Representation of the concept of MUSIC structure through subject-and-object relations in English-language literary discourse (based on the novel by O. Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Gray”)

AbstractThe article offers a cognitive analysis of the concept MUSIC in O. Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” through the prism of subject-and-object relations. The relevance of the study is due to the need for a comprehensive description of the verbalization of music as a concept in the individual worldview of the aesthetic writer. The purpose of the work is to identify and systematize the subject and object meanings of the concept, reconstruct its frame-and-slot structure and determine the conceptual features of music. The material consisted of contexts with the lexeme music and its derivatives, selected by the continuous sampling method. Methods of cognitive discursive analysis, frame modeling, quantitative counting and interpretive analysis were used. As a result, it was found that the position of the subject is dominated by the role of a causer of action (60%), which gives music a powerful suggestive potential; in the position of the object, the object of the causative state prevails (33%), emphasizing the transition of the listener to an ecstatic or altered state. The following frames were highlighted: “music — chaos”, “music — energy”, “music — catalyst”, etc. The dual nature of the concept manifests itself on two levels: in the binarity of its subject-object roles (causator vs. state object) and in the ambivalence of its axiological features (aesthetic pleasure vs. psychological destabilization). The epistemological determinants (foundation, condition, cause, purpose) connecting music with the emotional-psychological, intellectual, hedonic and moral-ethical spheres have been reconstructed.