Dmitry A. Romanov

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Head of the Center for the Russian Language and Regional Linguistic Studies

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-4-150-162

Abstract. In Mikhail Chekhov’s idiostyle, syntactic phenomena play a prominent role. Some of them are independent stylistic dominants, others form micro-compositions that are periodically repeated in the text and organize it in a certain way. Various types of homogeneous components serve the author primarily to expand the narrative informationally, as well as to enhance its expressiveness. Graduation series help to emphasize the logic of the author’s reasoning. In the field of word combination, M. A. Chekhov, the most noticeable tendency is towards non-standard, unusual component composition against the background of conventional units of a similar type. The impersonal attribution of direct speech and the special structuring of dialogue and polylogue helps the fiction writer convey the atmosphere of that difficult time that he embodies in his book «Life and Encounters». Sentences with double semi-predication provide the most complete development of the theoretical thought of M. Chekhov as the author of the original system of actor training and allow us to comprehend the experience of colleagues – the founders of theater schools. The composition of M. Chekhov’s text is distinguished by its fragmentation, which is determined, on the one hand, by the memoir genre, and on the other, by the nature of the author’s understanding of reality. Local fragments of reasoning and relatively holistic, complete micronarratives are organically introduced by the author into the «large» text composition. Chekhov's idiostyle is characterized by an extensive composition of polypredicative syntactic constructions, among which the leading (in terms of quantity) role is played by non-conjunctive compound sentences with various types of relations between the clauses and, as a rule, repeated compounding of each of them, e.g., supplementary comments and syntactic constructions marked by parentheses. Supplementary comments, also known as parenthetical constructions, serve to augment the narrative's intensity. These supplementary elements not only enrich the event narrative but also reveal the author's perspective on the unfolding events, manifested through emotional or reflective remarks.
Keywords: fiction, idiostyle, syntax, composition, homogeneous members, semi-predicative constructions, oppositions, non-conjunctive complex sentences.

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For citation: Romanov, DA 2024, ‘Syntactic Aspect of Mikhail Chekhovʼs Idiostyle’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 4 (20), pp. 150–162, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-4-150-162 (in Russ.)

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