VERBALIZATION OF THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF DISGUST IN ENGLISH LITERARY TEXT

Abstract

The article highlights the peculiarities of verbalization of the emotional state of disgust in modern English literary texts. Disgust has been recognized as a basic human emotion. It is a response to the sensory quality of the disgusting stimulus. It functions as a self-preserving mechanism as it is a powerful system of danger avoidance. Disgust is associated with a distinctive facial expression involving retraction of upper lip, down-turning of the corners of the mouth, and nose wrinkling.
Sensory words, i.e. taste words, smell words, sight words, hearing words, and touch words verbalize sense perception in literary texts. Combining with negative evaluative adjectives, sensory words make the following word combinations: to taste disgusting, a disgusting sweetish taste, unpleasant to the taste, to smell disgusting, disgusting smell, a disgusting odor, to look disgusting, a very disgusting sight, disgusting sound, a disgusting noise, unpleasant touch, disgusting to the touch, etc. which represent the type of sensory perception of disgust-evoking objects.
The emotional state of disgust comprises internal (heart rhythm, respiratory rhythm, blood pressure, changes in the endocrine glands, organs of digestion and secretion) and external (distinctive facial expression, body posture, or vocalization) reactions. The emotional state of disgust is revealed through a description of the behaviour of characters, their reactions to the surrounding reality and the very description of extralinguistic manifestations of the investigated emotional state.
Words, word combinations, sentences, and super-phrasal unities are means of verbalization of the experience of the emotional state of disgust in literary texts.