Information on the thesis

The aim of the thesis is to study the frequency structure of the lexical-
semantic  fields  of  verbs  in  English  and  establish  some  distinctive  statistical
features of lexeme distribution in the author’s texts of English literature.
The use of quantitative methods in the study of linguistic phenomena is
one  of  the  promising  areas  of  modern  linguistics.  These  methods  make  it
possible to get a quantitative interpretation of text linguistics as well as to com-
plement a qualitative linguistic analysis of texts in fiction.
A voluminous electronic database of English literature has been collected,
with  about  10,000  works  of  1,000  different  authors,  totalling  approximately
800 million lexemes; the lexical-semantic fields of English verbs have been in-
ventoried electronically for statistical studies; special quantitative techniques and
appropriate algorithms have been adapted and elaborated to study the statistical
structure of the lexical-semantic fields of verbs; the frequency structure of the
lexical-semantic fields of verbs has been calculated for 32 authors (998 works);
the  frequency  structure  and  quantitative  limits  of  the  core  and  close/remote
peripheries  of  the  lexical-semantic  fields  of  verbs  has  been  studied;  the
frequency area of markers of the author’s idiolect in the structure of the semantic
fields  of  verbs  has  been  revealed;  the  stylometrical  aspects  of  the  submodal
psychosemantic  fields  of  verbs  in  the  author’s  lexicon  have  been  analyzed;  a
stylometrical  significance  of  the  frequency  distribution  of  the  lexical-semantic
fields of verbs in the author’s texts has been ascertained; the presence of the core
and periphery in the semantic similarity of texts in the author’s style has been
investigated; the synonymous range of words in the frequency distribution of the
semantic fields of verbs in the author’s texts has been analyzed.
The results of the study reveal the lexemes of the semantic fields of verbs
form a hierarchical frequency structure, characterized by the constants of semantic
distances, with distinct core elements of close and remote periphery. The frequency
structure of the lexical-semantic fields of verbs contains markers of the author’s
idiolect. The constants of semantic distances that define this area do not depend on
a  quantitative  or  qualitative  fabric  of  the  author’s  texts  and  tend  to  reflect  the
fundamental lexical-semantic patterns of the author’s unique individual style.
The frequency distribution of the semantic fields of verbs is unique for the
texts of each author and significantly different from the same distribution for the
texts of the averaged linguostylistic norm. A quantitative measurement of such a
difference  is  the  coefficient  of  semantic  expressiveness  of  the  author’s  style.
Using  a  contingency  coefficient  of  the  frequency  distribution  of  the  lexical-
semantic fields of verbs, it is possible to identify the author’s texts, which form
the core and periphery of the semantic similarity of his style.
The inventory of the psychosemantic fields of verbs has been suggested
with a closer look into its quantitative and constituent structure in the author’s
lexicon. Such a study makes it possible to identify a sub-modal component of the
psychological characteristics of the author’s style.
A relation of quantitative characteristics of the synonymous structure of
verbs  with  the  structure  of  frequency  distribution  of  their  semantic  fields  has
been studied.
The  study  complements  the  existing  scientific  notions  of  the  lexical-
semantic fields of verbs as well as develops their new extensions contributing to
the overall pattern of a quantitative structure and stylometrical characteristics of
the individual author’s texts.
Keywords: quantitative linguistics, lexical-semantic field, individual author’s
style, idiolect, frequency dictionaries, stylometry.