VERBALIZATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT WOMEN OF RESPECTABLE AGE IN ARTISTIC TEXT (based on the material of the novel "Elizabeth is Missing" by Emma Healy translated by Anna Tsvira)

Abstract

This article attempts to analyze and classify the linguistic means employed to create a psychological
portrait of an elderly woman in Emma Healy’s novel Elizabeth is Missing and its translation performed by
Anna Tsvira. For this purpose, we have used the following methods: general scientific methods of analysis,
logical deduction, synthesis and generalization; method of sampling to select materials for examination;
methods of definition-based and context-based analysis as well as an interpretation method which enabled
us to make conclusions regarding mechanisms of selecting accurate and expressive linguistic means to
create a psychological portrait of an elderly woman in a literary text.
It was found that language ways which that enabled the author Emma Healey to create a psychological
portrait of an elderly woman, and helped the translator Anna Tsvira to recreate it successfully are as
follows: bunching, monotonous repetition of pronouns; phraseologisms; the use of verbs that depict
psychological and behavioral reactions; swearing; lexical units of negative attitude and judgment (nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs and adverbial phrases); individual (author-coined), image metaphors and
comparisons; stylistic devices (antithesis, repetition); bunching of interrogative questions, multiple use
of negative particle “not”, punctuation marks. The said linguistic means enable the reader to interpret
the psychoemotional condition of an elderly woman: projecting (attribution) of one’s own state onto
other people; inadequate physiological manifestation of emotions; inner conflict, inner fears (caused
by biological aspects of aging); awareness of psychological changes due to new signs of a progressing
illness. With the help of the abovementioned linguistic means, the author / translator managed to preserve
the atmosphere of instinctive, illogical, and partially even absurd feeling of extreme fear and terror
experienced by the main character, and represent Maud’s illness as an invincible obstacle that renders the
woman unable to live a normal life within the society, to create a psychological portrait of this character
and arouse an intended emotion in the reader – the empathy they feel when they begin to experience the
main character’s emotions as if these were their own.