Unrealized speech of A.P. Chekhov's characters in the aspect of family communication

Sy Hongfeng Postgraduate student, Department of Russian language, South Federal University 344010, Russia, Rostov region, Rostov On Don, Sorge str., 21 jerry_on_don@qq.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

Fragments of unrealized speech typical of A.P. Chekhov's short stories and novellas are extremely important, if not a determining factor for understanding the essence of a work of art. Unrealized speech is a significant component of the text that contributes to the correct interpretation of a particular situation that is associated with the family communication of Chekhov's characters. In addition, fragments of unrealized speech contribute to the creation of psychological characteristics of the characters of the works.

The topic of this study attracted the attention of many scientists, especially in the aspect of studying the problems of communication in the works of A.P. Chekhov (the works of A.D. Stepanov (2006), G.P. Kozubovskaya (2005), D. Sabadash (2005), A.A. Shcherbaeva (2008), etc.). A.A. Shcherbaeva emphasized that "one of the the characteristic trends of the modern stage of the development of linguistics is the detailed development of paradigms of the human factor in speech activity" [Shcherbaeva, 2008, p. 108]. The analysis of the speech activity of the heroes of A.P. Chekhov's stories and novellas will reveal common problems of family communication.

Research and its results

Family communication in the writer's prose is transmitted both verbally and nonverbally, which depends on the specific life situation depicted in the literary text. Researcher G.P. Kozubovskaya notes that "traditionally, a gesture in fiction is considered as a momentary expression of a person's condition" [Kozubovskaya, 2005, p. 232]. Indeed, nonverbal communication accompanying the speech of the characters, including unrealized, gives an idea of the emotional state of the character, about the reasons for the impossibility of speech realization.

One of the factors that influenced family communication was the process of democratization of family relations in Russia during the late XIX century. This process was closely connected with the emancipation of women, changes in their social role. "The democratization of intra-family relations has been extremely slow. By the beginning of the XX century. among the nobility and intelligentsia, intra-family relations also largely retained the traditional features characteristic of the patriarchal way of life in the family (the head is a man, he is also the main breadwinner and protector of the family, the younger ones obey the elders). Social, economic and political processes began to have an intense impact on the family. Under their influence, the composition of the family changes from multi-generational (usually three generations), large to nuclear (parents and child), the structure of the distribution of power in the family from patriarchy to child-centered (the child is the focus of parents' attention, everything that is done in the family, for him and for him" [Goncharova, 2013, p. 227].

The historical period reflected in the stories and novellas of A.P. Chekhov, selected as language material, covers the first and second half of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, when the issues of family life were particularly acute. In the analyzed texts, the writer uses unrealized speech to depict changes in society associated with a new paradigm of attitudes towards women. The innermost thoughts of the heroes and heroines of Chekhov's novels and short stories are hidden precisely in unrealized speech, verbally expressed by supporting verbs or verb-nominal combinations: he said, thought, wanted to express a thought and under.

Analyzing fragments of stories from this period of Chekhov's work, representing family communication, one can come to the conclusion that unrealized speech actualizes the internal speech situation in the texts under study. Typical ways of transmitting unrealized speech are improper-direct, direct or indirect speech, thematic speech in the author's narrative is less common in this function. For example: "What should I tell him? she thought. – I will say that the lie is the same forest: the further into the forest, the harder it is to get out of it. I will say: you got carried away with your fake role and went too far, you insulted people who were attached to you and did you no harm..." [Chekhov, vol. 7, p. 173]. The analyzed fragment presents the internal dialogue of the heroine who wants to talk to her husband. However, the conversation did not take place: a lot of guests and festive fuss force her to take a temporary role and portray a hospitable hostess. The heroine's speech remains unrealized.

The unrealized speech in the finale of the story is characteristic of the hero of the story "Name Day" Pyotr Dmitrich, who came to realize the tragic event. The emotional reaction of the hero to this event caused the inability to verbally express what he felt: "He looked away, moved his lips and smiled childishly helplessly.

? Is it over already? Olga Mikhailovna asked.

Pyotr Dmitritch wanted to answer something, but his lips trembled, and his mouth twisted senile, like a toothless uncle Nikolai Nikolaevich" [Chekhov, vol. 7, pp. 197-198]. Peter Dmitrich's unrealized speech, the depiction of details of nonverbal communication with the heroine are caused by a special psychological state that he experiences after the loss of a child. The internal emotional state of the character in the finale of the story allows you to see the changes that have occurred in his soul. V.V. Dementyev writes about this "discovery of the soul" as "the highest moral requirements imposed on a person", defining the emotional and moral culmination of Russian communication [Dementyev, 2013, p. 9].

The difference between internal speech and unrealized speech is that, as a rule, introspective speech / thought is directed inside the subject, this is a conversation with oneself, the result of which may be a verbalized replica of the dialogue, or a non-verbal act (for example, silence or depicted gesture, facial expressions). Unrealized speech, internal in nature, has an extra-verbal reason why it cannot be expressed verbally. In most cases, such a reason is the emotional state of the character, represented in the Chekhov text by a description of facial expressions or gestures, an out?of-speech situation that does not allow expressing the programmable - so as not to offend another.

Verbal lexemes introducing unrealized character speech can relate to the microfield of intellectual activity – to think, but more often they are a combination of two words, one of which is a verb of intellectual activity belonging to a lexico–semantic group with the meaning of desire (modal) or decision - wanted, decided, the second is a prototypical verb of "speech activity" in the form infinitive ? to say (to speak) or verbs with the semantics of speech communication – to answer, to ask.

A typical context in which verbs that introduce unrealized speech function can be considered a third-person narrative, although they are also found in the primary narrative. For example, a character in the text "The Story of an unknown person" enters into a dialogue with a beloved woman deceived by another:

"- Well, it's okay! He is a coward, a liar and deceived me, and you? Excuse my frankness: who are you? He deceived me and abandoned me to the mercy of fate in St. Petersburg, and you deceived and abandoned me here. But at least he didn't bring any ideas to the deception, and you...

- For God's sake, why are you saying this? I was horrified, wringing my hands and quickly approaching her. – No, Zinaida Fyodorovna, no, this is cynicism, you can't despair like that, listen to me. I continued, seizing on an idea that suddenly flashed vaguely in my head and seemed to be able to save us both. – Listen to me. I have experienced a lot in my lifetime, so much that now the memory makes my head spin, and I have now firmly understood with my brain, with my aching soul, that the purpose of a person is either nothing, or only one thing – selfless love for one's neighbor. That's where we have to go and what is our purpose! That's my faith!

Then I wanted to talk about mercy, about forgiveness, but my voice suddenly sounded insincere, and I was confused..." [Chekhov, vol. 8, p. 199]

The high phrases that Vladimir Ilyich, the hero of the story, thought about and intended to say turned out to be not only inappropriate in the situation in which the interlocutor was, but also false. This was the reason for the inability to verbally express these thoughts, in fact, awareness of the insincerity of what has already been said led to unrealized speech.

In the first-person narration of the story "Baba", the character performs the functions of a narrator, describing events from his point of view. The unrealized speech contains the mode of the character-narrator: "... By that time I had thrown the nonsense out of my head, and a good bride was wooed for me, and I just didn't know how to get rid of a lover. I was going to talk to Masha every day, but I didn't know which side to approach her from so that there wouldn't be a woman's squeal" [Chekhov, vol. 7, p. 345]. The author's deliberate introduction of the diminutive "lyubvishka" characterizes the hero himself as a hypocritical, cynical person, unable to understand the mental state of the woman who loves him. The insincerity of external speech is caused by the desire to look like a God-fearing person in front of people, however, the author reveals the true face of the speaker by introducing into the speech of a character telling about his relationship with Masha, verbs of the semantic field "speech activity" and qualifiers that represent the "rhetoricity" of the speaker: "... As if I was inspired by a heavenly angel, I read her instruction and spoke so sensitively that even a tear broke through me" [Chekhov, vol. 7, p. 346].

In the story "The Wife", where the narration is presented on behalf of the husband, there are also fragments of unrealized speech, for example: "... I wanted to go downstairs and tell her that her behavior at tea offended me, that she was cruel, petty and with her philistine mind never rose to the understanding of what I say and what I do. I walked around the rooms for a long time, figuring out what I would say to her, and guessing what she would answer me" [Chekhov, vol. 7, p.469]. The hero's intentions to express his claims to his wife did not materialize, but he decided to go to her, although he knew that it would be inappropriate. Italicized in the text of the story, the repetition of the personal pronoun "I" reveals the character of the character, his selfishness, jealousy and indifference to the interests of his wife, vanity, unwillingness to understand the other. The unrealized speech of the hero is based on the accusation of a loved one, whom, as Pavel Andreevich himself admits, he did not know and did not understand.

In most of the analyzed text fragments representing family communication, the unrealized speech of the characters is introduced by the author into an objectified narrative from the 3rd person. For example: "She looked calm and ordinary, as if she and her brother had come to visit Vlasich. But Pyotr Mihalitch felt that some change had taken place in himself. Indeed, before, when she lived at home, he could talk to her decidedly about everything, but now he was unable to ask even a simple question: "How are you living here?" This question seemed awkward and unnecessary... [Chekhov. vol.8, pp. 67-68].

The unrealized question of the hero of the story "Neighbors" is fully justified by the internal changes that occurred in him after meeting his sister. He felt and understood that the relationship between Zina and Vlasich is serious, based on love and mutual understanding, and what seemed terrible and impossible from the point of view of others, in fact, is not.

The unrealized speech of the characters belongs to the author's narrative, although the modal plan of the hero himself is transmitted. V.P. Hodus says this in his doctoral dissertation, analyzing the metapoetics of A.P. Chekhov's dramatic text: "The thoughts of the characters are passed through the author's consciousness, but nevertheless they exist" [Hodus, 2009, p. 27]. The implied speech of the characters in the text turns out to be unrealized, and the reasons that the character's thoughts were not verbalized are presented by the author himself. In the fragment under consideration, these reasons are contained in the inner, mental state of the characters.

In A.P. Chekhov's short story "The Black Monk", the heroine's unspoken emotions play a very important role in the representation of the conceptual meanings of the narrative. The very image of the Black Monk in the aspect of the topic of our study is significant. In fact, this imaginary character conveys a bunch of unrealized thoughts of the hero of the story, which contribute to the creation of his image.

The main character Andrey Kovrin tells Tanya Pesotskaya at the beginning of the story during a walk in the garden the legend of the Black Monk. We believe that this is what triggers the chain of events that lead to a tragic denouement.

It is the unrealized speech of the protagonist that determines the understanding of the image of the Black Monk. The "Black Monk" is introduced into the text in the form of a parallel narrative model. On the one hand, there is a presentation of the plot, and on the other – the conversations of Andrei Kovrin and the Black Monk, which indicates the mental disorder of the main character, which is obvious to other characters:

Kovrin couldn't speak out of excitement. He wanted to say to his father?in?law in a joking tone: "Congratulations, I think I've gone mad," but he only moved his lips and smiled bitterly [Chekhov, vol. 8, p. 235].

It is this psychological disorder that is transmitted through the unrealized speech of the main character, which is expressed by verbal vocabulary from excitement he could not speak, wanted to say, thought, etc.

In the story, Tanya, the wife of the main character, barely restrains herself from expressing her feelings emotionally to her husband. The egoism of a sick person causes rejection in loved ones. Unrealized speech is the reason for understanding the essence of the feeling that Tanya feels for her husband: "She wanted to say something insulting to him, but immediately she caught herself in a hostile feeling, got scared and left the bedroom" [Chekhov, vol. 8, p. 254]. The heroine feels that Kovrin has become a stranger to her, which is why she never said hurtful words to him, which can only be addressed to a loved one. In family life, such conflicts, from which both loving people suffer, usually end in reconciliation. However, the feeling of hostility is felt for someone who is no longer loved, for someone else.

A.P. Chekhov speaks about the importance and necessity of sincere speech in family communication. Unrealized speech conveys the hidden thoughts of the main characters, which they cannot express out loud. The root cause of such speech in most cases is the emotional state of the character, an out-of-speech situation.

In most of the analyzed text fragments representing family communication, the unrealized speech of the characters is introduced by the author into an objectified narrative from the 3rd person. A typical verb combination introducing unrealized speech is a modal verb with the meaning of desire or expression of will + an infinitive with the meaning of speech activity in a construction with a contrastive conjunction: I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to answer, but... etc.

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