Functional potential of the impersonal sentence for the configuration of the mental representation of the event
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-830X-2021-3-2-129-137Keywords:
mental representation of the event, configuration, impersonal structure, initial pronominal subject, viewer, prototypical event schemeAbstract
The article dwells upon a number of issues related to the semantics and functions of the impersonal sentence in English, it being a very specific type of sentence structure. In terms of sentence scheme the issue of the predicative core structure of such propositions, their evolution, etc. have long been widely discussed in linguistic research, as well as the point of the meaning and status of the initial pronominal subject of the structures. Being generally guided by the cognitive grammar theory and by the prototypical event schemata developed by R. Langacker, the article argues in favour of the meaningful status of the impersonal subject in the English language, which proves to be the projection of the setting in Langacker’s scheme of event. Following this, the article involves concepts of psychology of perception aiming at describing the parameters of the zone beyond the profiled in the prototypical event scheme. Furthermore, there are found correlative links between the concept of the setting in cognitive linguistics and the concept of configuration in psychology of perception. Thus, the conceptual substratum which is projected in the meaning of the impersonal “it” in the English impersonal sentence is stated to be configuration of the event mental representation, the latter property fosters their function and usage in fiction, wherein impersonal sentences of different description are employed by the authors at the beginning of the whole work, or the start of a new chapter/ segment/part of the text in order to create or form some general background for the events described later. The semantic study of the parameters and properties of the configuration of the mental representation of the event shows that temporal characteristics manifest a vaster degree of conceptual salience as compared to the other conceptual domains.
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