Genre of “Promise” as a Reflection of Intentional and Linguistic Organization in Virtual Pedagogical Discourse

Abstract

This research is situated within the context of contemporary discourse studies. It examines the genre of “promise” functioning within virtual pedagogical discourse. The study explores the genre features of a speech act, considering their potential determination by the pragmatic properties of discourse. Drawing on existing models of speech genres in contemporary genre theory (models by Т. V. Shmeleva, N. B. Lebedeva), two types of genre features of promises are identified. The first type includes invariant characteristics of the genre “promise”: a) the communicative goal of the utterance, linked to a voluntary commitment by the subject to fulfill something; b) linguistic markers of the genre — syntactic constructions containing performative “I promise,” predicates “I swear” / “commit” / “give (<my word>)” with direct objects or explanatory clauses indicating the object of the promise. The second group of features comprises genre characteristics of the text, determined by its discursive nature: a) the dictum content of the genre (theme of “Education”), b) the status roles of participants in institutional-pedagogical discourse; c) properties of the speech act determined by the structural-functional features of the messenger (interactivity, media files). Ultimately, a promise emerges as a genre realization of shared and simultaneously adapted speechthinking intention and discursive means.