PECULIAR FUNCTIONS OF EPITHETS IN BOTH FICTIONAL AND FILM DISCOURSES (ON THE BASIS OF THE NOVEL “HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN” BY JOANNE ROWLING)

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of lexical stylistic devices, epithets in particular, used in the novel “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by Joanne Rowling and its screen version.

Purpose: the purpose of the research is to analyse epithets and determine their functions in both fictional and film discourses on the basis of the novel “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”.

Methods: the research is based on main principles of cognitive-discursive paradigm, the following methods have been used for the analysis of data: the method of slow text reading that presupposes the linguistic stylistic analysis of language unit in order to prove the author’s selection, the contrastive analysis enables to determine why the author and screenwriter have used a concrete stylistic variant of the word, word combination within the range of others, the semantic stylistic method is used to determine the stylistic relevance of words and word combinations in the discourses under study.

Results. The research results demonstrate that the epithets used in both fictional and film discourses are more frequently used in a fictional one. Its emotional characteristics are evident and distinct. It is the epithet that describes and characterize people, things and phenomena from the expressive point of view and differs by such properties from the logical meaning. Epithets enables to describe the object unexpectedly and it can be seen in their stylistic function. The research proves that epithets have been used rather rarely in a film discourse as they are of no use in the film because the film viewer sees everything clearly on the screen. The epithets used in the film increase the impact of a scene on the screen and make the story full of magic, mystery, making a viewer become more interested in its continuation.

Conclusions. The number of epithets used by Joanne Rowling in a fictional discourse and screen writers of film give some positive or negative effect, making the story more interesting and breathtaking. They emphasize some peculiarities of characters and increases readers and viewers’ interest by focusing on their main features. The contrastive analysis of epithets using presupposes the analysis of other lexical stylistic means that are frequently used in the novel and, perhaps, in its screen version.