THE STRUCTURE OF THE SEMIOTIC CATEGORY OF TIME IN A LITERARY TEXT (Based on Novel “The Defector (Nevozvrashchenets)” by A. Kabakov)

The article considers time as the most important semiotic and linguopoetical category of a literary text. The text of A. Kabakov's novel “The Defector (Nevozvrashchenets)” is used to analyse the structure of the temporal category in its semiotic dimensions, namely semantics and pragmatics. It is shown that the contents of semantic fields, which reflect the category of time in the novel, the intersec-tion and interplay between these fields and pragmatic relations based on author's attitudes and reader's interpretation, establish a multi-layered, hierarchical structure of temporality in the fictional text. Moreover, the semantics of fictional time is primarily explained by lexico-grammatical and syntactic linguistic units, while, in terms of pragmatics, the crucial modes of expression are the text organization and the context of the author's intention and the reader's perception. Thus, it is emphasized that the time within fictional text is broader than the time in the language. The results of the text analysis demonstrate how important it is to examine fictional texts from the semiotic viewpoint. It appears that a simultaneous considering of semantics and pragmatics of a text and their correlation and interaction permits us to go beyond the “narrow” grammatical opinion when analys-ing such a complex text category as the time. Taking in consideration linguistic, philosophical, cultural and socio-historical contexts, the researcher expands the boundaries of analysis, increases its authenticity and obtains an opportunity to disclose and interpret all the meanings embedded by the author.