Intertextual Vocabulary of a Literary Character (Based on the Novel “Candle” by Valery Zalotukha)

The article studies intertextual vocabulary as one of the components of the main character’s linguistic identity. The research is based on the novel “Candle” by Valery Zolotukha. The paper considers sources of intertextual units, graphic markers and input operators of someone else’s words, as well as text positions and functions of intertextual fragments. The intertextual vocabulary of the protagonist Yevgeny Zolotorotov has a pronounced literary-centric character. Most of the intertextual inclusions refer to Russian literature. These quotes can be explicit or hidden, exact or transformed. The quotes refer to the works of Russian and Soviet authors, the names of these works themselves, the names of characters, the retelling of episodes as well as to various other ideas and statements of writers and poets. In addition, the intertextual vocabulary of the main character of the novel “Candle” contains various intertextual inclusions from films, animation, songs, anecdotes, advertising language, statements of historical figures,
political discourse, etc. A significant part of Yevgeny Zolotorotov’s intertextual vocabulary includes units that refer to family-friendly personal communication. These are quotes from the speech of his relatives and friends (mother, wife, daughter, best friend), mentions of various family nicknames, puns, cases of wordplay. The graphic markers for intertextual inclusions are quotation marks, italics, and capital letters. Among input operators, the socalled ‘scientifi c’ references to sources are of particular interest, as well as interrogative constructions that show the speaker's uncertainty about the accuracy of either the quote itself or its attribution. The intertextual units used by the main character are almost always an incentive for his further reflection — he agrees or does not agree with an expressed
idea or thought, comments on it and develops it. In some cases, an intertextual element, repeated several times in the text, denotes a certain cross-cutting theme and becomes a leitmotif. The obtained data allow us to reconstruct one of the aspects of the linguistic identity of Yevgeny Zolotorotov and thereby characterize the image of the protagonist of the novel “Candle”.