MARKEME ANALYSIS OF SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE’S ROMANCE ARETINA LANGUAGE

Abstract

Тhe paper aims at identifi cation markeme peculiarity of English heroic romance ‘Aretina’ (1661) by Sir George Mackenzie. The research focuses on the study of markemes found in the text. The study is conducted within the framework of markemology. It is a linguistic approach based on the identifi cation of special keywords called markemes. Their analysis allows conducting a linguistic study of a text and identifying its major ideas. Such keywords take into account both frequency and informative value of each lexeme. The informative value of a lexeme is assessed by automatically calculated Index of Textual Markedness (InTeM). The markeme analysis of the romance language makes it possible to specify a dominant (discontent(ment)) and a vice-dominant (accom plishment) markemes. The stratifi cation of markemes results in determining a markeme core and a markeme periphery, which include 19 and 33 markemes correspondingly. Due to their semantic classifi cation, the markemes are classifi ed into seven semantic sets: fundamental notions, interpersonal relationships, mental and perceptual markemes, emotional markemes, qualitative markemes, social markemes and ethical and moral markemes. Emo tional markemes constitute the majority of core markemes. Most of them carry positive connotation. The dyna mics of the semantic sets total InTeM is studied. The semantic sets of emotional, fundamental and social markemes tend to the markeme core. The semantic sets of mental and perceptual, qualitative and interpersonal markemes tend to the markeme periphery. Moreover, they are peripherally equivalent. Markemes in the core nucleus indicate the particular importance the author pays to characterizing a person’s emotional state due to interpersonal in teraction or other circumstances. The emotions evoked vary from discontent to satisfaction.