Dmitriy A. Romanov

Professor, Doctor of Science (Philology), Head of the Center of the Russian Language and Regional Linguistic Research

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2021-3-75

Abstract. The study examines certain linguistic and stylistic aspects of a journalistic and philosophical text based on the material of the treatise by L. N. Tolstoy «What is art?». The article poses the issue of convincing-ness of the author’s concept as a key one, and analyzes the methods of its creation for the readership. The methods of persuasiveness are divided into ideological and actual linguistic stylistic. The main ideological principle of Tolstoyʼs treatise is the unconditional priority of ethics over aesthetics and the formation of a reliable, from the author’s point of view, theory of the meaning of art for a person. The actual linguistic and stylistic methods of creating persuasiveness include the terminology of ordinary vocabulary (the authorʼs translation of it into the category of aesthetic categories), the use of explicit and implicit definitions in relation to aesthetic concepts that are important for the author, operating with lists of illustrative examples and the conditions of existence determined by the author, the causes and properties of the genuine and false art. Linguistic methods of persuasiveness function in close connection with the logical and compositional construction of the treatise. The article traces in a historical perspective the language and style of Tolstoy’s work, its textual structure, compositional and ideological features. Following E. G. Babaev, but with more detail, the au-thor defines the connection between Tolstoy's aesthetic ideas and the means of their embodiment in the treatise “What is Art?” with reflections on similar themes of the author and the heroes of the novel "Anna Karenina". This emphasizes the continuity of the writer's views on art, as well as the style of the “mature” and “late” Tolstoy. Despite the fact that in the 1890-s – 1900-s the so-called “literary artistry” faded into the background for Tolstoy, his later works (including philosophical and pedagogical works) in their substantive and stylistic features follow from his previous creative experience, inseparably as-sociated with it. Semantic and stylistic shifts in vocabulary in Tolstoy’s later period became more conscious and fundamentally significant for the context. The study was carried out with the aim of selecting material for the formation of reading competencies of modern students within the framework of the state assignment of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
Keywords: text, treatise, linguistic stylistics, vocabulary, semantics, logic, composition, terminology, definition, ethics.

Full text of the article (PDF)

* The study was carried out within the framework of the state task of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation on the topic: "Formation of reading competencies in the conditions of digital information redundancy and deficit of emotional repertoire of students".

For citation: Romanov, DA 2021, ‘Linguistic methods of persuasiveness in the treatise by L. N. Tolstoy «What is art?»' competencies’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 3 (7), pp. 75–84, https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2021-3-75 (in Russ.)

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