Volume 11 - Issue 55
/ July 2022
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https:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.55.07.3
How to Cite:
Shainer, I., Bekhta, I., Karp, M., Tatarovska, O., & Kovalevska, T. (2022). Lexical combinations of contemporary British military
fiction: lexical-semantic and stylistic features. Amazonia Investiga, 11(55), 29-39. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.55.07.3
Lexical combinations of contemporary British military fiction:
lexical-semantic and stylistic features
Лексичні сполучення у текстах сучасної британської військової прози:
лексико-семантичні та стилістичні особливості
Received: July 20, 2022 Accepted: August 22, 2022
Written by:
Iryna Shainer11
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6316-0026
Ivan Bekhta12
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9848-1505
Marta Karp13
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7332-7739
Olesya Tatarovska14
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9175-2774
Tetiana Kovalevska15
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2885-0731
Abstract
This article focuses on the lexical-semantic
features of the language means of contemporary
British military fiction. Despite the sustained
philological attention to fictional texts of
different genres, the relative disregard of the
lexical patterning in fiction on military themes
stands in need of scrutiny. In order to account for
all the lingual and extralingual factors
influencing the process of fictional text
composition, this article takes a philological
approach and conducts an integrated analysis –
combining linguistic and literary-theoretical
perspectives – of the lexical patterning of
contemporary military fiction. Our aim is to
establish the main lexical-semantic and stylistic
peculiarities of the dominant lexical
combinations in contemporary British fiction
with macro-, meso- and micro-inclusions of
military themes. Functions of the thematic
lexicon connected with the war topic are more
obvious in the literary texts with macro- and
meso-inclusions of military themes. However,
11
Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Faculty of Foreign
Languages, Department of Foreign Languages for the Humanities, Ukraine.
12
Doctor of Philology, Professor, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Department of English
Philology, Ukraine.
13
Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Institute of Computer
Sciences and Informational Technologies, Department of Applied Linguistics, Ukraine.
14
Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Faculty of Foreign
Languages, Department of English Philology, Ukraine.
15
Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor, Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of State Trade and
Economics University, Faculty of Accounting and Auditing, Department of Foreign Philology and Translation, Ukraine.
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their role in the texts with micro-inclusions of
military themes is quite significant as well: the
details of the military environment and
phenomena serve as a means of establishing a
close connection between the reader and the
storyworld; recollections of the war period echo
in the plot line of the characters, reflecting its
destructive consequences even long afterwards.
Keywords: interpretation, lexical combinations,
lexical-semantic space (LSS), literary and
pragmatic stylistics, military fiction (MF),
thematic lexicon.
Introduction
The use of lexical units and their combinations is
highly dependent on lingual and extralingual
(historical, cultural, social, political) factors.
Since such units, thoroughly selected by the
author, influence interpretation of the literary
text, most scholars agree on the relevance of
conducting a deep study of lexical-semantic and
lexical-stylistic peculiarities, as well as
pragmatic orientation of literary texts
(Al-Hindawi and Saffah, 2019; Angermuller,
2014; Black, 2006; Chapman and Clark, 2014;
Hickey, 1993; Warner, 2014).
The popularity and actualization of war themes
in literary genres of the beginning of the 21st
century is predetermined by urgent global
problems of the recent decades. Offering
mediated, symbolic reactions to concrete social
pressures, military plots in fiction are
enormously popular among contemporary
authors and, consequently, in scholarship
(Barlow, 2000; Bergonzi, 1993; Cobley, 1995;
Kaiter, 2016; Sarma, 2001; Smith, 2000). This
article contributes to the study of means of
explication of military topics in fiction (including
different levels of their realization). It offers a
complex analysis of lexical combinations in the
lexical-semantic texture (which is often referred
to as the lexical-semantic space of the text in the
Eastern European school of linguistics) of the
contemporary British military fiction (hereafter
MF) and their lexical-semantic peculiarities,
defining the literary text as a highly organized
semantic unity. It should be noted that by
contemporary British military fiction here we
understand the texts written at the beginning of
the 21st century (2000-2021), whereas Russian
invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is
definitely going to have a peculiar impact on
further works of fiction and will need to be
analyzed as a separate group of texts.
Questions of the Study
This study seeks to answer the following
questions:
1) What are the main lexical-semantic and
stylistic peculiarities of the dominant lexical
combinations in contemporary British
military fiction?
2) What is their role in the texts with macro-,
meso- and micro-inclusions of military
themes?
The scientific novelty of the work lies in the
systematization and generalizing of the dominant
lexical combinations and their features in the
lexical-semantic space of the contemporary
British military fiction in terms of complex
linguistic and literary tradition understanding.
The study would hopefully add to the literature
by shedding light on further study of the latest
British military fiction, in particular: new
peculiarities of the British military fiction
influenced by the recent Russian full-scale
invasion of Ukraine; scientific comparison of the
British military fiction texts of the beginning of
the 21st century and the texts written after the
dramatic events of February 24th, 2022. Findings
of this research are likely to be useful for the
deeper study of the lexical-semantic space of the
text, its threefold expansion (semantic, thematic
and associative) from the complex approach
which includes both linguistic and literary-
theoretical perspectives.
Shainer, I., Bekhta, I., Karp, M., Tatarovska, O., Kovalevska, T. / Volume 11 - Issue 55: 29-39 / July, 2022
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Theoretical Framework
Lexical-semantic space of the text and
interpretation of its lexical units
The lexical-semantic organization of the text
structure has been under close scrutiny in
numerous philological approaches: text
linguistics (Halliday and Hasan, 1976), lexical
semantics (Geeraerts, 2009; Jeffries, 2014; Mills,
2005), communicative linguistics (Gee, 2010a;
2010b), literary stylistics (Hope and Wright,
2005; Shen, 2014; Toolan, 2013), pragmatic
stylistics (Black, 2006; Warner, 2014).
In contemporary Anglophone theory,
philological studies are increasingly focusing on
the problems of semantic structure, lexical-
semantic content and interpretation of the
encoded meaning of the text (Angermuller, 2014;
Geeraerts, 2009). In Eastern European theoretical
tradition, these issues are often referred to as the
lexical-semantic space of the text, which can be
defined as an organized system of lexical units
and their combinations, united on the basis of a
common theme and conceptual meaning and
representing a certain conceptual sphere
(Antipina, 2015, p.4; Popova, 2011, p.115).
Within the lexical-semantic approach, analysis of
the structure in which the word is contextualized
is highly important for the interpretation of its
meaning (Simon-Vandenbergen and Aijmer,
2008, p.21).
One of the main tasks of linguistics is to analyse
how the meaning is encoded in language,
investigating to this end the peculiarities and
models of lexical combinations (Fischer-Starcke,
2010, p. 34). Language of the fictional text
constitutes a distinct area of linguistic study
because lexical means of a fictional text construct
a storyworld as a frame of reference and thus
usually carry an implicit significance, not
peculiar to them in other spheres of language use
(Black 2006, p. 152). Thus, the notion of
meaning of lexical combinations is closely
related to the notion of context and the process of
interpretation. Meaning of a fictional text and of
its separate lexical combinations is actualized
only in the context: “Conversational implicatures
… are rooted in the situation in which they occur,
and must be interpreted taking the context into
account” (Black, 2006, p. 25). Context, as we
stress in this article, also includes the author and
the reader who, in their distinct pragmatic
positions, are active participants in construction
of meanings arising from the situation.
We agree with J. P. Gee (2010a, p. 67) that no
matter which part of the context influenced our
interpretation of the text, “there is always the
possibility of considering other and additional
aspects of the context, and these new
considerations may change how we interpret the
utterance”. The same piece of the text can be
interpreted differently by different people, and
even by one person while re-reading the same
text. Furthermore, a typical interpretation of
lexical combinations, or “figured world” (Gee,
2010a), varies depending on different social and
cultural experiences of readers involved (Black,
2006, p. 153; Fischer-Starcke, 2010, p. 35; Gee,
2010a, pp. 70-71; Geeraerts, 2009, p. 220;
Jeffries, 2014, p. 79; Mills, 2005, p. 123;
Tanskanen, 2006, p. 21).
Thus, a reader is an active participant in the
process of cocreation of text’s meaning: “As
texts are contextually underspecified, they need a
practical instance – the reader – whose
interpretive capacities and contextual knowledge
need to be mobilized in the production of
meaning” (Angermuller, 2014, p. 140). In this
way, the reader deals with a complex
heterogeneous phenomenon, namely, discourse.
We follow M. Hoey’s (2001, p. 11) definition of
the text as a result of a purposeful interaction
between a writer and a reader, and the process of
this interaction is called discourse.
As follows, the lexical-semantic space (hereafter,
LSS) is a unique form of the text comprehension,
which evokes a continuous contest between the
author’s and the reader’s meanings due to which
it is frequently modified. Analysis of the LSS in
the semantic structure of the fictional text
contributes to a detailed understanding of lexical
combinations used by the author, their semantic
content and pragmatic effects on the reader.
British military fiction of the beginning of the
21st century
A work of fiction is an excellent way of
representing reality by language means. Created
in the author’s consciousness, it is a unique
phenomenon reflecting the author’s points of
view, ideas and individual style. Today British
literature involves variety of trends, a significant
part of which is still postmodernism. The lexical-
semantic structure of a postmodernist text has
been studied by Alegre, 2001; Head, 2002;
Hidalgo, 2005; Lindas, 2013; Malcolm, 2002.
In the context of conflicts and social upheavals in
the recent decades across the world, war remains
one of the most popular themes in fiction of the
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beginning of the 21st century. Consequently, the
British MF as a manifestation of an individual
author’s vision and outlook becomes an object of
interest of different linguists (Barlow, 2000;
Cobley, 1995; Hart, 2015; Kaiter, 2016; Sarma,
2001; Smith, 2000).
Methodology
The notion of lexical-semantic space enables
analyzing of the lexical units and combinations
of the text as a complex arranged system. All the
lexical units compose a single semantic entity
and are selected by the author in order to achieve
his / her intention and create specific effects on
the reader. This choice influences the reader’s
reception and interpretation of the literary text.
Therefore, a philological approach is necessary if
we are to account for a wider context (discourse)
of a fictional text under research, as well as
analytically integrate lingual and extralingual
factors influencing the process of its creation
(Gavins and Lahey, 2016; Geeraerts, 2009;
Jeffries, 2014; Mills, 2005; Paltridge, 2006;
Salkie, 2001).
This research includes some elements of
pragmatic-stylistic analysis. Since all the lexical
units and strategies are used by the author with a
definite aim, pragmatic-stylistic approach
enables a deeper analysis of the fictional
discourse than literary stylistics or pragmatics
taken separately (Black, 2006; Caink, 2014;
Chapman and Clark, 2014; Hickey, 1993; Hoey,
2001; Warner, 2014). In its anthropocentric
orientation, pragmatic stylystics focuses on the
strategies and techniques of the author who uses
peculiar stylistic devices, on their effect on the
reader, taking into account the extralingual
context and on the reader’s interpretation of the
meaning of the fictional text as well as separate
lexical-stylistic means and structures (Chapman
and Clark, 2014, p. 6; Warner, 2014, p. 364).
Thus, pragmatic stylistics opens up new insights
into the processes of composing of fictional texts,
the author’s choice of certain lexical means and
the effect they produce on the reader.
However, besides pragmatic orientation
(understood here in a broad sense as a necessary
attention to the text’s contexts of production and
reception), a philological approach remains a
guiding one throughout the analyses that follow.
While the linguistic analysis of lexical
combinations in fictional texts yields incomplete
or one-sided results, the philological approach
integrates linguistic and literary-theoretical
perspectives which enables us to study lexical
combinations in a fictional text as inseparable
from its social and historical bases as well as
author’s intentions as highly influenced by the
social, extralingual context. Benefits of such
approach are quite obvious in fiction on military
themes, since their micro-inclusions frequently
penetrate the texts of other genres and themes.
The philological approach contributes to a deeper
immersion into the literary discourse, taking into
consideration the whole context and extralingual
factors.
Results and Discussion
Contemporary British fiction
In this research talking about contemporary
British fiction we aim first of all at studying
lexical-semantic and stylistic peculiarities in the
texts of postmodernist character. Postmodernist
fiction of the end of the twentieth century and at
the beginning of the twenty-first organically
emerges from the philosophic modernist fiction,
which is reflected in the works by P. Ackroyd
(1993; 1997), J. Barnes (1990a; 1990b),
J. Fowles (1985; 1997), I. McEwan (2002; 2004).
Consequently, its peculiarity is philosophical
overtones and reliance on literary tradition. A
distinct feature of British postmodernism is its
sustained interest in history, both of Britain and
the world in general (Alegre, 2001, p. 18;
Hidalgo, 2005, p. 82; Kaiter, 2016, p. 204;
Lindas, 2013, p. 30; Malcolm, 2002, p. 6). This
partly accounts for the frequent appearance of the
war theme in contemporary novelistic prose.
D. Malcolm identifies such distinct features of
fiction of the 1980s and 1990s:
a fascination with history, with historical events
and processes both in the distant past and more
immediate (sometimes very immediate) past; an
interest in settings abroad, outside the British
Isles, or in characters and experiences from
outside that geographical area; a considerable
prominence of genre mixture; and metafictional
interests (Malcolm, 2002, p.6).
For as long as war existed, writers have been
trying to understand it, to transfer its horrors from
the battlefield into the narrative. Contemporary
British MF, in particular, focuses on the recent
wars. The recent research of the winners of the
Walter Scott prize (an award for historical
fiction) found out that the events of World War
II became “the most fertile ground” (Barry,
2017) for the novels. Analysis of the whole range
of texts, submitted for the award during 8 years
of its operation (650 texts in total), demonstrated
that the events of 38% of these texts took place
in the 20th century. World War II was chosen as
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the setting for 14%, while World War I – for 9%
of the submitted texts. I. Robertson (British
writer and chair of Historical Writers’
Association) describes war as “rich dramatic
territory”: “Aside from the massive all-
consuming drama of the war itself, it also put
everything into flux. Individuals were confronted
with complex moral questions while the world
shifted and spasmed around them” (Barry, 2017).
What exactly forces contemporary authors to
appeal to the past and the theme of war in
particular?
Lexical-semantic space and stylistic features of
contemporary British military fiction
Certainly, such pressing problems as global
warming and international conflicts catch the
writers’ attention, but interest in the past remains
strong both on the thematic and formal levels.
For instance, D. S. Mitchell in his Cloud Atlas
(2004) uses typical for the 21st century imitation
of the previous literary styles and devices (Kemp,
2007). A distinct feature of the contemporary
British novel is its ambiguity and polysemy of
meaning (Kaiter, 2016, p. 206; Lindas, 2013, p.
30). Due to such flexibility, contemporary fiction
can combine experiences of different social
classes, generations, nationalities and literary
projects – from realism to experimentalism
(Alegre, 2001). Use in the literary text of such
elements as letters, diaries, photos affirms the
author’s desire to convince the reader in the
accuracy of the depicted events (Cobley, 1995,
p. 107).
The storyworld is composed by the author
according to his / her imagination and views and
is supposed to produce a certain effect on the
reader. Fictional text is thus a manifestation of
the individual author’s style, the reflection of
reality and, at the same time, of the fictitious,
imaginative world of the author (Gavins and
Lahey, 2016; Gee, 2010b). Y. Ho (2011, pp. 118-
141), studying the possible implicit meanings
and the effect of the dominant lexical-semantic
combinations in a fictional text, focuses his / her
attention on the excessive or deliberately
diminished use of certain lexical units.
The lexical units are arranged in the textual space
in such a way that, taken together, they ensure its
compositional unity. On the whole, the lingual
organization of the lexical-semantic space of the
fictional text is observed on two levels: lexical
(surface) and semantic (deep) levels. The same
meaning can be amplified with the help of
different lexical means and combinations. The
semantic level covers the sense encoded by the
author, which is the materialization of the
individual author’s conception of the world, and
the reader’s interpretation of the text. It can be
represented in the Fig. 1:
Semantic level
1) The author’s choice of the theme, idea, encoding of the meaning
2) The reader’s interpretation of the literary text
Lexical level
1) The author’s choice of certain lexical means, devices and techniques that express
his / her idea and outlook (explicitly or implicitly)
2) Producing of a certain effect on the reader
Figure 1. The structure of the lexical-semantic space of the literary text. Source: own.
Postmodernist outlook is characterized by the
wide use of such lexical stylistic devices as irony,
allusions, quotations, epigraphs, metaphors,
metonymy, similes (Clayton, 2012; Cobley,
1995; Head, 2002; Hidalgo, 2005; Lindas, 2013;
Shapoval, Bakhov, Mosiichuk, Kozachyshyna,
Pradivlianna and Malashchuk-Vyshnevska,
2022; Wagner, 2010; Wells, 2008). Their use in
the text aims at producing of a special effect on
the reader. The reader in a postmodernist epoch
becomes an active co-author of the meaning of
the text (Hoey, 2001, p. 24; Jeffries, 2014, p. 55;
Levchenko, Lubov, Varenikova and Torkut,
2021, p. 104-105; Lindas, 2013, p. 16), as the text
becomes oriented towards an intellectual reader
who will be able to read between the lines and to
perceive the hidden ideas and motifs. As E. Black
states: “Literature exists to interest us; if it fails
in that, we have no motivation to read” (2006,
p. 157). Thus, the lexical-semantic space of the
contemporary British MF can be generalized in
the Fig. 2:
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Thematic level:
war horrors, holocaust, concentration camps, broken person’s fate, love, loneliness, childhood
Lexical level:
pastiche, retrospection, descriptions, irony, allusion, quotations, metaphors, metonymy, similes, symbols
Semantic level:
the devastating influence of war on a person’s everyday life and his / her inner state
Figure 2. The lexical-semantic space of the contemporary British military fiction. Source: own.
Hense, the distinct feature of the British MF of
the beginning of the 21st century is considerable
attention to the past. By depicting (or simply
mentioning) war, today’s authors induce us to
think about its influence on a person’s everyday
life and propose the ways of overcoming its
consequences. The popularity of military themes
in the latest fiction texts is predetermined by the
war and conflict actions taking place nowadays.
Besides, the interest of readers towards military
themes is rapidly growing as the result of Russian
cruelty which simply overwhelmed every
conscious person all over the world. Thus, from
the pragmatic-discourse and anthropocentric
points of view, the study of these fictional prose
texts is extremely relevant given their lexical-
semantic peculiarities. A complex philological
approach makes it possible to conduct an
integrated analysis of the lexical-semantic space
of contemporary MF, taking into account all the
extralingual factors influencing the process of a
literary text production.
Dominant lexical combinations and their
lexical-semantic features in contemporary
British military fiction
Contemporary fiction is characterized by the
phenomenon of genre diffusion – “the
coexistence of widely diverging novelistic
genres” (Alegre, 2001, p. 18). Similarly, MF
usually combines elements of different genres
and the war theme is observed on different levels:
from being the text’s dominant theme to its
micro-inclusions via simple mentions or
references in passing.
A common theme is the basis for the general
classification of the texts which may differ
significantly in many other aspects (Brinker,
1993, p. 22). Thus, in this article we generalize
the contemporary British MF into 3 main groups:
fictional texts with the dominant war theme
(macro-inclusions of war theme), with partial
inclusion of war theme (meso-inclusions) and
with micro-inclusions of war theme.
The first group consists of the texts focused
mainly on the horrors of war itself, such as
holocaust, concentration camps, person’s fate
broken by war: for instance, J. Boyne’s The
Absolutist (2011), J. Boyne’s The Boy at the Top
of the Mountain (2015), J. Boyne’s, The Boy in
the Striped Pyjamas (2006), K. Ishiguro’s The
Buried Giant (2016). The second group of texts
only partially raises the topic of war and is to a
great extent a combination of different genres,
such as historical and philosophic novel
(I. McEwan Atonement (2002)), social-
psychological (J. Harris Five Quarters of the
Orange (2002)), family-social (K. Atkinson Life
After Life (2013)), A. S. Byatt The Children’s
Book (2010)), fantastic war novel and so on.
They are frequently characterized by a
retrospective element: the recollections of the
past, of war and people lost in it, as in J. Harris’s
Five Quarters of the Orange. Lack of seriousness
and use of irony (peculiar to postmodernism) can
be found in Atonement:
‘What I did was terrible. I don’t expect you to
forgive me.’[Cecilia:] ‘Don’t worry about that,’
she said soothingly, and in the second or two
during which she drew deeply on her cigarette,
Briony flinched as her hopes lifted unreal. ‘Don’t
worry,’ her sister resumed. ‘I won’t ever forgive
you’ (McEwan, 2002, p. 261).
This novel is also characterized by orientation
towards historiographic metaliterature, relativity,
polysemy, proposing several perspectives on one
event. Contemporary authors tend to use the
technique of description (Cobley, 1995, p. 99),
for instance the description of London life during
World War II (K. Atkinson Life After Life
(2013)). Fictional texts with the micro-inclusions
of war theme are concentrated on other topics,
such as relations between people or having the
courage to face the past (D. S. Mitchell Cloud
Atlas (2004), S. Waters The Little Stranger
(2009)). The recollections of war, subordinated
to other, major textual themes, demonstrate the
way war penetrates into our life and becomes
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invisibly present in it, as, for example, in the
following passage:
Food was her nostalgia, her celebration, its
nurture and preparation the sole outlet for her
creativity. The first page is given to my father’s
death – the ribbon of his Légion d’Honneur
pasted thickly to the paper beneath a blurry
photograph and a neat recipe for black-wheat
pancakes – and carries a kind of gruesome
humour (Harris, 2002, p. 14).
These texts are characterized by a great number
of metaphors. Cloud Atlas by D. S. Mitchell,
being extremely symbolic, would be one striking
example of this group of fictional text relating to
war.
A peculiar feature of postmodernism,
particularly in the last two decades, is its deep
attention to the history and the past. The ‘new
historical novels’ of postmodernism, despite
using historically accurate toponyms, often
change historical figures or the events
themselves drawing attention to the fiction as
artifice (Han and Wang, 2014, p. 135; Lindas,
2013, p. 27). Since contemporary literature is
characterized by the mixture of different styles,
genres, points of view, temporal distortion
(Alegre, 2001, p. 18; Lindas, 2013, p. 19), the
authors often rely on the technique of collage to
ensure the cohesion of narrative and
compositional structure. They destroy the
linearity of the narrative creating the effect of
plurality and relativity of the world
comprehension (Nicol, 2015, p. 69).
These writers, demonstrating their own author’s
figured world, frequently tend to enter into a
dialogue with the reader, to address him / her
personally. Such a dialogue usually has a form of
a game (Clayton, 2012, pp. 2-4; Ward, 2003, p.
31). The author chooses this strategy in order to
involve the reader into the process of co-
imagining of the events or their foreseeing in the
narrative, as in:
I know what you’re thinking. You wish I’d get
on with the story. It’s the only story about the old
days that interests you now; the only thread in
this tattered flag of mine that still catches the
light. You want to hear about Tomas Leibniz. To
have it clear, categorized, ended. Well, it isn’t as
easy as that (Harris, 2002, p. 17).
The multiple use of irony in the text also appeals
to the reader and focuses his / her attention on the
problem emphasized by the author (Lindas,
2013, p. 26), for instance: “And that’s the end of
the story about Bruno and his family. Of course,
all this happened a long time ago and nothing like
that could ever happen again. Not in this day and
age” (Boyne, 2006, p. 215).
Irony in the narration about war can be frequently
observed in the contemporary British MF. In this
way the author accentuates its absurdity (Sarma,
2001, p. 212), or the absurdity of treating war
only as something elevated and patriotic by
young people, who did not completely
understand what exactly it was going to bring
into their lives. Parody in contemporary literary
text is often connected with the technique of
pastiche, i.e. the combination of different styles,
genres, narratives and stylistic devices, each of
which is of great significance in the text
production (Clayton, 2012, pp. 6-7; Morey, 2015,
p. 82). Parody and pastiche often can be tightly
interlaced in the text, making it impossible to
draw a distinct boundary between them.
The lexical combinations and strategies used in
British MF, their lexical-semantic features and
effects on the reader can be summarized in the
following way (see Table 1):
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Table 1.
Lexical combinations and their lexical-semantic features in contemporary British military fiction. Source:
own.
Lexical combinations and strategies
Their lexical-semantic features
the choice of war theme
is connected with the instability in the modern
world; induces to fall into thinking, to ponder
over the influence of war on a person’s everyday
life
micro-inclusions of the war theme in the text
demonstrate the way war penetrates into our life
and remains invisibly present in it
orientation towards historiographic
metaliterature; parody
induce to reinterpret a well-known plot
irony
emphasizes the absurdity of war
dialogue with the reader (often in a playful way)
involves the reader into the process of co-
imagining of the events or their foreseeing in the
narrative
proposing several perspectives on one event
gives the reader the possibility to analyse the
situation by him- / herself and to decide which
side to take
temporal distortion, collage, retrospection
create the effect of plurality and relativity in the
world comprehension
fragmentation, pastiche
undermine the author’s ‘authority’; create the
feeling of relativity
photographic models, descriptions, detalisation
create the effect of accuracy of the narrative
mystery or a secret
intrigues and induces to search for the truth
prompts and hints
enable the reader to investigate the numerous
secrets of the heroes by him- / herself
symbolism
induces the reader to fall into thinking
open ending
induces to imagine the possible variants of the
plot development
allusions, quotations
create the feeling that everything in our life
constantly circulates and repeats
epigraphs
create the associative background, express the
main theme or idea of the text
original metaphors, metonymy, similes
render the horrors of war to the full extent, induce
to prevent similar disasters in the future
repetitions
emphasize a certain problem or idea of the author
stylistic convergence
creates the expressiveness, accentuates the
author’s opinion
On the whole, the choice of the war theme by the
author is usually determined by the war events
(contemporary or past). The way of its verbal
explication in the literary text expresses the
author’s world perception, his / her attitude to the
instability in the world. The choice of the lexical
means is predetermined by social factors: the
potential reader, social context of interaction,
theme of the literary text and the author’s aim.
Thus, in MF lexical combinations are thoroughly
selected according to the author’s intention to
create a powerful effect on the reader: to render
to the full extent the horrors of war and to appeal
to the mankind for peace and harmony in society.
Since the text is always something more than
simply linear sequence of phrases, it is essential
to define it as a structural entity. The unity of the
LSS of the contemporary British MF is ensured
by lexical and stylistic means that manage to
create one semantic entity.
Conclusions
To sum up, the peculiarity of British military
fiction of the beginning of the 21st century is a
different degree of the war theme representation,
which can be observed at the levels of macro-,
meso- and micro-inclusions in the outline of a
literary text. The popularity of military themes in
the latest fictional texts is predetermined by the
military and conflict actions taking place
nowadays. Interpretation of the literary texts and
their general influence on readers are highly
dependent on the lexical units, thoroughly
selected by the author in accordance with his / her
intention. Thus, a philological approach made it
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possible to take a new look on the contemporary
literary text and the processes connected with its
production, in particular: to establish the main
tendencies of lexical-semantic actualisation of
the war theme in contemporary British MF with
macro-, meso- and micro-inclusions of military
themes; to conduct an integrated analysis of the
lexical combinations in the lexical-semantic
space of contemporary MF, their lexical-
semantic features and effect on the reader, taking
into account all the extralingual factors
influencing the complex process of a literary text
construction.
The use of the lexical combinations nominating
military realia and actions aims at the
reproduction of the distinct picture of the war and
post-war period. By depicting war, or simply
mentioning it, contemporary authors induce us to
ponder over the influence of war on the everyday
life, offering ways of addressing a psychological
trauma. The author’s choice of the war theme is
characterized by a few prominent leitfmotifs: to
provide a reflection on the perniciousness and
absurdity of any war, to make an appeal to the
mankind to prevent a similar disaster in the
future, demonstrating vivid examples of the past.
The use of the philological approach in the
analysis of the lexical-semantic structure of the
text opens new horizons for further examination
of the contemporary British military fiction.
Since the war theme is extremely growing in its
popularity nowadays this research seems to be
useful in the further study of the fictional texts
with elements of military themes written after the
Russian full-scale war on the European continent
started.
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