The Role of Evaluative Lexis in Constructing The Subjective Mode of Narration

Abstract

Evaluative lexis is a core element of language that expresses speakers’ attitudes and judgments, playing a significant role in communication and discourse analysis. In modern stylistics and cognitive linguistics, evaluative expressions are studied as linguistic tools that construct subjective narration modes, revealing authorial stance, emotional orientation, and cognitive framing. However, there is limited integrative research analyzing how evaluative lexis operates across genres to model subjectivity, especially considering cognitive, stylistic, and pragmatic dimensions in Russian discourse. This study aims to investigate the semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic functions of evaluative lexis in constructing subjective modes of narration across literary, journalistic, and digital genres. The findings demonstrate that evaluative lexis functions at lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic levels, performing expressive, cognitive, and rhetorical roles. It includes explicit and implicit evaluation, operates through metaphor, irony, and modal structures, and activates cognitive frames shaping interpretive outcomes. Genre and cultural context influence the form, intensity, and norms of evaluation, with digital communication introducing new paralinguistic evaluative resources. The study integrates cognitive, stylistic, and discourse-analytic approaches, highlighting evaluative lexis as a dynamic resource shaping narrative voice, authorial identity, and reader perception within and across genres. These insights deepen the understanding of evaluative lexis as a structuring principle in discourse, with practical applications for linguistic theory, narrative analysis, stylistics, and media studies, and suggest directions for future cross-cultural and computational research on evaluative language.