MARKEME INDIVIDUALITY OF JOHN MILTON’S EPIC POEMS LANGUAGE

The paper deals with the use of a method of a formalized (algorithmic) content-based analysis of a literary text language. The author gives reasons for choosing John Milton’s epic poems as the study object. The study is based on markemological approach to a literary text analysis that allows extracting markemes, which we consider as specific keywords capable to represent basic thematic preferences in an individual writer’s works or in a literary period. Thus, it becomes possible to penetrate into a writer’s artistic world and identify his value preferences. The paper specifies the methodology of the study and the markeme extraction algorithm, describes the application of the markeme analysis method, and ex-plains the meaning of necessary markemological terms. The study results in determining dominant ( righteousness ) and vice-dominant ( foreknowledge ) markemes in Milton’s works and in data structuring into semantic blo с ks. Markeme individuality of John Milton’s epic poems language provides two religion-determined crossing lines: a man endowed with conscience and the conflict between his understanding , emotions and senses in his mental world, on the one hand, and a man and the environment created and governed by omnipotent God, on the other hand. Milton considers righteousness as the basic moral value of an ideal man. God’s foreknowledge of inevitability of a wrong free choice made by a man and the following punishment is also very important for Milton. The study establishes that in Milton’s epic poems language markemes realize two value targets: 1) a human existence in harmony with his environment is the result of his experience gained by constructive labour and self-perfection and 2) the contradiction of good and evil takes place in the heart of a human being.