Structural and semantic features and functions of the fiction work titles of the 19th century

The relevance of the work is determined by the role of the title, which has an undoubted value and highlights the structure of the whole text from three main angles: semantic, formal and informative. The title gives unity to the text, where the heading occupies a dominant position, which attracts the reader’s attention and creates a greater perception of the text. The aim of the research is to identify the general and specific functions of the titles of French and Russian fiction works of the 19th century, as well as the structural features and semantic component of the titles of the analyzed works. The research was based on the texts of fiction genre works: “Les Mystères de Paris” by E. Sue, “Peterburgskiye trushoby” by V. Krestovsky and “Les Mystères de Londres” by P. Feval. The study was conducted using a complex methodology that includes the following methods: observation, systematization, structural analysis, functional analysis, stylistic analysis. This article examines and analyzes various interpretations of the “title” concept by Russian and foreign scientists; determines the role of the title in the text in whole and in the analyzed novels by three authors E. Sue, V. Krestovsky, P. Feval; identifies the main functions of the title; classifies the titles types regarding their structure, semantics and stylistic content; the texts of the titles highlight the illustrative zone, which reveals the reasons for the similarity, starting from the titles of the works themselves “Les Mystères de Paris”, “Peterburgskiye tainy (trushchoby)”, “Les Mystères de Londres”) and ending with the titles of the chapters. A title is an integral part of any text. A title enables a reader to see the main problem, the idea of the novel. Events, that take place in the world are often reflected in novels, and consist of many plots united by certain themes or subheadings. These subheadings reveal associative, emotional and evaluative components of meaning, being a kind of the plan of the work, where time and place of events, an appearance and an inner world of the characters, images that form the picture of the whole book are involved. Any title is an encoded text that includes some kind of a hint about further events. A title is a reflection of historical and cultural development of society and the author’s ideas. The individual style of the authors highlights the image and spirit of the epoch, national peculiarities and linguistic fashion. The headings apply to vocabulary of different stylistic coloring including puns, decomposition of phraseological units and other stylistic devices.

title, title functions, title structure, compressed text