MARKEME ANALYSIS OF AFRA BEHN’S ROMANCE OROONOKO, OR THE ROYAL SLAVE LANGUAGE

Abstract

Тhe paper aims at identifi cation markeme peculiarity of English heroic romance ‘Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave. A True History’ (1688) by Mrs. Afra Behn who is the fi rst English professional woman writer. 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 (opportunity) and a vice-dominant (satisfaction) markemes. The stratification of markemes results in determining a markeme core and a markeme periphery, which include 23 and 27 markemes correspondingly. Due to their semantic classifi cation, the markemes are classifi ed into seven semantic blocks: fundamental notions, interpersonal relationships, mental and perceptual markemes, emotional markemes, qualitative markemes, social markemes and ethical and moral markemes. Emotional markemes constitute the majority of core markemes. Most of them carry positive connotation. The dynamics of the semantic blocks total InTeM is studied. All the semantic blocks but for ethical and moral markemes tend to the markemic core. The only peripheral semantic block is ethical and moral markemes. Markemes in the core nucleus indicate the particular importance the author pays to having an opportunity to realize one’s purposes and characterizing a person’s emotional state due to interpersonal interaction or other circumstances. The emotions evoked vary from satisfaction to apprehension.