Types of Self-reference in S. Fry’s Autobiography “More Fool Me”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37482/2687-1505-V541Keywords:
S. Fry, autobiography, grammatical structures, types of self-reference, “More Fool Me”, linguistic means, modern English languageAbstract
The article is devoted to the study of self-reference in modern English language. Based on the third part of famous British actor and presenter Stephen Fry’s autobiography the author analyses the characteristics of self-expression and identifies the mechanisms of self-identification and strategies employed to speak about personal experience. The object of the study was self-referential grammatical structures and lexical means found in the text of the book “More Fool Me”. The analysis revealed that the book contains 134 contexts carrying self-referential characteristics: direct self-reference (102 contexts), inclusive self-reference (16), indirect self-reference (10), and inferential self-reference (6). The main agent of the direct autoreference is pronoun I supplemented by grammatical and lexical-syntactic means. This type of self-reference also includes structures using pronouns me and myself. Indirect self-reference is realised by mentioning S. Fry’s name or surname in various combinations. The inferential self-reference is based on description whose connection to the speaker is determined by the context or knowledge of the world. Concerning inclusive self-reference, the author of the article analyses various linguistic means indicating S. Fry’s belonging to a particular group. Particular attention is paid to the difference between the image created in autobiographies and S. Fry’s real identity. This linguistic analysis allowed us to conclude that self-reference is one of the important aspects of the formation of the author’s image. It was used for the following purposes: intentional self-criticism and self-irony, distancing, joining the opinion of another person or group, the function of play and conducting a playful dialogue with the reader.
For citation: Sycheva E.I. Types of Self-reference in S. Fry’s Autobiography “More Fool Me”. Vestnik Severnogo (Arkticheskogo) federal’nogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsial’nye nauki, 2026, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 62–71. https://doi.org/10.37482/2687-1505-V541
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