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Abstract: The article analyzes Latin words and phrases in A. P. Chekhov’s stories: inserted Latin quotations containing an intentional change of grammar and/or lexical content, as well as phrases composed by Chekhov himself. Knowledge of the Latin language, due to the gymnasium and professional medical education of the writer, becomes one of the tools of the author’s poetics. The object of research includes Latin expressions rewritten or independently invented by Chekhov. The method of textual analysis showed that the modified Latin is actively used by the writer to construct speech characteristics of the characters on whose behalf the narrative is conducted: against the background of a minimum or absence of personal information about the character, foreign-language insertions become an external marker of education. However, the expressions under study have grammatical or semantic deviations, which are discovered by a careful reader. Thus Chekhov initiates a language game: through the Latin language, the writer engages the reader in the process of text comprehension, discovering additional (often opposite) meanings in it. Latin expressions create a flavor of scientific style, but the characters who use these catch phrases demonstrate their intellectual and emotional underdevelopment. The author’s Latin becomes an instrument of parody and subtle irony, which are indispensable components of Chekhov’s individual style, the brevity and conciseness of which implicitly express multilayered allusions and meanings. Chekhov’s contemporaries penetrated relatively easily into the language game suggested by the writer, since Latin was a compulsory gymnasium subject. The 21st century reader needs help in the form of a scholarly commentary. The results presented in the article can be used for further, more detailed study of the functions of foreign language inclusions in the corpus of texts of Russian literature in general and the author’s method of Chekhov in particular. In addition, the examples of Latin expressions and their stylistic role in Chekhov’s stories can help illustrate the reception of language games in the classroom on the university and secondary school levels.

About the author(s) :

Anna A. Skoropadskaya
Petrozavodsk State University (Petrozavodsk, Russia)
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6593-5526

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 02.07.2023; date of publication: 31.03.2024

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