The article examines literary aphorisms as an effective means of foregrounding in literary texts from the perspective of cognitive stylistics. The object of the study is the cognitive-stylistic mechanisms of meaning actualization realized in aphoristic utterances. The aim of the study is to identify the functional features of literary aphorisms as a device of information highlighting and to determine their role in the cognitive organization of the text. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on the ideas of the Prague School, Russian formalism, and modern cognitive-stylistic approaches to foregrounding. The article clarifies the notion of foregrounding and discusses its main types and mechanisms, including deviation, parallelism, contrast, paradox, and stylistic convergence. Based on aphorisms by Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, a cognitive-stylistic analysis is carried out in order to reveal the stylistic, cognitive, pragmatic, and sociocultural functions of aphoristic utterances. The findings show that aphorisms function as prominent textual dominants, contribute to defamiliarization, facilitate concept formation, and intensify the reader’s interpretative activity. The novelty of the study lies in the systematic treatment of the aphorism as a cognitively marked unit that realizes foregrounding through structural completeness, semantic compression, and stylistic expressiveness. The reliability of the findings is supported by established theoretical frameworks and a representative corpus of literary data. The practical significance of the study lies in its applicability to courses in stylistics, cognitive linguistics, and literary text analysis, as well as in the interpretation and translation of aphoristic expressions.
Gulchekhra O. Rakhimova (Thu,) studied this question.