Учебное пособие 1901

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (23), 2018 ISSN 2587-8093

[8]Ryant N., Liberman M. Automatic analysis of phonetic speech style dimensions / N. Ryant, M. Liberman // Interspeech. – 2016. – № 2. – P. 77–81.

[9]Lavrenteva N.G. Prosodicheskie osobennosti ekonomicheskogo diskursa / N. G. Lavrenteva // Vestnik Ivanovskogo Gosudarstvennogo universiteta. – 2015. – № 1. – S. 44–47.

[10]Svetozarova N.D. Funktsii i sredstva frazovoi intonatsii: spetsializatsiia ili vzaimodeistvie / N.D. Svetozarova // Vestnik Viatskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. – 2014.

–№ 5. – S. 86–93.

[11]Amelina E.K. Nekotorye aspekty mekhanizma prosodicheskogo vydeleniia protiazhennykh otrezkov rechi (na materiale angliiskogo iazyka) / E.K. Amelina // Vestnik Orlovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriia: Novye gumanitarnye issledovaniia. – 2013. –

№ 4 (33). – S. 175–178.

Analysed sources

[1*] Talks at Google. Bill George: Discover your true north, [Jelektronnyj resurs] / Talks at Google, 2015. – URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3415&v=Mea0u1FfOcM (data obrashchenniya: 10.10.18).

Law School, 2016. – URL: https: //www. youtube. com/ watch? time_ continue= 5248 &v= ehrOJAa6XNA (data obrashchenniya: 10.10.18).

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UDC 811.11

APPLICATION OF THE COMPLIMENT STRATEGY IN INTERCULTURAL INTERACTION VIA E-MAIL EXCHANGE

L.V. Tsurikova, L.A. Zavialova

____________________________________________________________________________

Voronezh State University

Dr. habil., professor, Head of English Philology Department Lubov Vasilievna Tsurikova

e-mail: lubov.tsurikova@gmail.com

Voronezh State University

Postgraduate student of the English Philology Department Lilia Alexeevna Zavialova

e-mail: zgiglio215@gmail.com

____________________________________________________________________________

Statement of the problem.The paper focuses on the discourse analysis of compliments regularly employed by the native (British English) and nonnative speakers of English interacting via e-mails to maintain harmony in the interpersonal exchanges. It argues that in the e-mail based intercultural business communication, complimenting can be viewed as a conventional rapport management strategy.

Results. Types of the complimenting strategy differing in accordance with the communicative aims pursued by the speaker are identified. Drawing on the context analysis, pragmatic functions of compliments are revealed. Conclusion. To determine communicative strategies repeatedly used by the speakers to maintain rapport in the computer-mediated intercultural interaction via emails, the discourse approach to the analysis of communication should be adopted.

Key words: e-mail, compliment, rapport, discourse analysis, speech event, strategy, phatic communication, conventions.

For citation: Tsurikova L.V., Zavialova L.A. Application of the compliment strategy in intercultural interaction via e-mail exchange / L.V. Tsurikova, L.A. Zavialova // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and- didactic Researches”. – 2018. - №4 (23). – P. 95-101

Introduction

E-mail has become the major form of intercultural communication in today’s business environment. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, email removes physical and time hindrances between the speakers, i.e. one can send an email to any part of the world and expect it to be delivered without undue delays. On the other hand, an individual email consists of a series of functional elements inserted automatically by the software. They are a header that includes e- addresses, including those that are going to receive a copy of the message, date, subject line and a farewell that has an identity function as it features contact details of the addresser [1, p. 219221, 238-254]. English has come to be the dominant language - professional lingua franca - in which emails are written by native and non-native speakers [2, 3]. Thus, it is of much interest to determine strategies employed by speakers who communicate in multicultural environment in order to maintain rapport.

Although emailing as a form of communication has received much attention, particularly

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© Tsurikova L.V., Zavialova L.A., 2018

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (23), 2018 ISSN 2587-8093

from the Anglo-American linguists, the analyses have mostly focused on the stylistic features of individual e-mails [4] and phatic means (e.g. clichés) used by the speakers to signal the level of formality and social distance between them [5]. The studies in which discourse approach is adopted also have their limitations as the corpus under scrutiny is limited to the emails circulated within one company/organisation [6] or the samples have been collected as a result of the experiment [7]. Regarding this, conclusions that have been reached require additional verification on more comprehensive and multifaceted corpus of written material.

This paper elaborates on the pragmalinguistic strategies used by speakers of English to cooperate successfully in intercultural environment. It examines manifestations of a complementing strategy and discusses how it is exploited by email senders to maintain rapport (rapport management [8]).

The speech act of compliment has been thoroughly analysed in linguistics. Stylistics-wise, it was determined that being an expressive speech act it aims at establishing contact between the interlocutors and further keeping it. In real speech such compliments are expressed by means of conventionalised polite forms that allow the hearers to understand the speaker's intentions [9, 10]. The discourse analysis of compliments showed that compliments cannot be named inherently polite speech acts and in many cases are used to criticize or reproach the hearer [11, p. 738739]. Analysis of the responses to compliments revealed that recipients may express their disagreement with the speaker and either partially accept the compliment but belittle their accomplishments or reject it altogether. Often the recipients perform subsequent praise which has other- than-self referent [12].

There have also been made attempts by the Russian scholars of English to define differences between speech acts of compliment, praise and flattery. While it seems to be quite feasible to demarcate speech acts of compliment and flattery by placing them on the axiological scales of sincerity [13, p.16], the criteria applied for differentiating between speech acts of compliment and praise such as interlocutors’ social status and speaker’s objectivity are not well substantiated and applicable to a variety of contexts [14].

In this paper we regard compliment as a discourse strategy, which has enabled us to define the contexts in which 1) compliments are specific formulae used by the speakers to conform to phatic conventions of interaction; 2) compliments activate pragmatic function, which is to mitigate the threat to harmonious interpersonal relationships.

Methodology

The data for this paper comprise 41 original email chains (307 individual emails) in English that were exchanged by academic staff of the British, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Greek, Romanian and Hungarian universities who cooperate with each other in the framework of education and research projects, joint conferences and academic exchanges. The complimenting strategy has been identified in 34 out of 307 emails, which makes it one of the most representative. To define realisation of complimenting strategy, there have been employed discourse, speech act and contextual methods of analysis.

Research results

The discourse analysis of the email exchanges under scrutiny has shown that speakers adopt one of the three complimenting strategies depending on the communicative aims pursued. We shall further discuss each of them in detail.

1) Expressing one’s gratitude for the action that has been accomplished by the interlocutor

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When the speaker has done something beneficial for the hearer, for example he/she provided the needed help or advice, the latter expresses their gratitude through positive evaluation of the former.

This type of the complimenting strategy has been the most representative in our set of data. Following is a part of the e-mail interaction (18 e-mails) between the native speaker of English (BrE) and his colleague from Russia, which is a characteristic example of how the Type 1 complimenting strategy is implemented in the speech. The former was invited to participate in the centennial celebrations of the university in which his Russian counterpart works. When the Briton receives a detailed insight into the accommodation options from the Russian speaker (E- mail 1), he feels grateful. His gratitude presents a complex discourse event composed of the speech act of compliment and speech act of thanking (E-mail 2).

E-mail 1

Dear [name],

Thank you very much for the address.

Regarding your question about the hotels, I believe that those two to which we narrowed down our offers are the most comfortable to stay at.

For one thing, they are just a stone’s throw from the university buildings where the major events will take place. [....]

For another, these hotels offer more reasonable prices for the participants of the Centenary in comparison with the others. [....]

It should also be mentioned that the hotels received good reviews from the guests who participated in the events that we held previously.

I am always at your disposal if you have any questions.

With best regards,

[name]

E-mail 2

Dear [name],

You’re a star! Thank you very much for this very helpful insight.

Would you be so kind as to book a room for me in the [hotel]? It is good to know that it is so central and walking distance from all our old haunts.

Please let me know if I need to provide any further information for the hotel reservation. With thanks and regards,

[name]

The email interaction in English (6 emails) between the German professor and his colleague from Russia who supervised his visit to her university is another typical example that illustrates

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how speakers use the complimenting strategy in their email exchanges. Following his participation in the conference, the professor asks his colleague to give him contacts details of the interpreter who translated the event, so that he could thank her for the outstanding work (E-mail 1). Once his request has been satisfied (E-mail 2), the professor thanks his Russian partner by means of a compliment (E-mail 3).

E-mail 1

Dear [name], thanks a lot!

Do you know, how it might be possible to contact the Lady, who translated me in the conference?

And can you tell her, that I really was happy with her translations? Wish you all the best! Greeting to the colleagues from the University! [name]

E-mail 2

Dear Prof. [surname],

I will surely pass your appreciation to the lady who interpreted yesterday. [name, surname] is a Reader in German at the Department of German Philology. You might contact her via email [e-mail address].

I wish you a pleasant journey to Ethiopia. Best regards,

[name]

E-mail 3

[name],

you are perfect.

I wrote her already. Wish you all the best! [name, surname]

2) Making the hearer complete the action that is beneficial for the speaker

When the action that is beneficial for the speaker can be accomplished by the hearer as the latter has appropriate resources (e.g. knowledge, physical aptitude), the speaker camouflages costs that will be incurred by the hearer through making a positive appraisal of the hearer’s professionalism.

The e-mail exchanges in English (4 e-mails) between the Russian project manager and his colleague from the French University who cooperate with each in the framework of the research project well illustrate the discussed complimenting strategy. The French speaker asks his Russian counterpart to enquire about the report he submitted to their partner university that was responsible for collecting information as he has not received any feedback. The French speaker justifies his request by the fact that the Russian colleague has always been reliable and supportive, which helps to mitigate the negative effect of him violating the Maxim of Relevance in “I know that does not belong to your area of responsibility...” :

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Dear [name],

I am contacting you to request for help, I know that does not belong to your area of responsibility but you've been so helpful in this project and reliable.

Since my last message below I didn't get any answer from the project manager, maybe you know as the research managing organization if there is any problem at all in the final reporting?

With many thanks and all my best wishes [Name, surname

academic position]

Although the hearer does not acknowledge the compliment in the reactive email, we might gather that it provoked the positive reaction as long as the hearer grants the request.

Dear [name],

I am very glad to hear from you all the way from France.

I will now contact [name ] and ask her if the forms you submitted were found suitable for the report.

Once I have received the feedback, I will fill you in on the situation.

Best wishes, [name]

The email interaction in English (3 emails) between the heads of University International Offices from the UK and Russia is another example that illustrates manifestation of the Type 2 Complimenting Strategy. The native speaker of English would like her colleague to take part in the survey on quality control in education. To entice the Russian partner into doing this, the English speaker explains that the colleague is highly valued at Aston University (1) and refers to her ability to provide unbiased view on the issues raised in the questionnaire (2):

Dear [name],

Warm greetings from Aston University!

We are writing to you as an important stakeholder of our University (1). We value our ongoing engagement with you and would like to be certain that we are not using your information for any purpose that you would prefer us not to. For the purposes of an important global survey of academic opinion, we would like to seek your permission to pass on your contact details (name, job title, institution and email address) to the QS Intelligence Unit (QSIU). We feel that your impartial responses would contribute to the insight and precision of the survey’s outcomes (2).

[....]

Many thanks in advance for your cooperation. Best wishes

[name]

3) Giving positive evaluation of the hearers’ actions

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When one of the interlocutors has done something beneficial for the other, the latter acknowledges the costs incurred by the former through positive evaluation of the actions undertaken.

The individual emails below that we extracted from larger email chains clearly illustrate application of the Type 3 complimenting strategy in the computer-mediated intercultural interaction. The e-mails were exchanged between the British alumni participating in university reunion and members of the team organising alumni’s visit. In these e-mails the native speakers of English express gratitude for their hospitality and efforts thanks to which their stay was memorable and enjoyable.

E-mail 1

Dear [name]

George and I are safely home again and we wanted to thank you so much - and all your colleagues and students - for all your kindness and generosity. We could never have imagined having such an amazing time.

I hope everyone is recovering from all their efforts - especially those of you who gave up your weekend for us - it was very much appreciated.

[...]

With my very best wishes and heartfelt thanks again [name]

E-mail 2

Dear [name] How are you?

I wanted to write and thank you and all your colleagues for everything you did for us. It was fabulous in every way, and I will never forget it!

You did so much to make the occasion very special for all of us. [...]

Many thanks, [name]! [name, surname]

Conclusion

Defining conventions and possible faux pas of interaction via e-mails is crucial for reaching communicative aims pursued by speakers. It seems that analysis of email chains each of which represents an individual speech event, i.e. the cluster of coherent speech acts [15, p.15], allows to identify conventions of email communication. Discourse approach to e-mails makes it feasible to specify strategies that are regularly used by interlocutors to maintain harmony (rapport) in the interpersonal exchanges and isolate speakers’ communicative meanings. The analysis described in this papers shows that complimenting strategy is the one that speakers often resort to in their e-mails.

References

[1]Yus F. Cyberpragmatics. Internet-Mediated Communication in Context. – John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011. – 371 p.

[2]Nickerson C. The Englishes of business / A. Kirkpatrick // The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. – Routledge, 2010. – P. 506-519.

[3]Poncini G. Multicultural Business Meetings and the Role of Languages other than English// Journal of Intercultural Studies. – 2010. – № 24:1. – P. 17-32.

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[4]Korneeva M.G. Lingvisticheskie sostavlyayushhie zhanra elektronnogo delovogo pis'ma (na materiale anglijskogo yazyka) : dis. ... kand. filolog. nauk / M.G. Korneva, Moskovskij gosudarstvennyj universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova. – Moskva, 2016. – 224 s.

[5]Murphy M., Levy M. Politeness in Intercultural email communication: Australian and Korean perspectives // Journal of Intercultural Communication. – 2006. – № 12. – P. 1-10.

[6]Garrote P. La cortesía verbal en la interacción asincrónica académica: análisis contrastivo en inglés, español e italiano // Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada. – 2014. – № 60. – P. 117-139.

[7]Incelli E. Managing discourse in intercultural business email interactions: a case study of a British and Italian business transaction // Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. – 2013. – Vol. 34. – № 6. – P. 515-532.

[8]Spencer-Oatey H. Rapport Management: A Framework for Analysis // Culturally speaking: managing rapport through talk across cultures. – Continuum, 2000. – P. 11-46.

[9]Mudrova E.V. Kompliment kak pervichnyj rechevoj zhanr : dis. ... kand. filolog. nauk

/E.V. Mudrova, Taganrogskij gosudarstvennyj pedagogicheskij institut. – Taganrog, 2007. – 141 s.

[10]Toribio M. Cumplidos y halagos en el español peninsular: ¿cuestión de términos?// ONOMÁZEIN. Revista de lingüística, filología y traducción. – 2017. – № 37. – P. 188-210.

[11]Maiz C., García-Gómez A. ‘You look terrific!’ Social evaluation and relationships in online compliments // Discourse Studies. – 2013. – № 15 (6). – P. 735–760.

[12]Pomerantz A. Compliment responses: notes on the cooperation of multiple constraints

/Schenkein J. // Studies in the organization of conversational interaction. – Academic Press, 1978. – P. 79-112.

[13]Mosolova I.YU. Komplimentarnye vyskazyvaniya s pozitsii teorii rechevykh aktov

(na materiale frantsuzskogo, russkogo i anglijskogo yazykov) : avtoref. dis. … kand. filolog. nauk / I.Yu. Mosolova. – Moskva, 2005. – 28 s.

[14]Serebryakova R.V. Natsional'naya spetsifika komplimenta i pokhvaly v russkoj i anglijskoj kommunikativnykh kul'turakh : dis. ... kand. filolog. nauk / R.V. Serebryakova. – Voronezh, 2002. – 202 s.

[15]Tsurikova L.V. Аdekvatnost' diskursa. Аnaliz strategij diskursivnogo povedeniya na rodnom i inostrannom yazyke // Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya Lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikatsiya. – 2002. – № 2. – S. 14-25.

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UDC 801.7:81'42

SUBTEXT AS A LANGUAGE PHENOMENON OF LITERARY TEXT:

LEVELS OF SUBTEXT

Anna M. Erokhina

_________________________________________________________________

_Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

of Higher Education “Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University”(NovSU)

Candidate for a degree of the Russian Language Department Anna M. Erokhina

e-mail: anna.valery38@mail.ru

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

__

Statement of the problem. The article considers the category of subtext as one of the main forms of information transfer in literary text. Using the subtext transmits information about the non-nominal values of the literary image. These values can be extracted only with the appropriate cognitive effort using a mental effort to find this type of information as information present in the text but not verbalized in it. The three levels of difficulty are distinguished in the process of extracting these meanings.

Results.This complexity is determined by the four characteristics associated with implicit language values:1) from the semantic distance between the elements of meaning; 2) from text distance, the actual size of the text space which has a non-verbal value; 3) on the number of extracted meanings from a given text space; 4) from the level of background knowledge of the addressee (from external presupposition.

Conclusion. The first level of subtext is the easiest to extract: here is the smallest textual and semantic distance, the least amount of extractable meanings (single meaning) and no increased background knowledge of the recipient is needed. The second and third levels have increased complexity of extraction respectively. A text size and semantic distance increases at the second level, extracting non-verbalized information from the text takes the form of extracting the meaning of rethinking several words or sentences. The number of extracted meanings increases at the third level. Coding increases and values appear such as "philosophical hermeneutics" - open questions, which arise in the process of reading the text but to which this text does not provide answers.

Key words: subtext, literary image, verbalized-non-verbalized meaning, unconscious, lexia, code, semantic distance, external presupposition, levels of subtext.

For citation: Erokhina A. M. Subtext as a language phenomenon of literary text: levels of subtext / A. M. Erokhina

// Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2018. - №4 (23). – P. 102-111

Introduction

The subtext in a fiction text is a certain layer of information, transmitted from the author to the addressee in the form of visual-sensual representations, codified in the “literature image” as implicit meanings, which in the mental representation of the addressee are built on the explicit language expression. Since these meanings are present in the literature image, but not verbalized in the text. Then with appropriate cognitive effort, they can be extracted and nominated. The level of difficulty in extracting subtext senses determines the level of the subtext itself according to the degree of coding.

Methodology

The relevance of research due to the increasing interest in the study of literary text in terms of its semantic content, the ratio of its explicit and implicit components. Subtext as implicit information can be considered from the point of view of semantics, cognitive linguistics and information theory, where it appears in various forms and meanings.

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© Erokhina A. M., 2018

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The object of the research is the information encoded in the “literature image”. The subject of the study is the non-verbalized values of a literary text.

The purpose of the study is to identify the structural features of subtextual values from the point of view of cognitive linguistics and language methods of forming subtext meanings.

The study was made on the basis of the analysis of text fragments one of the most informative novels F.M. Dostoyevsky ”Crime and Punishment”.

Research methods are semantic methods, classification, component and contextological analysis in determining subtext values.

Research results

Subtext as a linguistic phenomenon causes the close attention of modern researchers (G. V. Volovoy [1], L. Yu. Chuneva [2], L. G. Kaida [3], N. V. Pushkareva [4], and others). At the same time, the number of given definitions practically corresponds to the number of studies. So, at the level of intuitive anticipation, the phenomenon of subtext is noted in the works of V. V. Vinogradov a work of art does not constitute a “straightforward” construction in which the characters would join one another like a row of dominoes arranged in a row … (…). These complex characters represent a new level of meaningful ascent” [5, p. 16].

The following definitions are relevant to us: G.V. Volovoy “information that is not embedded directly in the linguistic signs, but is extracted from the text, received the scientific name of the implicit content of the statement or literature subtext” [1, p. 21]; L. Y. Chuneva - “...

the basis for the emergence of meaning (mental education) in the minds of the recipient” [2, p. 154]; I. R. Halperin - “hidden information extracted from the factual information due to the ability of units of language to generate associative and connotative meanings” [6, p. 28]; L. G. Kaida - “... from the standpoint of information theory ... a semantic category of text” [3, p. 62].

All the above definitions characterize a peculiar linguistic phenomenon hidden, but unconditionally existing in the text semantics. Hidden semantics is a zone implicit - non-verbally expressed meaning (from lat. verbalis – verbal). The term "verbal" is used to denote the verbal form of the subject, unlike the “non-verbal” form, for example: literature (in painting, sculpture, graphics, etc.), music, dance, computer, etc.

The notion of subtext itself suggests the presence of a certain base - the text - on the basis of which it appears “sub” -text. Most often, this concept is related to implication characteristics, which is present in the literature speech and in the literature text as its product.

In terms of cognitive linguistics for defining subtext semantics the addressee of the message (reader of the literature text) must apply a conscious mental act. That is, to produce some "work of consciousness", aimed at finding and identifying additional meanings not mentioned in the text,on the awareness of concepts as a set of known essential features of an object, their classification and naming, that is, strictly speaking, nomination. So, in the book of E. A. Petrova "Sources and vectors of the logical-cognitive direction in the study of language" [7] discusses the types and ways of thinking that can be presented as determining to identify the subtext as a linguistic phenomenon. Not less significant for us is the principle of separation of thinking into certain layers, noted in the same work by E. A. Petrova, depending on the depth of knowledge. The top layer, “superficial” in her opinion, is the semantic or proper linguistic form of thinking. There are deeper, logical layers of thinking that use in their arsenal “the deep structures of sensory experience, somatic syntax, linguocultural meanings” [7, c. 57] are, in our

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