CONCEPTUAL SPACE OF NEGATIVE TONALITY IN MARGARET LAURENCE’S NOVEL “THE STONE ANGEL”

Abstract

The article highlights the process of profiling the domain of negative tonality in the literary prose of Margaret Laurence. The conceptual sphere of the novel “The Stone Angel” reflects the author’s cognitive system and adds to the understanding of the processes of individual authorial cognition. It has been revealed that the domain of negative tonality contains 11 emotional concepts (AFFLICTION, ANGER & INDIGNATION, DESPAIR & RESIGNATION, DISGUST, EMBARRASSMENT, ANXIOUSNESS & DISTRESS, FEARS & APPREHENSIONS, HATES, MELANCHOLY & SADNESS, NERVOUSNESS, SHAME) which correlate with basic negative emotions. In the text of the novel, these concepts are verbalized by a variety of linguistic means represented within reference fields which determine the general level of presentation of the context and are the basis for the process of verbalization. An Automated Content Analysis allows for defining the degree of semantic proximity between reference fields representing negative emotions and those, verbalizing the rest of the conceptual space of the novel, as relative. This way psychological, physiological, and social reasons, sources, and consequences for the protagonist’s affliction, anger, indignation, despair, disgust, embarrassment, distress, fear, hate, melancholy, nervousness, and shame are indicated. The data show that language means verbalizing the domain of negative tonality in the text of the novel are represented by lexical units designating emotions and feelings which contribute to the pessimism of narration: anger, angry, fury, to rage, rage, enraged, to disgust, disgust, disgusting, anxious, to hurt, to worry, worry, apprehension, to fear, fear, afraid, panic, terror, to scare, scare, shame, to shame, ashamed, shameful, affliction, martyrdom, despair, dismay, chagrin, mortification, to embarrass, embarrassment, to humiliate, humiliation, to hate, sad, to sadden, to regret, regret, self-pity. It has been proved that Margaret Laurence sees her main character as a person who is capable of experiencing a whole range of pessimistic feelings and emotions. Hagar Shipley’s emotional picture of the world reflects the relationship between the emotional competence of the individual and social and physiological factors that determine the formation of the protagonist’s emotional intelligence.