Cognitive Intentions in Dialogue: How Expressive Syntax Conveys Opinion, Argument, and Supposition in G. Yakhina's Novel "Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes"

This study investigates the role of expressive syntactic constructions (ESCs) in conveying cognitive intentions (opinion, argument, supposition) in literary texts. Using Guzel Yakhina's novel «Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes» as primary material, the research analyzes the functional capabilities of specific syntactic devices including parcellation, repetition, rhetorical questions and exclamations, aposiopesis, ellipsis, inversion, and other constructions that shape the pragmatic dimension of character utterances. The analysis demonstrates that parcellation enhances emotional emphasis and renders character speech more dynamic and expressive; repetition underscores speaker persistence and conviction; while ellipsis creates effects of implication, uncertainty, or internal tension. Rhetorical questions and exclamations enable characters to express subjective attitudes toward events, whereas inversion structures utterances to foreground key informational elements. Collectively, these devices not only transmit characters' cognitive states but also model their interpersonal interactions, reveal social status and psychological traits, thereby constructing comprehensive representations of their inner worlds and emotional experiences. The methodological framework is grounded in a cognitive-pragmatic approach, which treats expressive syntactic constructions as means of expressing intentionality. The scientific novelty lies in systematically correlating syntactic tools with types of cognitive intentions, revealing consistent patterns between utterance structure and intentional content, while facilitating identification of distinctive character speech types. Findings indicate that expressive syntax serves to verbalize cognitive and emotional states, enhances textual expressiveness, models characters' inner worlds, and reveals their psychological portraits. The practical significance encompasses applications in literary analysis, psycholinguistic research, and teaching literary interpretation. Study limitations acknowledge the single-text basis of conclusions, which may reflect genre and stylistic specificities. Nevertheless, the proposed approach opens new perspectives for analyzing literary discourse through the dual lens of syntactic expressivity and cognitive intentions.

argument, dialogic discourse, cognitive intentions, opinion, supposition, verbal influence, expressive syntax, cognitive syntax, intentionality, literary dialogue