Lexico-Semantic Field «Teaching» in the Compositional Structure of A.S. Griboyedov’s Comedy «Woe from Wit»

Abstract

The article deals with elements comprising the thematic composition of the comedy «Woe from Wit» by A.S. Griboyedov. The compositional structure of the comedy «Woe from Wit» is extremely complex. The movement of the action in the play is due to the combination of compositional techniques. These techniques are closely linked to the thematic content of the work. There are more than twenty-five lexical and semantic fields and lexical nests in the work, among which are: «service», «ranks», «teaching», «reading», «books», «people / person», «laughter», «burst of laughter», «fun», «joke», «rel- atives», «grief», «happiness», «stupidity», «lies», «feelings», «society», «education», «heart», «word», etc. These compositional-thematic formations concentrate almost the entire range of comedy problems, provide the movement of action, forming the periphery of the main phraseosemantic field «mind / madness». Our observations and calculations demonstrate that Chatsky is not the leading character in the development of these lexical nest themes, although their development is traditionally associated with the image of the main character of the play. Chatsky’s look is fresh, far from stagnation, but his voice drowns in the general chorus of voices, they do not hear him and do not want to hear him. Chatsky does not lead topics, he follows Famusov, the main carrier of the topics. The unified line in the development of the themes of the lexical-semantic field «teaching» and the lexical nests «books» and «reading» is complicated by semantic contradictions between the structural units of each formation, as well as two-fold thematic repetitions (in the lexical nest «learning»). The mind in A.S. Griboyedov’s comedy is presented as an axiological value, it is the undoubted dominant of the work. The lexico-semantic field «teaching» and the lexical nests «books» and «reading» represent the nearest periphery of the phraseosemantic field «mind / madness»