yu.N. Karaulov and E.L. Ginzburg.