Article

Name: “The work of a lifetime”: the professional dominant in Yuri Lotman’s memoir

Authors: Marina A. Lappo

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The military stories “Non-Memoirs” are Yu. M. Lotman’s only actual memoir text. This article studies the influence of the author’s professional consciousness on the concept of the “Non-Memoirs.” It has been established that Lotman’s primary identity as a philologist and a scholar takes precedence over the main narrative of his war-time experiences: the author views everything he describes, including war, university, school and his Jewish descent, through the lens of his profession. This is evident in the text’s essential structural elements, such as its composition, cohesion and the stylistic distribution of recurring elements. It was found that, firstly, when describing military situations, the author uses various methods of comparison and analogy, such as subordinate comparative, participial phrase, grammatical predicate with comparison and independent clause with semantics of assimilation. When describing peaceful life, i.e. study and work, however, only a few metaphors are used. Secondly, it was found that various techniques are only used to mask obscene language when describing war, as well as a natural transition to colloquial and vernacular vocabulary. Thirdly, various markers of positive focus and speech elements of emotional significance are only used in the text when describing his professional interests, namely linguistic means of describing positive emotions and evaluations and lexemes with semantics of intensity or exclusivity. The main features of Yu. M. Lotman’s linguistic identity are analyzed, including stylistic flexibility, courteous speech behavior, focus on the addressee and the educational nature of the narrative (e.g. clarity, accessibility, completeness, and logical presentation), as well as emotionality and sincerity.

Keywords: linguistic identity, full-functional speech type, courtly linguistic identity, memoir text, focal attention, discursive markers, stylistic distribution, semantic dominant of the text, Yu. M. Lotman

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