On invariant and variable narrative characteristics of literary texts: linguopoetic analysis of some poems from “The Irish melodies” by Thomas Moore

The article deals with one of the topical questions of the present-day philological science: the study of the aesthetic value of literary texts. The aim of the research was to explain the nature of the deep aesthetic impact produced by Thomas Moore’s poems upon the reader. The use of the two methods of linguopoetic investigation (analysis of linguopoetics of narrative types and analysis of linguopoetics of artistic device) has shown that the four poems analyzed in the article belong to three different narrative types: 1) description, characterized by moderate connotativeness, linguopoetical full-fledged usage of speech, and an expressive linguopoetic function of stylistically marked units; 2) contemplation, containing extended metaphors, increased connotativeness, cases of foregrounding, and realization of the associative linguopoetic function; 3) volition (two poems belonging to this narrative type were analyzed), where the level of connotativeness is also considerable but still not equal to that observed in contemplation with the use of metaphors, and where one might observe variability of both the lingupoetic function (it being either expressive or gnomic) and of linguopoetic value (the usage being either automatized or foregrounded). The present study has shown that regardless of their stylistic similarity Thomas Moore’s poems are linguopoetically dissimilar because they belong to different narrative types, which results in stylistically marked units with different semantic and metasemiotic potential.