Stylistic features of military words “fight” and “fighting” in the poetic works of Alexander Pushkin

Abstract

The article studies the function features of the military lexemes “fight” and “fighting” in the poetic works of A. Pushkin. These words had ceased to be used as military terminology by the 17 th  century, but they were often found in the poet’s lyrical works. The novelty of the study lies in the identification of semantic, functional-stylistic and contextually determined usage patterns of the words “fight” and “fighting” in the poetry of A. Pushkin. The research is based on selected works of the poet and the data from the “Dictionary of Pushkin’s Language”. The main cases of using the military lexemes “fight” and “fighting” were identified based on the methods of continuous sampling, contextual analysis and description. These words predominate in poems and verses dedicated to wars and battles, they are used to depict long-past events, in fairy tale narration, in the context of philosophical reflections on the role and place of the poet and poetry, as an imitation of great predecessors, as well as for a perky and ironic understanding of the obsolete Old Church Slavonicism in the language. These Old Church Slavonic words are freely combined with high, neutral and low vocabulary. The stylistic latitude in the use of the lexemes “fight’” and “fighting” is also reflected in the diversity of lyrical motifs in the poems. In quantitative terms, the use of the Old Slavonic word “fight” in the language of A. Pushkin’s poetry is significantly less frequent than the use of its synonyms “battle”, “struggle” and “warfare”. However, due to the polysemy of abstract semantics, it is more expressive in comparison with commonly used synonyms and allows the author to realize his poetic intentions to a greater extent.