The thesis focuses on the complex сognitive study of the text fragment, representing the variant of compositional speech type in the English belles-lettres discourse of the 18th - the beginning of the 20th centuries, i.e. the landscape description. Landscape as a part of world space and a landscape description is a projection of a 'space continuum' in the English belles-lettres discourse, including static and dynamic models of natural views and phenomena. Text fragments have been analysed by using major methods of communicative, cognitive and pragmatic linguistics as well as contextual, conceptual, transformational methods and elements of quantitative analysis. Сhapter 1 concerns both the scholarly studying and a brief description of the role and function of a landscape description in the artistic, literary and linguistic investigations. A landscape description is a static / dynamic description of the external natural space around a human being. Being an object of scholarly studying it is treated as an interdiscilplinary phenomenon, the investigation of which is based on the application of the methods, pertaining art, literature and linguistics. The latter studies a landscape description as a compositional text fragment of a belles-lettres text. Alongside with a portrait landscape portrayal belongs to the speech genre "description". From this viewpoint the landscape description is a micro-text integrated into the macro-text of a higher hierarchy - work of art, and through it - into English belles-lettres discourse. A landscape description may perform various functions in the English belles-lettres discourse, but its major target is anthropocentric approach, helping to reveal the image of a hero. Structural composition of a landscape description proves to be an analytical-synthetic configuration; the first sentence forms the theme, which is developing further on and the last one sums up the development of one micro theme signalling about the transference to another type of description. Chapter 2 focuses on the peculiarity description of lexico-grammatical and syntactic arrangement alongside with the application of linguo-stylistic means, revealing communicative peculiarity of a landscape description. The author's thoughts about a landscape are implemented into landscape description fragments, which acquire predicative characteristics viewed from temporal, modal and voice aspects. Research, concerning different sentence type usage has established the following regularities: compound and complex polynoms, prevailed in the landscape description of the 18th (due to the detailed descriptions), compound and complex sentences - in the 19th, and the growth of the simple sentence application - is a syntactic characteristic of the 20th century. However, extralinguistic, genre and above all - idiostylistic factors influence the usage and frequency of certain syntactic units. Stylistic devices enable the author to produce a special block of aesthetic information - the landscape description, initiating the implicit super-text dialogue with the recipient. And the only mode of landscape description presentation in the English belles-lettres discourse is all the palette of linguistic and speech means. Individual author's charisma and expression correlate his/her landscape description in the English belles-lettres discourse with art. The studying has been performed (Chapter 3) taking into account both genre-stylistic and conceptual aspects of the English belles-lettres discourse and the cosmogony myths about the Universe construction. The stereoscopic basis of a landscape description in the author's and recipient's mind is the hyperconcept LANDSCAPE with adequate macro- (SKY/WEATHER, GROUND / LAND, FIRE, WATER) and (cata)concepts (SUN, SEA, etc.). The studying makes it possible to draw the following conclusions: A landscape description is a text fragment containing the description of natural phenomena, a general view of some locality represented in the English belles-lettres discourse. Compound and complex polynoms prevailed in the 18th (due to the detailed descriptions), compound and complex sentences - in the 19th, and the growth of the simple sentence application is a syntactic characteristic of the 20th century landscape descriptions. Hyperconcept LANDSCAPE forms the basis of the landscape descriptions in the English belles-lettres discourse as well as the linguistic conceptual spheres and the core dimensions of their individual universe models. Verbalization specificity in the English belles-lettres discourse of the 18th - the beginning of the 20th centuries and individual stylistic features proves the subjectivity of the author's individual world perception, motivations, goals and the objectivity of the cultural traditions, literary processes and trends as well as the geographical specificity of the landscape description objects and phenomena. Concept constituents are making a bridge between conscious and subconscious perceptions in a reader's mind. A landscape description represents the description of a certain natural phenomenon / view in the real English belles-lettres discourse, but virtually - it is a psychological characteristic of a personage. The studying of the landscape description reveals its common and distinctive features, stages of evolutional development, which gives grounds for further investigation of the discourse typology and cognitive-semantic arrangement of its constituents. Keywords: landscape descriptions, English belles-lettres discourse, descriptive speech genre, predication, hyper-, macro-, (cata)concept, individual author's concept profiling.
