FUNCTIONING OF BACCHIC VOCABULARY IN A. CHEKHOV’S NOVEL “THE SHOOTING PARTY”
The article examines the functioning of the lexical semantics of ‘alcohol consumption’ in the fictional world of the work. The purpose of the study is to analyze the Bacchanalian vocabulary, its contextual environment and determine its role in the creation of micro- and macro-worlds of the protagonist. The study is based on a selection of examples containing bacchanalian vocabulary from A. Chekhov’s detective novel “The Shooting Party” (1884). We mainly use the linguostylistic method, lexico-semantic and contextual analyses and, partially, a statistical data analysis. Based on the corpus data, the article reveals that the lexeme “drunk” becomes a frequency in A. Chekhov’s works and expands its valence properties, marking certain qualities of a person. Our analysis shows that utilitarian evaluation is characteristic of Sergei Zinoviev (Kamyshev) and Count Karneev, while emotional and sensual evaluation is the main characteristic of Urbenin. The article determines that the bacchanalian detail becomes a marker of the count’s constant addiction, and explicates a change in the state of the main character, Olga Skvortsova. The Bacchanalian world becomes desirable for the protagonist, as it differs from the current world of boredom and idleness by its activity and a thirst for action, which is verbalized by mean of emotional and evaluative vocabulary.