Иллюзия иностранной речи в структуре текстов Михаила Зощенко

Abstract

Mikhail Zoshchenko creates specific configurations of word and stylistic constructions using foreign-language parentheses in form of separate lexems, expressions and syntactic structures inserted into passages of a protagonist’s speech. The phenomenon of compilation of Russian and foreign-language forms [or quasi-foreign — taking into consideration the significant number of distortions] can be illustrated by the short story ‘История с переодеванием’. The interlocutors in the text, who in fact cannot speak any foreign language, pretend to use ‘foreign’ words and expressions, involving themselves in a specific verbal game. Their dialogue consists of collocations carried to absurdity, for example: ‘...их бин ейне шамбер-циммер Испания. Компрене? Испания. Падеспань’; ‘Ву зет Германия, одер, может быть, что-нибудь другое?’. Such words and foreign illogical collocations appear to be a unique stylistic device in Zoshchenko’s texts. Their specific features are determined by foreign lexical units usually belonging to several languages. Most frequent are syntactic structures containing Germanisms and Gallicisms. What is more, in Zoshchenko’s texts the foreign parenthetic words and expressions are used exclusively in Russian graphics, which leads to certain changes and modifications of their semantic and phonetic structures according to the model of the Russian language. Transliteration does not reflect the adequate articulation of foreign words and, consequently, results in grotesque effects.