Font variation as a way to visualize the title (based on the material of Fr. Begbeder’s novel “Love lives for three years”)

Doklady Bashkirskogo Universiteta. 2023. Volume 8. No. 3. pp. 51-58.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33184/dokbsu-2023.3.7

Download text.pdf

The article deals with the issues of visual and graphic information presented by various supra- graphemic techniques in the structure of a literary text. The title as the semantic dominant of the work is its constructive element, designed by linguistic and visual means. As a result, a modern literary text, thanks to the unity of verbal and nonverbal means that actively interact with each other, turns into a complex semiotic system in which graphic elements create a new layer of information presented in an extraordinary way. French writers, in particular, Fr. Begbeder, actively resort to the use of visual forms in the representation of their text material when creating titles. The combination of linguistic means with non-linguistic ones creates a new layer of additional information and contributes to the expansion of its semantic field. The most frequent techniques in the design of headlines in the novel “Love lives for three years” are font variations and the use of italics. They perform informative and excretory functions that expand the semantic space of the text with new meanings, designed visually. All headings are part of the text, have a fully informative character and convey its content in a short concise form.