COMMUNICATIVE-PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF THE GOSSIP GENRE

Abstract

The aim of the study is to establish communicative and pragmatic features of gossips. The object of the study is the phatic communication of the characters in English fictional discourse. The scope of the article is establishing communicative and pragmatic features of gossip in the personages’ communication in English fictional discourse. The material for the research includes entries from English dictionaries and dialogic fragments involving gossip spreading in English fictional discourse. The special linguistic methods used in the study include the definition analysis applied to the entries of the respective nominative units; component analysis made it possible to identify a set of semes, which together with the use of contextual-interpretive method material made it possible to establish communicative and pragmatic features of gossips. The results show that the problem was the identification of a set of semes, characteristic of the term "gossip", as well as the analysis of verbalization of gossip in personages’ speech. The analysis of the definitions of the lexeme “gossip” in English-language dictionaries made it possible to distinguish in its meaning certain semantic components verbalized in dictionary articles. The communicative factors that cause gossiping and the pragmatic functions that gossips perform in social interaction have been determined in the characters’ interaction in English fictional discourse.