Lexical regulativity of poetic texts by Yu.D. Levitansky as a key to understanding his value picture of the world

The study of value concepts in the poetic picture of the world of famous authors relates to the current problems of modern stylistics and linguistics of the text, cognitive linguistics, and the theory of speech communication. Of particular importance is the analysis of the linguistic means by which the poet has a dialogue with the reader and forms moral guidelines. In this context, the analysis of lexical regulativity becomes the key to a deeper understanding of speech influence methods of a poetic text on the addressee, as well as allows us to identify the features of the individual style of Yu.D. Levitansky. The purpose of the article is to analyze the specifics of lexical regulators’ functioning in the poetic texts of Yuri Davidovich Levitansky, realizing the key ideological and ethical attitudes of the author. The theoretical basis of the study was the developments in the field of the theory of regulativity as one of the areas of communicative stylistics. Within the framework of this approach, regulativity is considered as the ability of a text to direct the perception of the addressee, to influence his emotional and intellectual sphere and to build up a dialogue with him on the basis of various linguistic means, primarily lexical ones, as the most significant for expressing the meaning of the text.The material for the analysis are the poems of Yu.D. Levitansky “The Old Woman-Envy”, “Remembrance” (from the collection “Leaves are Flying”, 1956), “The Rightness of Untruth is Deceptive...” (from the collection “Directions of the World”, 1959), “An Attempt at Consolation” (from the collection “Some Day”, 1976). Each of these poetic texts presents such key concepts as “solidarity,” “respect for life,” “moral choice,” and “acceptance of life in all its complexity.” The role of lexical regulators (evaluative vocabulary, emotionally marked words, expressive epithets and metaphors), as well as syntactic structures in the interpretative activity of the reader and his/her involvement in the content is determined. Regulators form an attitude towards an active life position and solidarity with others (the poem “The Old WomanEnvy”); they actualize thoughts about the value of simple things and experience acquired through loss (the poem “Remembrance”); about the significance of truth (in the poem “The truth of untruth is deceptive…”); about accepting suffering as an integral part of life (in the poem “An attempt at consolation”). In the poetry of Yuri Davidovich Levitansky, lexical regulators are used as an important means of aesthetic influence on the reader’s consciousness. Through a system of regulatory means and structures, the poet builds up a dialogue with him, inviting him to moral reflection, involvement and spiritual understanding of life in all its diversity.