Discourse dynamics of concepts in a war narrative: A cognitive-narratological analysis of Daniel Kraus’s "Angel Down"
Abstract
This study investigates the discourse dynamics of key concepts in the narrative through a corpus-based analysis of Daniel Kraus’s Angels Down, an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I the soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war. Focusing on concepts such as WAR, SOLDIER, DEATH, FEAR, CAMP, and HOME, the research examines how lexical frequency, collocational patterns, and contextual distribution reflect the actualization and interpretation of meaning across the text. The corpus was segmented according to Voyant Tools platform, allowing both absolute and relative frequency measures to be calculated for each segment. Contextual analysis using KWIC, collocates, and other Voyant Tools instruments enabled identification of key concepts and analysis of their discourse dynamics through narrative functions and interpretation. Findings indicate that key concepts are highly dynamic, with their prominence and meaning varying according to narrative position and formal features such as sentence length and paragraph segmentation. The extended, looping sentences maintain the continuous activation of WAR and DEATH concepts, creating cumulative semantic intensity and reflecting psychological and emotional dimensions of the narrative. Paragraph breaks, while visually dividing the text, do not reset conceptual focus, allowing concepts to accumulate and interact with contextual elements, producing nuanced interpretations. These results support the hypothesis that conceptual units in narrative discourse are context-dependent and dynamically modulated by formal textual features. The study demonstrates the value of integrating quantitative corpus methods with qualitative interpretive analysis, providing a model for examining the interplay between narrative form and conceptual meaning. Implications extend to cognitive-narratological research, highlighting how textual structure, plot progression, and changes in narrative focus, can actively shape concept realization, salience, and semantic framing.
Downloads
References
Anderson, J. R. (2013). The architecture of cognition. London & New York: Psychology Press.
Bekhta, I. A. (2004). The narrator’s discourse in English-language prose. Kyiv, Ukraine: Hramota. (in Ukrainian).
Bekhta, I. A., & Melnychuk, O. D. (2021). Nonverbal communication: Discourse dynamics of a textual concept. Lʹviv/Rivne, Ukraine: Volynʹ Oberehy. (in Ukrainian).
Bergen, B. (2012). Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Bordwell, D. (1985). Narration in the fiction film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Cowley, S. J. (2012). Cognitive dynamics: Language as values realizing activity. In A. Kravchenko (Ed.), Cognitive dynamics in linguistic interactions (pp. 1–32). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Culpeper, J. (2001). Language and characterisation: People in plays and other texts. London: Longman. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315839349
Dąbrowska, A. (2023). Introduction: Within semantic-conceptual structure and beyond. Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, 47(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2023.47.1.1-10
Dancygier, B. (2012). The language of stories: A cognitive approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, V., & Green, M. (2006). Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Fludernik, M. (1996). Towards a ‘natural’ narratology. London & New York: Routledge.
Geeraerts, D. (2010). Theories of lexical semantics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. (1999). Construing experience through meaning. London & New York, NY: Cassell.
Herman, D. (2009). Basic elements of narrative. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Herman, D. (2001). Narrative theory and the cognitive sciences. Narrative Inquiry, 11(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.11.1.01her
Herman, L., & Vervaeck, B. (2001). Handbook of narrative analysis. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Hilpert, M. (2025). Force dynamics in unexpected places. Cognitive Semantics, 11(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1163/23526416-bja10084
Hühn, P., Pier, J., Schmid, W., & Schönert, J. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of narratology. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Ingarden, R. (1973). The cognition of the literary work of art (R. A. Crowley & K. Olsen, Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Iser, W. (1978). The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Köhler, R., Altmann, G., & Piotrowski, R. (Eds.). (2005). Quantitative Linguistik / Quantitative Linguistics: Ein internationales Handbuch. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110155785
Köhler, R. (1986). Zur linguistischen Synergetik: Struktur und Dynamik der Lexik. Bochum, Germany: N. Brockmeyer.
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Langacker, R. (2001). Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 12(2), 143–188. https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.12.2.143
Laurence, S., & Margolis, E. (1999). Introduction. In E. Margolis & S. Laurence (Eds.), Concepts: Core readings (pp. 3–81). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Melnychuk, O. D. (2023). Constants of nonverbal experience in English-language literary discourse. Rivne, Ukraine: Volynʹ Oberehy. (in Ukrainian).
Murphy, G. (2002). The big book of concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Palmer, A. (2004). Fictional minds. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Peacocke, C. (1992). A study of concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6537.001.0001
Potter, J. (1996). Representing reality: Discourse, rhetoric and social construction. London: Sage Publications. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.4135/9781446222119
Prinz, J. (2006). Concepts. In D. M. Borchert (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 414–420). Detroit, MI: Macmillan.
Ryan, M.-L. (2006). Narrative as virtual reality: Immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ryan, M.-L. (2010). Narratology and cognitive science: A problematic relation. Style, 44(4), 469–495. https://doi.org/10.5325/style.44.4.0469
Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D., & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.). (2015). The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed.). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Schleifer, R. (2018). A.-J. Greimas and the nature of meaning. Linguistics, semiotics and discourse theory. London: Routledge.
Semino, E. (1997). Language and world creation in poems and other texts. London: Longman.
Short, M. (1996). Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. London: Longman.
Stockwell, P. (2002). Cognitive poetics: An introduction. London & New York: Routledge.
Tenbrink, T. (2020). Cognitive discourse analysis: Examining thoughts and concepts in language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Toolan, M. (2001). Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction (2nd ed.). London & New York: Routledge.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1980). Textwissenschaft: Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung (C. Sauer, Trans.). Tübingen, Germany: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Werth, P. (1999). Text worlds: Representing conceptual space in discourse. London: Longman.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
Zunshine, L. (2006). Why we read fiction: Theory of mind and the novel. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ivan Bekhta, Oksana Melnychuk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors, who publish with this journal, accept the following conditions:
The authors reserve the copyright of their work and transfer to the journal the right of the first publication of this work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which allows other persons to freely distribute a published work with mandatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
Authors have the right to enter into separate additional agreements for the non-exclusive dissemination of the work in the form in which it was published by this journal (for example, to post the work in the electronic institutions' repository or to publish as part of a monograph), provided that the link to the first publication of the work in this journal is given.
The journal policy allows and encourages the authors to place the manuscripts on the Internet (for example, in the institutions' repositories or on personal websites), both before the presentation of this manuscript to the editorial board and during review procedure, as it contributes to the creation of productive scientific discussion and positively affects the efficiency and dynamics of citing the published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
