Constructed dialogue in motivational discourse: functions and cross-cultural specifics

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of constructed dialogue (CD) which is understood as a speaker’s reproduction of someone’s words according to his/her information interpretation. The term of CD was introduced by Deborah Tannen and is defined by contemporary as an efficient communication strategy that allows to simultaneously fulfil a complex of goals. The purpose of this research is to examine the specifics of the CD use by motivational speakers in English and in Russian. The research corpus comprises three motivational speeches in Russian and four motivational speeches in English. Prior to discourse analysis, all the speeches were transcribed and the examples of CD, found in them, were numbered. Tannen’s classification of CD types was used to identify their characteristics. The research shows that CD is a typical feature of motivational discourse, where it performs simultaneously entertaining, expressive, and contact-establishing functions. Russian and English-language speakers who are emotional and rely during their speech delivery on verbal and nonverbal channels mostly use choral and inner speech types. These varieties of CD allow them to openly share their emotions and express their feelings about the discussed events. Those speakers who prefer to rely on arguments, comparisons and explanations use CD as instantiation type. The research concludes that the specifics of the CD use depend more on the communication type of the speakers rather than on their cultural background.