Verba dicendi colloquiali e substandard quale cifra stilistica del lessico emotivo dei gialli di Dar'ja Doncova

Dar’ja Doncova is the undisputed “queen of the ironic detective story” in the Russian language and her works belong to what is generally referred to as “mass popular literature”. These texts are an interesting object of study and research as they exhibit the most characteristic features of the contemporary linguistic situation in Russia (Černjak 2009). Starting from considerations on mass popular literature, this paper analyses Doncova’s language and style and, in particular, focuses on colloquial and substandard verba dicendi, studying the functions they play in Doncova’s detective novels. The analysis is carried out on four novels and is corroborated by a series of theoretical concepts on terminology concerning colloquial and substandard lexicon and considers the changes taking place in the contemporary Russian language and its current developmental trends.