Lexical combinations in the “Helmsmen stars” by Vyacheslav Ivanov (from the experience of application of software system “Hypertext search for companion-words in author's texts”)

The article reflects the experience of using the authentic software system “Hypertext search for companion-words in author’s texts”, which allows you to find lexical combinations, that is, sets of words that are repeated next to each other in different fragments of a text or in different texts. The first lyric book “Helmsmen Stars” by the foremost symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov was the object of research. The analysis showed that the identification of lexical combinations can be another method of describing the poetic world of the author and establishing both intratextual and intertextual links besides other well-known methods. In “Helmsmen Stars” the program revealed several hundreds of only four-component lexical combinations, which are repeated within the book at least three times. About half of the combinations reveal solely intra- textual links in voluminous texts. In such cases it is relevant to raise the question of the laws of the composition of large lyric texts. Lexical combinations seem to play the role of intratextual bonds. Leitmotif and variable components (for example, unified - love - light - [fall], unified - love - light - [two]) are distinguished. This involves not only the- matic repetitions, but also peculiar crucial points of the lyric composition (the so-called lyric plot), which are formed at the stage of text formation. Another large group of lexical combinations reveals intertextual links. The potential meanings of the author’s symbols are accumulated at the pretext level due to the set of lexemes that are repeated in different texts (the so-called nuclei of a lexical combination) and variable components accompanying the “nucleus” (periphery) in each text. Many shades of meanings of a symbol are also formed due to the fact that each word in a lexical combination is capable of building up similar relationships with its “companions”. A complex network of unclear connections serving as the basis for the hypertext formation is formed.