The lexico-semantic field "Feeling" (based on the material of English reviews and film blogs)

Suchkov Il'ya Alekseevich ORCID: 0000-0001-5347-5243 Senior lecturer; Department of English Philology; GAOU VO IIA MSPU Postgraduate student; Department of English Philology; GAOU VO IIA MSPU 105064, Russia, Moscow, Maly Kazenny lane, 5B, room 254 ilyaxxx96@yandex.ru

Introduction

Feelings and emotions are the basic mechanisms of subjective reaction and their importance for human life is extremely high. They regulate a person's relationship with the outside world, and are also a source of experience and the basis for more complex mental operations. It is not surprising that the description of these categories is a promising area of research in many scientific disciplines, including linguistics. One of the tasks within the framework of this science is the description and structuring of linguistic means through which feelings and emotions are expressed, as well as the identification of links between them, which is achieved through the construction and analysis of lexico-semantic fields (LSP). It is worth noting that scientists have already conducted comparative studies in this field ^[1], compiled and described lexico-semantic fields related to sensory perception, including on the material of the English language ^{[2, 3]}. However, it is worth noting that the linguistic material in these works were works of art of the twentieth century. Since the lexical level of a language is "the most dynamic tier of the language system" ^{[4, p. 137]}, the study of LSP based on modern language sources will expand the understanding of this lexico-semantic field, as well as reflect the changes that have occurred in it.

The texts of English-language film reviews were chosen as the object of research, which, as noted by E. I. Ryabko and P. S. Osipova ^[5], have gained particular popularity due to the development of cinema and the Internet. It is worth noting the heterogeneity of this genre. Studying its evolution in the media space, A.V. Iovleva contrasts traditional film censorship, which "is not in popular demand and is increasingly transformed into high-quality narrowly focused criticism" ^{[6, p. 43]}, with works from the blogosphere aimed at a mass audience. Despite such differences, the main functions of film censorship, among which T. R. Vanko ^[7] distinguishes informational and evaluative, are expressed in both subgenres. Vocabulary denoting feelings and emotions can realize both functions, since it can be used both purely in a descriptive sense and express various types of modality, as a result of which its study in the context of film censorship seems relevant.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the composition and structure of the lexico-semantic field of feeling in English-language film reviews and film blogs. The objectives of the study include the identification of microfields in the composition of the LSP, the description of the nuclear peripheral structure and the functioning features of its constituent units.

Literature review

V. N. Yartseva defines a field as "a set of linguistic (mainly lexical) units united by a common content (sometimes by a common formal indicators) and reflecting the conceptual, substantive and functional similarity of the designated phenomena" ^{[8, p. 380]}. Z. D. Popova and I. A. Sternin ^[9] identify several features inherent in this education. The first feature of the field is the presence of systemic relationships. This provision presupposes the presence of a common semantic feature, which is the main criterion for grouping lexemes and is reflected in their meaning as an integral or differential component of meaning. Through a common feature, the elements of the field enter into semantic relationships, among which I. M. Kobozeva identifies (complete, incomplete and contextual) synonymy, hyponymy, incompatibility, antonymy and conversivity ^[10]. S. V. Kezina ^[11] identifies three levels of connections: intra-verbal (between the meanings of one lexeme), inter-verbal (connections at the level of groups of words) and at the level of the entire system (for example, the polysemy of various structural and semantic groups of verbs). The second feature of LSP is the presence of both homogeneous and heterogeneous elements. Heterogeneity can be present both at the semantic level of a language, which is mediated by the presence of various connections between them, and at the morphological level, since the field includes words from different parts of speech ^[12]. The third property of LSP is the presence of at least two micropoles in its composition. E. A. Tanygina defines a micropole as "a semantic association that is connected by an integral feature, usually expressed by the dominant of the field" ^{[13, p. 90]}. The presence of such subgroups can be justified by the commonality of the differential values inherent in a certain group of field elements, on the basis of which they can be separated into a separate micropole within the framework of the LSP. The fourth property is the ability of LSP components to overlap. Due to the complex semantic structure, one word can be an element of several LSPs at once. For example, the word "restaurant" can be attributed to such fields as "Food" and "Building", which is determined by the presence of corresponding terms in its meaning. The last property highlighted by Z. D. Popova and I. A. Sternin is the presence of nuclear and peripheral elements, and there is no clear boundary between them. This position presupposes the presence of a complex and heterogeneous structure in the field. Traditionally, scientists distinguish the core and the periphery. Let's consider these zones and denote the criteria for their allocation. T. N. Kurenkova ^[14] suggests the meaning of the word and the semes included in it as the starting point for constructing the field. I. B. Kositsyna and A. Y. Bylkova ^[12] cite terms such as nuclear seme, archiseme and field name, which denote a common semantic feature of the elements fields. As the basis for the LSP, we will take the archilexeme proposed by V. N. Yartseva, which is a word with a generalized meaning that acts as the core of the field under study. Among the criteria for selecting a nuclear lexeme, one can single out its presence and description in lexicographic sources, stylistic neutrality and high frequency. The peripheral zone is interpreted and interpreted by the authors in different ways. T. N. Kurenkova and T. V. Strekaleva ^[15] distinguish the near and far periphery. V. N. Denisenko ^[16] and I. A. Krapivina ^[17] designate the near/near core zone and the periphery or several peripheral zones. A. S. Kaneeva and E. V. Bodnaruk ^[18] divide the periphery into near, far and extreme. In this study, we will start from the first classification, which implies the presence of near and far periphery. The main criteria for filling these zones are frequency, the higher it is, the closer the token is to the core, as well as the presence of differential signs – the more of them, the further the word is from the core.

Methodology and material

The research material was based on film censors from digital media and the blogosphere for films and TV series Cuties (2020), Doctor Who (Doctor Who, 2024), Peter Pan and Wendy (Peter Pan & Wendy, 2023), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, 2022), Stellar Path: Discovery (Star Trek: Discovery, 2022), Acolyte (Star Wars: The Acolyte, 2024), The Boys (The Boys, 2024), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, 2023). The choice of these films is justified by their polar perception in society. The professional community and journalism gave high marks to these works, while their user rating turned out to be low, as evidenced by statistics on the Rotten Tomatoes film aggregator ^[19]. The ambiguity of perception makes it possible to include both positive and negative reviews in the corpus of texts, as a result of which to ensure a broad representation of the lexical group being studied. The text array includes publications from digital publications such as Salon.com , New Yorker, Empire, The Independent, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, IGN, The Ringer, The Washington Post, Indiewire, as well as the works of film bloggers The Critical Drinker, The Woke Critic, Nerdrotic, Disparu, Pinguinz0, Hunter Avallone, Echo Chamberlain, Baggage Claim, Mr. H Reviews, SciTrek. The resulting text array includes 40 reviews, with a total volume of 300,000 printed characters (60,000 words).

The main research method is content analysis. At the first stage, the text array was analyzed using the Tropes V8.4 program, which made it possible to identify the main semantic centers and group lexical units into micropoles based on semantic characteristics. The analysis of dictionary definitions was used to identify the core. Contextual analysis was used to describe the use of lexemes in order to identify modal meanings.

The results and their discussion

The word feeling in the following meaning is chosen as the archilexeme:

An emotional state or reaction. Emotional state or reaction (Hereinafter referred to as my translation) ^[20].

The choice of the lexeme is due to its generalized meaning and lack of stylistic coloring. Another reason for choosing the word feeling as the core component is the high frequency of its derivatives relative to other words of this class in the texts under consideration – 56. It is also worth noting the emotion lexeme, which is close in meaning to the selected archiseme. During the associative experiment conducted by L. A. Piotrovskaya ^[21], it was found that native speakers of the Russian language differentiate "feelings" and "emotions" more clearly. In English, this difference is not obvious, however, the English-speaking subjects singled out the "feeling" category as an operational one. Nevertheless, let's consider the definition of the word emotion:

A conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body. A conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling, usually directed at a specific object and accompanied by behavioral and physiological changes ^[20].

In this dictionary definition, the semantic elements of feeling and emotion differ in one differential feature – strong, as a result of which the addition of a second archilexeme to the core seems appropriate. In total, 418 cases of the use of units belonging to the studied group were recorded in the text array. Despite the low frequency indicators, it is worth noting the high distribution of this lexical group in film review texts: on average, the text of this genre contains 11 elements from the considered LSP.

When analyzing the text array, the Tropes V8.4 program identified 23 micropoles that are part of the Feeling LSP. They can be divided into three classes: micropoles, which include lexemes with positive connotation, negative connotation, and which, in addition to units with a differential sign, include words that have a generalized, neutral meaning. The first class includes micropoles: Admiration & liking (4), Cheerfulness (4), Enthusiasms (8), Friendships (40), Hope & optimism (14), Joy & happiness (18), Love & affection (39), Pleasures (19), Sympathy & compassion (4) These words are mostly used in positive contexts .:

If you want your voice to be heard join the conversation, push the subscribe button down below and help us grow the Fellowship till it becomes a positive force for good change. If you want your voice to be heard, join the conversation, click the "Subscribe" button and help us develop our Brotherhood so that it becomes a real force that will contribute to change for the better ^[22].

The Friendships micropole is one of the most frequent clusters in the material under consideration. Usually, the words of this group are used to describe the relationship between the characters, however, in the above fragment of the movie blog dedicated to the aforementioned series, the lexeme fellowship is used to express the subject modality. The choice of the word is not accidental and is a reference to the first part of the trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" — "The Fellowship of the Ring". This stylistic technique is combined with the inclusive we, which designates the reviewer and the totality of his subscribers and emphasizes their knowledge and competence, which, due to the translocative orientation of the proposal, should have an impact on the reader and stimulate his desire to join this group.

The second class is represented by clusters Anger & indignation (13), Discontents (7), Dislikes (9), Embarrassments (3), Envies (4), Fears & apprehensions (19), Hates (35), Melancholy & sadness (9), Pains (11), Stupidity (5), Unpleasantness (7). The tokens included in the micropole data are mainly used to express the author's opinion:

...this version of Peter is so irritatingly malicious that I actually found myself rooting for Captain Hook after a while... ...this version of Peter is so malicious that it's annoying, and over time I realized that I'm rooting for Captain Hook...^[23]

In this fragment of the review of the film "Peter Pan and Wendy", a word from the group in question is used to give a negative characterization of the protagonist based on the subjective and emotional perception of the author. Other objects of evaluation include director's decisions, the script, the audience, dialogues, the pace of narration, the films themselves, cameramen and directors.

He immediately spirits her new 6ft 7in form away to his Stark-funded lab to help her begin the laborious journey of learning what it is to be one of the avocado-hued; how to control her anger, fear and her transformations. He immediately sends Jennifer in her new two-meter-tall form to a Stark-funded laboratory to help her understand what it's like to be one of those with avocado-colored skin; how to control anger, fear, and her transformations ^[24].

Another case of using lexemes of this group is the description of the plot of the work. In the review of the TV series "Hulk Woman: Lawyer", the author uses the lexemes of the LSP in question in order to convey the experiences of this heroine, as a result of which the words are used in a descriptive sense and do not carry additional modal meanings.

The Boys Season 4 is nothing short of frustrating, but not because of the writers or actors associated with the show; it's frustrating because the show does an impeccable job of examining the world we live in. The fourth season of "Boys" can't help but disappoint, but not because of the writers or actors associated with the series; it disappoints because it flawlessly explores the world we live in ^[25].

The frustrating lexeme in this fragment has an evaluative value, however, the object of evaluation is not the series, but the real world, as a result of which the author expresses his attitude to objective reality through the prism of film censorship.

It is worth noting that quantifiably, words with a positive connotation are more common, but there are more microfields, including lexemes denoting negative feelings and emotions, and, consequently, a wider range of their expression in film censorship. It is also worth noting the superiority of the micropoles Love & affection (39) and Hates (35) over Admiration & liking (4) and Dislikes (9), which may indicate that the authors prefer vocabulary expressing stronger feelings.

The third group is represented by the micropoles Astonishment & surprise (10), Desires (17), Expectations (5). The units that make up these micropoles may have a neutral meaning, for example, the word desire:

Jen wins over our hearts with ease with chronic relatability and by instilling an unshakable desire to root for her success. Jen easily wins our hearts, because it is easy for the viewer to relate to her; she imposes on us an unshakeable desire to root for her ^[26].

…if it gets a second season it will be simply because of Marvel's continued desire to show disdain towards their own fan base. ...If the series gets a second season, it will happen solely because of Marvel's desire to show contempt for its fanbase ^[27].

Both examples are value judgments, where the objects of criticism are the character and the film studio, which receive positive and negative ratings, respectively. However, evaluability is transmitted through the linguistic environment of the desire lexeme: in the first case, this is achieved through the units win over hearts, relativity, root, success; in the second, through the lexeme word from the micropole Hates, disdain.

Having considered the micropoles, it seems logical to determine the occupancy of the periphery of the field. The LSP in question has an extensive near periphery, including 57 lexical units. The components of this zone have a number of characteristics that are also criteria for their allocation: high frequency, use in the main meaning and the absence of restrictions in use. Vivid examples of such lexemes are words such as love (23), hate (28), fun (13), surprise (10).

It must be love because the Doctor isn’t put off when he discovers his new squeeze is into Dungeons & Dragons. It must have been love, because the Doctor wasn't put off by the fact that his girlfriend loves Dungeons and Dragons^[28].

I love a Captain America flick as much as the next person, and all kinds of superheroes are for all kinds of people, but it’s thrilling to see a wider demographic being reached out to. I love Captain America movies, just like everyone else. Despite the fact that superheroes should appeal to every viewer, it's nice to see that the series is trying to attract a wide range of people ^[29].

In the first case, the lexeme of the near periphery is used in combination with the modal verb must to express a suggestive modality, in the second case it is used to express the critic's assessment, the object of which is the film. Usage in various contexts indicates the universality of the constituents of the near periphery, which is reflected in their frequency. However, since the boundaries of the LSP periphery are blurred, this does not apply to all units of this zone. Within its framework, there are words with low frequency, which at the same time have a strong connection with the core. For example, the dislike token, which occurs twice in a text array, has the following meaning:

A feeling of aversion or disapproval. Feeling of disgust or disapproval ^[20].

As part of the definition, the presence of the archilexeme feeling can be distinguished, as a result of which its inclusion in the near periphery seems appropriate.

The far periphery includes 83 words. Their main characteristics and selection criteria are low and low frequency, use in a peripheral or figurative sense, the presence of restrictions in use due to the presence of stylistically colored families.

While addressing the culture of misogyny as a societal trait and a sector of Marvel fandom, «She-Hulk» is not overly serious or ham-fisted with commentary. Touching upon the problem of the culture of misogyny as a feature of society and, in particular, the sector of the Marvel fan community, the Hulk Woman does not comment on it explicitly and seriously ^[29].

A striking example of such a lexeme is the word misogyny (5). In this context, it is not used to form an assessment. Unlike the component of the near periphery, hate, this token has a more complex meaning:

Hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women. Hatred, disgust, or bias against women ^[20].

This definition includes an additional differential feature – woman.

The scares were all done properly well, and the scale and size felt true. The scarecrows are well made: the scope and size seem plausible ^[30].

In the above fragment, the scare lexeme is used in a peripheral meaning that is not fixed in lexicographic sources ^{[20, 31]} and acts as an object of evaluation. Given that it also has a low frequency and occurs twice in the case, its inclusion in the far periphery seems logical.

Conclusion

Thus, the LSP feeling, studied on the basis of film reviews and film blogs, is a complex structure that includes 23 micropoles, 9 of which contain elements expressing positive feelings, 11 – negative, 3 – have a heterogeneous composition. Micropoles are uneven, however, one can notice a tendency for reviewers to use words denoting strong feelings and emotions. The field under study is characterized by the presence of a core, which includes archilexemesfeeling and emotion, as well as the periphery, which is divided into near and far. The near periphery is heterogeneous: it includes frequency elements that, due to the generalization of meaning, can be used in various contexts, but there are also words with less usage, while semantically closely related to the core. Words belonging to the far periphery are characterized by the presence of a large number of connotative meanings, rarity of use, and use in a secondary meaning. The lexemes forming the LSP are used to express various modal meanings: subjectivity, evaluativeness, suggestibility, while often acting themselves as an object of evaluation. Potentially, this field can be significantly expanded by including texts from other genres, which will allow for a more accurate understanding of its elements and the connections between them.