Functional roles of colloquial and dialectal lexical layers in nar-dos’s short story cycle “our neighborhood”

Abstract

The object of this study is the manifestations of colloquial and dialectal lexical layers in Nar-Dos’s artistic language, based on the linguistic material of the short story cycle “Our Neighborhood”. The aim of the study is to identify the linguistic-stylistic features of non-literary vocabulary usage and to determine its role in the structural organization of artistic discourse. The methodology of the study is based on the principles of historical, literary, and linguistic analysis, particularly through examining specific situations and identifying cause-and-effect relationships. Colloquial and dialectal units were analyzed as means of popularizing speech and emphasizing the linguistic characteristics of the characters. The analysis demonstrates that in Nar-Dos’s works colloquial and dialectal units function not merely as a means of externally “popularizing” the speech, but rather as internal elements of the linguistic and stylistic structure of the text. They contribute to the linguistic individualization of characters, the representation of the linguistic environment of the social milieu, and the multilayered organization of the author’s narrative. Their purposeful and differentiated usage is conditioned by the communicative situation and by the principles of linguistic modeling of artistic thought.

The main result of the study lies in the systemic reinterpretation of the non-literary layers of Nar-Dos’s language. In this research, colloquial and dialectal vocabulary are considered within an interconnected functional system, differentiated according to the degree of general comprehensibility and spatial limitation. This approach makes it possible to clarify the internal structure of non-literary lexical layers and to reveal their role in the organization of artistic discourse, demonstrating that they contribute not only to the formation of characters’ speech but also to the enrichment of the expressive potential of the Armenian literary language.