Uzbekistan state world languages university d. U. Ashurova m. R. Galieva

c) toponyms: They had glowered upon him like Scylla and Charybdis, but they had let him go through (Murdoch, The Unicorn);

d) word-formation units: John would’t be surprised… to catch a glimpse of pink nymph-skin…. (Fitzgerald, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz);

e) phraseological units: The night operator answered the phone. “This is Perry Mason” he said. I suppose Paul Drake is wrapped in the arms of Morpheus (Gardner, The Case of the Runaway Corpse);

f) sentences: Prometheus Enriched was calling to witness forgotten sacrifices, forgotten rituals, prayers obsolete before the birth of Christ (F.S. Fitzgerald, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz);

d) texts: Eliduc (J. Fowles); Ulysses (J. Joyce); The Pyramid, The Scorpion God (W. Golding), The Labours of Hercules (А. Christie);

The mechanism of mythologemes is based on the cognitive operation known as conceptual integration or blending. This theory holds that meaning construction involves integration of structures that give rise to more than the sum of its parts. A distinctive feature of mythologemes is their intertextuality. Two conceptual domains, those of the precedent and the recipient texts are brought together and integrated into one on the basis of a mythologeme, thus evoking an array of associations and new conceptual senses.

In this respect the story “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” by F.S. Fitzgerald serves as a good example. The whole text of the story is penetrated by mythologemes mainly of Greek origin (Hades, St. Midas, a goat-foot piping his way, pink nymph-skin and flying yellow hair, woody rattles of Nemesis, Prometheus Enriched, myrrh and gold, golden age, God was made in man’s image). The usage of these mythologemes in the text activates extralinguistic mythological knowledge of the reader, thus focusing his mind on the conceptually relevant information. Let us embark on a detailed analysis.

The main hero of the story John Unger lives in a small provincial city Hades:

John T. Unger came from a family that had been well known in Hades  a small town on the Mississippi River  for several generations.

The name of the city makes it possible to draw a parallel between this provincial old-fashioned city and the mythological underworld kingdom of Hades. According to ancient Greek mythology Hades is the underworld abode of the dead. The term Hades in Christian theology is close to the concept of Hell ‒ the neither realm, the place or state in which the damned suffer everlasting punishment (LDCE; MWCD). The description of the city (small, provincial, out of the world, old fashioned, they (inhabitants) make a show of keeping up to date in dress and manners and literature, (John) had danced all the latest dances from New York before he put on long trousers, (inhabitants) has the earnest worship of and respect for riches as the first article, felt radiantly humble before them (the riches) creates the atmosphere of provinciality and misery the citizens of Hades lived in. Moreover, the implicit links between the notion of Hades and hell revealed in the process of their conceptualization, give evidence to the fact that the name of the city contains the conceptual metaphor “Hades is Hell”, entailing an array of emotions and associations. The following scheme is illustrative of it:

The associative fields of the lexemes Hades and Hell correlate with the notions of darkness, gloom, underworld, hell, punishment, eternal fire, pain and suffer (place of dead, underworld, neither world, hell fire, Hell, agony, hot, bottomless, suffering, torment, gloomy, dark, abyss, neither region, infernal, hellish, devilish, punishment, painful, burning, torment, gloomy) convey the idea of Suffering and Misery and their associations with the notions of sadness, grief, anguish, despair, torment, pain, hopelessness, dissatisfaction, loneliness, misery and poorness (sorrow, grief, sadness, gloomy, dark, suffering, distressing, despair, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, bitterness, depressing, torment, desolation, anguish, purgatory, painful, torture, agonizing, hell in life, living death, poor, hopeless, remorseful, mournfulness, hardships, wretchedness, destructive, hell upon earth).

So, the mythological name of the city embodies a deep conceptual sense decoded in process of its conceptualization.

Let us continue the analysis. John’s parents decided to send him to the most prestigious school named “St. Midas”.

Nothing would suit them but that he should go to St. Midas’ school near Boston  Hades was too small to hold their darling and gifted son…

St. Midas’ is the most expensive and the most exclusive boys’ preparatory school in the world… the fathers of all boys were money-kings.

The name of the school has reference to the ancient Greek myth about the king famous for his countless riches. The word combination “St. Midas” consists of two incompatible components. The lexeme “saint” has a very positive meaning that characterizes a person of an extreme virtue, exceptional holiness or goodness while the proper name “Midas” has an abruptly negative meaning and refers to a greedy king famous for his passion for gold. This oxymoronical combination in the line with such nominations as St. Edward’s University, St. Paul’s school becomes a parody of a sarcastic sense expressing the idea that richness and luxury are the main virtues for the pupils of this school. In this respect it is of interest to note that the mythologeme “Midas” used in the school’s motto “Pro deo et patria et St. Mida” (For God, Motherland and St. Midas) together with such axiologically significant notions as God, Motherland, considerably intensifiers an ironical and sarcastic effect of the utterance.

At school John met Percy Washington who invited him to spend the summer together. Stunned by the infinite wealth of the Washingtons, John felt very excited and happy. To describe his psychological state the author uses the mythologemes related to Pan or Faunus – god of nature, joy, music, fertility and the season of spring always followed by beautiful nymphs.

John wouldn’t have been surprised to see a goat-foot piping his way among the trees or to catch a glimpse of nymph-skin and flying yellow hair between the greenest of the green leaves.

But soon John became aware of what the rich had to pay for the wealth they owned. The Washingtons’ house was attacked by military planes:

The chateau stood dark and silent, beautiful without light as it had been beautiful in the sun, while the woody rattles of Nemesis filled the air above with a growing and receding complaint.

The mythologeme “Nemesis” used in the sentence is associated with the Greek goddess of justice and vengeance on those who commit a crime or break the law. The planes sent by Nemesis in the context of the story symbolize a just punishment for the family of the Washingtons. It is not accidental that the neutral lexeme “plane” is substituted here by a stylistically marked unit “woody rattles”. The implications and inferences drawn from the associative links of the word “woody” (insensitive, unfeeling, unresponsive, unsentimental, heartless, soulless, inhuman, inexcitable, stolid) and the word “rattle” (formidable, redoubtable, frightening, dreadful, grim, grisly, ghastly, horrible, terrible, creepy, macabre, appalling) reveal the emotions of cool vengeance on the one hand, and those of horror – on the other.

One of the most conspicuous features of mythologemes in the work of fiction is their occasional usage. In the analyzed story the head of the family Braddock Washington is called Prometheus Enriched:

Prometheus Enriched was calling to witness forgotten sacrifices, forgotten rituals, prayers obsolete before the birth of Christ.

According to the myth Prometheus is an ancient Greek Titan known for his wily intelligence. He taught people the arts of civilization such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science, and stole fire from heaven to give it to mortals. For this he was punished by Zeus and kept in chains. In the text the image of Prometheus (Prometheus Bound) is substituted by Prometheus Enriched, that entails its negative interpretation based on the analogy: Prometheus was in chain and bound to the rock, likewise B. Washington was in chain of his property and bound to his wealth and luxury.

So, mythologemes, as the analysis has shown, play a considerable role in the representation of the author’s conceptual world picture. In the story under review the author uses mythologemes to depict, contrast and ironically evaluate the two worlds: the world of the poor and that of the rich. The poor people are criticized for their weakness and servility, while the rich are condemned for their cruelty, immorality and inhumanity.

To conclude, the results of the analysis can be summarized as follows:

● mythologeme is a linguistic representation of myths in the fictional text; conceptually and culturally relevant unit aimed to activate mythological knowledge structures;

● mythologeme serves as a signal of intertextuality integrating the conceptual domains of the precedent and recipient texts into a single whole, thus generating new conceptual senses;

● mythologeme plays a significant role in representing the author’s conceptual world picture, and in accordance with the author’s purport it is liable to various occasional transformations.