Oculesic Markers in Guy de Maupassant’s Novella Boule de suif: Means of Linguistic Representation and Pragmatic Functions
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The subject of the study comprises the lexical semantics, syntactic functions, frequency characteristics, and pragmatic potential of the lexemes regarder, se regarder, regard, yeux, and œil as means of linguistic representation of oculesic markers in Guy de Maupassant's novella Boule de suif (1880), as well as their role in representing the theme of social hypocrisy. The object of the study is oculesic communication and its linguistic representation in Guy de Maupassant's idiostyle. The aim of the work is to identify, systematize, and describe the lexico-grammatical features and pragmatic functions of the means of linguistic representation of oculesic markers, and to determine their role in the linguistic encoding of implicit meanings: situations of conspiracy, social distancing, and hypocrisy. The article examines the lexical semantics and syntactic collocations of the specified lexemes and develops a functional-pragmatic typology of the communicative functions of the “language of eyes”. The empirical base comprises 29 communicative contexts extracted by continuous sampling from the original text of the novella (cases of purely physiognomic description bearing no communicative load were excluded from the initial sample). The study employs the continuous sampling method, quantitative (frequency) analysis, contextual and distributional analysis, syntactic function analysis, pragmatic analysis, the method of linguo-stylistic text interpretation, and the descriptive-classification method. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the means of linguistic representation of oculesic markers in Maupassant's idiostyle are examined for the first time as a systematic pragmatic instrument for encoding implicit meanings. It has been established that the most frequent group of representatives in the novella comprises the somatisms yeux and œil, as well as the verb regarder, which bear the primary load in conveying nonverbal behaviour. A functional-pragmatic typology of the “language of eyes” has been identified, encompassing the functions of establishing/breaking contact, emotional expression, social positioning, evaluation, and manipulation. It has been demonstrated that oculesic markers serve as the key mechanism for representing social hypocrisy: the characters' gazes encode situations of conspiracy, distancing, and alienation, exposing the gap between proclaimed morality and actual behaviour. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of applying its results in courses on French lexicology and stylistics, pragmatic linguistics, and in seminars on literary text interpretation.
Source: Филология научные исследования
Author: Vera Smirnova
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7204256902