Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 12. Number2 June 2021 Pp. 457-468
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no2.31
Literary Characters and their Verbal Mimicry through the Prism of Gestalt Analysis
Iryna Morozova
Department of English Grammar
Odesa Mechnikov National University
Odesa, Ukraine
Corresponding Author: editor@awej.org
Olena Pozharytska
Department of English Grammar
Odesa Mechnikov National University,
Odesa, Ukraine
Received: 1/13/2021 Accepted: 6/18/2021 Published: 6/26/2021
Abstract:
The paper represents a fragment of a multi-year project focused on everyday speech interaction and, particularly, on verbal mechanisms of granting speech efficiency and effectiveness. The introductory statement of the research is more precise thespeaker organizes his/her message verbally, the easier it is understood by the listener. Special attention is paid to the methodological approach to verbal identification of literary characters’ social strata. The paper also elicits how Gestalt analysis can be successfully applied to different practical linguistic tasks. Hence, the article deals with the advantages of Gestalt, used for unmasking the virtual speaker’s social identity and his social status. Besides, a close study of speech situations has revealed some cases when the speaker tries to play a verbal trick on the audience, thus consciously or unconsciously imposing a false image and hiding his/her true identity. The phenomenon of speech imposters, discovered in literary dialogues termed “speech, or verbal mimicry,” while the speakers who use such verbal masks are called “mimics.” In the presented research, two types of mimicry are distinguished: progressive and regressive speech mimicry. Hence, the characters’ speech was analyzed through the prism of his/her actual or imposed social status, which allowed to single out sufficiently reliable syntactic indicators of the speaker’s real social profile.
Keywords: Gestalt analysis, literary dialogue, syntactic indicators, verbal/speech mimicry, virtual identity
Cite as: Morozova, I. & Pozharytska, O. (2021). Literary Characters and their Verbal Mimicry through the Prism of Gestalt Analysis.
Arab World English Journal, 12 (2) 457-468.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no2.31
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