Peculiarities of using lexical means in the work of V. V. Rozanov's «The Fallen Leaves»

The subject of the study is the lexical means used in the «Fallen Leaves» (1913, 1915) – the work by V. Rozanov, a publicist and a writer of the XIX – first third of the XX centuries – which represents a new author's genre – a leaf. Particular attention is paid to identifying the methods of using the vocabulary in this work in terms of expressing the author's thought in an aphoristic form, when the word plays a crucial role not only in generating the author's individual meaning, but also in expressing emotions and opinions.The author of the article identifies and demonstrates the most significant methods of using lexical means: subjective emotional and rational definition of concepts; interpretation of the meaning of words through contextual «increment» that creates the author's inferences; filling a word with contextual meaning by using associative images; the use of various lexical means, as well as tropes, stylistic figures to create connotative meaning and expression of the text; the method of creating a semantic opposition based on the antithesis; the use of metaphors, antitheses, gradations as textforming factors. The most significant methods of using lexical means are identified and demonstrated: subjective emotional and rational definition of concepts; interpretation of the meaning of words through contextual «increment» that creates the author's inferences; filling a word with contextual meaning using associative images; the use of various lexical means, as well as tropes, stylistic devices to create connotative meaning and expression of the text; the method of creating a semantic opposition based on the antithesis; the use of metaphors, antitheses, gradations as text-forming factors. It is stated and confirmed that the text-forming role is played by special means of creating imagery: metaphor (expanded metaphor), personification, antithesis and pun. Repetition and comparison are relevant in the «leaf» genre as the means of creating connotative meanings and enhancing expression. The author of the article considers special writer’s techniques which include semantic opposition and inferences formed both deductively and inductively and often serve as the main factors of text formation. These features, reflecting the characteristics of vocabulary, are both the methods of generating meaning, expression, evaluation and the signs of the «leaf» genre. The author concludes that the technique of using different lexical means is one of the main features of the writer's idiostyle.