The Conceptualisation of Laughter in the Language of the World of Nadezhda Teffi (Based on Material from Her Prose Memoirs)

Abstract

The focus of this research is the concept of Laughter in Russian émigré literature. The particular aim of this article is to analyse this concept in the memoirs of Nadezhda Teffi, one of the writers from the first wave of Russian emigration. The subject of this analysis is the lexis taken from the volumes Memoirs (1933) and My Chronicle (2015). The analysis focuses on distinguishing the semantic structure of the concept of Laughter, and the ways of its linguistic expression in the literary text. During the process of analysis, we refer to the methodology proposed by Josif Sternin which made it possible to distinguish, in the structure of concepts, various mental units of the author’s image of the world as verbalised in literary texts (objective and individual-author meanings and images). Moreover, this study uses a descriptive method and a functional and stylistic analysis. Based on the linguistic analysis carried out, we conclude that the concept of Laughter is widely represented in Teffi’s memoirs. The individual-author’s meanings representing the periphery of the concept analysed have a different connotation. The feelings and emotions expressed through laughter in the depicted world are positive, negative and neutral. The frequency of use of the lexical units, and the variety of their updating, prove that the concept of Laughter has an important place in Teffi’s linguistic worldview.