Purpose. The aim of the article is the analysis of language means and psychological aspects of the perception of the image of the past based on the English fictional texts. Methodology and Approach. The bulk of the research is the psycholinguistic analysis of fictional texts in English, containing the concept “the past” with different degrees of detailing. In the article the connection of this concept with the psychological state of the characters, with the details of their biographies at the moment of narration and with the plot of the narration in general was analyzed. In the research the following methods were used: method of vocabulary definitions, of contextual analysis, comparative-contrastive method. The author analyzed typical syntactic means and non-verbal components of communication in the realization of the image of the past in the text; the degree of expressiveness of these descriptions was defined. Results. The following psychological aspects were singled out: personal appreciation of the events, their emotional colouring, degree of detailing and recollection triggers types, memory characteristics. One of the conclusions is that the past events of different duration and time reference can be partly distorted in characters’ perception due to a number of reasons. Theoretical and/or Practical implications. The results of the research can be used in real situations of psycholinguistic reconstruction of the past events, for example, in legal, religious, medical and sociological practices.

psychology, emotions, semantics, non-verbal communication, expressiveness, evaluation, modality, past, nostalgia

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