Abstract
The article analyzes the rhetorical structures with the contrast semantics and their functions in the blog text, special attention is paid to the contrast relations at the nexus of the blogger’s message and the readers’ reactive commentaries, connection of these relations with the further text deployment. The rhetorical contrast relations are interpreted in the article as the pragmatic format of expressing the incompatibility between the interlocutors’ rational settings while having the same emotional and volitional state. Within the frameworks of the blog text we reveal the rhetorical contrast relation model which includes the justification of the contrast appropriateness from commenting readers. The problematic state of affairs representation as the stimulus presupposes the reactive explanation of the state of affairs resolution ways. The rhetorical contrast relations within the frameworks of the blogger’s stimulus and the reader’s reactive commentary predetermine the coherence of jointly generated virtual text which is marked by the adversative conjunction but or be the communicative context itself. The contrast and its reasoning coordinate the blogger and reader’s modus spheres with the obvious differences in their views upon the state of affairs under discussion. It is demonstrated that in the blog text the rhetorical contrast relations are associated consistently with the expressing of incompatible points of view shared by the interlocutors. In this case the adversative conjunction but pragmatic function is to to correlate the views expressed in the asynchronous time plane and, consequently, to contribute to the linear unfolding of jointly generated text. The functional importance of the adversative conjunction but is specified in the interactive aspect. It is illustrated that this kind of conjunction functions as a kind of signal that the reader realizing the reactive review undertakes the obligation of maintaining the joint design of the contrasting ideas embodied in the blog text.
Highlights
In current linguistic researches, which are essentially interdisciplinary in nature, the blogs are interpreted as «complex rhetorical hybrids», which trace their discursive origins in more traditional and recognized genres, such as the diary, the pamphlet, the editorial, the opinion column, the online catalog (Bozhenkova, Ivanova 2012: 125, Garmasheva 2015: 37, Kudryashov, Kalashnikov 2015(c): 28—29)
The rhetorical nature of the blog texts determines the two implications which are constructive for our research: 1) cohesive means at the junction of the original message and the reactive statements is a clear indication of the realization of communicative goals of the virtual text jointly generated by the interlocutors; 2) the blog texts as the particular genre of the virtual communication predetermine the dominance in the joint work of certain semantic structures and linguistic characteristics
In the context of the interlocutors’ virtual interaction the contrast is treated as such the commenting reader’s position, which primarily involves the resolution in the current course of the interaction, i.e. is reflected consistently in the blocks of the jointly generated text, which, in turn, are the basis for the subsequent communicative action such as explanation of the appropriateness of the contrast rhetorical relation modeling
Summary
In current linguistic researches, which are essentially interdisciplinary in nature, the blogs are interpreted as «complex rhetorical hybrids», which trace their discursive origins in more traditional and recognized genres, such as the diary, the pamphlet, the editorial, the opinion column, the online catalog (Bozhenkova, Ivanova 2012: 125, Garmasheva 2015: 37, Kudryashov, Kalashnikov 2015(c): 28—29). As a specific social activity blogs are the result of the harmonious blending of these genres that determines their semantic, stylistic and pragmatic uniqueness in the realm of interlocutors’ virtual interaction. The empirical surveys show that the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication are determined by a number of social factors, such as synchronous/ asynchronous nature of the interlocutors’ interaction, the possibility to issue a message as anonymous and segmented, the publicized information subjective nature, pluralism dominance in communication (Garmasheva 2010, Kudryashov, Kalashnikov 2015(b), Makarov 2016). The blogger uses the virtual space to reflect the current thoughts and life experience, readers use it for the personal supplementing (commenting) the original message. The blogger and the reacting readers are mutually engaged into the discursive activities based on the common attempt to produce the coherent text, thoroughly covering the actual problems and their relevant solutions
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