Cognitive and Stylistic Impact of Conventionalized Expressions on Narrative Perspective and Character Formation in Modern English Fiction

The paper examines the impact of conventionalized expressions on stylistic identity, narrative voice and character development in the modern literature in England. The traditionalized phrases were analyzed among the chosen works of such outstanding writers as Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Ali Smith and Salman Rushdie. The analysis was based on mixed-methodology and examined the stylistic and narrative patterns; the mixed-methodology involved the use of corpus linguistics tools to get numerical data, and close-reading of texts to analyze them qualitatively. The hypothesized relations; stylistic identity, narrative voice and character development were tested by use of SEM. Findings showed that conventionalized expressions serve as beneficial additions to the style cohesion and cultural resonance, narrative voice through improving authenticity and relatability, character development through implicating social class, cultural identity and psychological complication. Both the direct and the indirect identity and narrative voice as well as the established and the stylistic identity and voice mediated the character development. The results emphasize the role of formulaic words in the formation of the literary style and multidimensionality of the characters of the contemporary tales.