Received 13.11.2025, Revised 22.02.2026, Accepted 24.03.2026

Adjective synonyms in fiction

Burkiia Beknazarova

The aim of this study was to identify the functional characteristics of adjective synonyms in literary texts. This qualitative, text-centric study was based on an analysis of representative material, including the works “Jamilia”, “The white ship” and “The place of the skull”, followed by a systematisation of adjective synonyms and an interpretation of the functions in the structure of literary expression. It was established that adjective synonyms in the analysed texts perform not only a defining but also a text-forming role, contributing to the formation of characterisation, spatial and landscape imagery, evaluative and symbolic perspective, motif-based coherence, and authorial modality. Seven stable groups of synonymously related adjectives were identified in the studied material: qualitative, evaluative, colour-denoting, emotionally marked, spatial-landscape, characterological, and symbolically loaded. It was established that the qualitative and evaluative groups are the most productive, while colour-denoting and symbolically loaded units are less numerous but distinguished by a higher semantic concentration. The analysis revealed that in “Jamilia”, the emotional-psychological line of functioning of adjective synonyms dominates, in “The white ship”, the spatial-landscape and symbolic lines, and in “The place of the skull”, the evaluative-philosophical and axiological lines. As a result of the material’s interpretation, three main functional models were reconstructed: character psychologisation, spatial-figurative saturation, and evaluative-symbolic interpretation. It was found that the same unit, depending on the context, can shift from a psychological function to a symbolic one, and from a spatial one to an evaluative one, demonstrating the functional fluidity of adjective synonyms in fiction. The practical significance of the study lies in its application in the linguastylistic and literary analysis of fiction, in the teaching of stylistics, textual linguistics, and idiostyle theory, as well as in further research into artistic language

synonymous series; semantic differentiation; linguastylistic analysis; fiction; contextual function; authorial modality; idiostyle
59-73
Beknazarova, B. (2026). Adjective synonyms in fiction. Bulletin of the Bishkek State University, 24(1), 59-73. https://doi.org/10.35254/ss/1.2026.59

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