LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT AS A MEANS OF INFLUENCING THE ADDRESSEE PREACHING

Abstract

Statement of the Problem. The paper focuses on evaluative aspects of bishop Vissarion (Nechaev’s) preachings. The author of the paper aims at revealing the methods and ways of influencing the recipient of the preachings by bishop Vassarion. The evaluative functions of Bishop Vissarion’s preaching have never been analyzed in detail in linguistic literature Results. Bishop Vissarion (Nechaev) uses a variety of evaluative language means (evaluative nouns, adverbs, verbs, collocations, adjectives) to influence the reader in terms of forming his or her moral and ethical worldview. The author of the preachings uses common evaluative means (good, badetc.) as well as specific evaluative language means (ethical (moral, kind), aesthectical (beautiful), psychological etc. All these evaluative meanings enable the preacher to reflect his opinion on various aspects of human life. Moreover, the preacher aims at attracting his listeners’ and readers’ attention towards various crucial phenomena of human mental and physical activities and constructing Christian attitude towards them. The preacher uses appraisal and negative evaluation to highlight his views. The extent to which he uses specific and common evaluative means depends on the topics of his preaching. It is worth mentioning that bishop Vissarion uses various epigraphs (fragments from New Testament, epistles of the apostles etc.) which contain evaluative meanings. The latter serve as a starting point for the preacher when he is developing his ruminations and judgements. Conclusion. Bishop Vissarion’s preachings are focusing on crucial aspects of life of a Orthodox Church Christians. It is the evaluative means that provide the preacher with all the instruments for developing and forming Christian worldview in his listeners and readers. He warns them against various harmful mental and physical activities with the help of negative evaluative language means as well as encourages them to opt for goodness with the help of appraisal. The preacher has developed a unique metalanguage that combines philological explanations of the most important words in his preachings with their theological meanings. This approach enables the preacher to express himself to the full extent and to reveal for the reader all the implicit meanings that the evaluative words in his preaching contain.