Subjective modality in British film review stylistics

Abstract

This article presents a linguostylistic analysis of syntactic means as instruments for expressing subjective modality in the British professional film review genre. Research relevance stems from the insufficient study of syntactic-level means as instruments for realizing authorial evaluation and reader influence in film review texts. The study aims to identify and systematize syntactic constructions verbalizing subjective modality.
The methodological framework comprises a corpus approach integrating quantitative calculation, comparative distribution analysis, and contextual-functional interpretation of linguistic material. The empirical base comprises three film reviews across different genres (fantasy comedy, epic science fiction, heist film), ensuring sample representativeness. Corpus analysis revealed a stable complex of dominant syntactic constructions forming the genre's stylistic core: parenthetical constructions, enumeration, antithesis, detached constructions, and ellipsis. The study establishes that syntactic stylistic device distribution is heterogeneous and subordinated to specific text functional tasks. The research proves that authorial evaluation is constructed on syntax and vocabulary synergy principles, alongside the combinatorics of the syntactic stylistic devices themselves. Syntax shapes the influence structure by ordering lexical meanings and facilitating implicit reader persuasion. Priority communicative functions are identified: argumentative-persuasive, positioning, and cultural-legitimizing. The study concludes that syntax use is strategic in nature, adapting to film status and individual authorial style.