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Description
The research is related to some general questions of the epigraph study in fiction. Based on the general principles of semantic analysis, semantic relations between the epigraph and the title as the components of the text structure are examined, the nature of semantic relations (semantic agreement or semantic disagreement) is revealed, types of semantic connection (explicit or implicit) are distinguished and the linguistic means of their representation are identified (Zakharava, 2021; Zakharava, 2023).
The material of the research contains 135 short stories by the English-speaking and Belarusian writers of the XIX–XXI centuries.
The research shows that the most common examples of semantic relations between the epigraph and the title in English and Belarusian short stories are the examples when the epigraph serves as a context to explain, clarify and specify the title of the story.
As for the types of semantic connection between the epigraph and the title, the examples with the explicit semantic connection (when the lexemes from the title of the story are repeated in the epigraph) prevail. The linguistic means of its representation are diverse, being predominantly represented by different types of lexical and semantic repetitions.
The implicit semantic connection (when there is no repetition of the lexemes from the title in the epigraph) are mostly represented by textual presuppositions and implications, both being described as two mental operations underlying logic and associative semantic relations between the epigraph and the title.
The examples demonstrating the combination of the two types of semantic connection mentioned (explicit and implicit) have also been singled out.
Key words: epigraph, semantic relations, semantic agreement / disagreement, explicit / implicit semantic connection, lexical / semantic repetition, linguistic means of representation, presupposition, implication
REFERENCES
Zakharava, М. (2021). The Epigraph and the Title in a Literary Text (in Belarusian prose). GSU.
Zakharava, М. (2023). The Multifunctionality of the Epigraph in Belarusian and English-language Short Stories. Abstract of a PhD thesis. NASB Centre for Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Research.