Pragmatic potential of zootropes in works by Alexander Pushkin

The article analyzes the use of zootropes, i. e., the names of animals and birds with figurative anthropocentric meanings that Pushkin used in speech acts of various types. The author identifies the units that Pushkin used for positive and negative evaluation of people’s features, actions, and behavior. Texts of different genres, such as tragedies, novels, poems, epigrams, and letters, are subjected to semantic and pragmatic analysis. Semantics and pragmatics of zootropes in the texts written by Pushkin and modern authors (retrieved from the Russian National Corpus) are compared in order to identify usual and occasional units. As a result, first of all, the units used for positive evaluation in affectionate addresses to women or for expressing amiable attitude and approval are exposed; the semantics of such units comprise meliorative components. Secondly, zootropes are exposed that Pushkin used for expressing negative evaluation, disapproval, reprimand, and verbal abuse; the semantics of those units comprise pejorative components. Evaluation semantics are neutralized in cases of language game or jokes. Positive and negative evaluations are referred to the characters of Pushkin’s texts and people with whom Pushkin had official, unofficial, friendly or family relations. The conclusion is made that Pushkin used zootropes with the aim to explicitly express evaluation and expose a wide range of positive and negative emotions and intentions. Zootropes were also used by Pushkin for language game. The analyzed words included both usual and occasional lexemes.