Comparative analysis of syntactic means of expressing subjective modality in Chinese and Russian literature (based on the novels by Tatiana Tolstoy and Wang Anya)

Abstract

The conducted study of the comparative analysis of syntactic means of expressing subjective modality in the prose of Tatyana Tolstaya and Wang Anyi yields a number of general conclusions. It has been established that, despite the universality of subjective modality as an integral component of the literary text, its syntactic realisation is deeply determined by the structural features of the particular language. In the Russian fusional language, Tolstaya's prose demonstrates a strategy of maximising syntactic plasticity: free word order, an abundance of parenthetical and inserted constructions, parcellation, and complex syntactic parallelism become not merely stylistic adornments but the principal instruments for constructing a complex, multilayered, and often ironic authorial consciousness. In her works, syntax is not a transparent medium for conveying meaning but a self-sufficient object of aesthetic experience that directly models the world from the standpoint of the narrating subject. In turn, analysis of Wang Anyi's prose in the Chinese isolating language reveals a fundamentally different strategy. Under conditions of rigid word order and the absence of a developed inflectional system, the primary burden of expressing subjective-modal meanings falls on peripheral elements of the sentence: modal particles in final position, modal adverbs, as well as on the rhythmic-compositional organisation of the text as a whole. Authorial subjectivity in Wang Anyi emerges not through an expressive deformation of syntactic norms but through fine nuancing and the creation of a specific modal atmosphere by the selective use of specialised grammatical markers. Thus, the study confirms that typological differences between languages shape not merely different sets of syntactic means but also foster the development of fundamentally different artistic strategies for the subjectivisation of narration: explicitly expressive in Tolstaya's case and implicitly atmospheric in Wang Anyi's. This points to a profound interconnection between the grammatical structure of the language, the national literary style, and the philosophical models for expressing the authorial .