Paralanguage in Natural Language Texts

Abstract

In oral communication natural language is always combined with nonverbal signs of various nature, in particular paralanguage signs. The present paper describes usages and functions of lexical paralanguage units in Russian texts, mainly texts of anecdotes, where these units serve as a key to comic effect. The article analyzes examples of nonverbal imitation of speech pathology and ethnic, social, professional and other peculiarities of human communicative behavior. The paper describes some functions of paralinguistic signs such as their ability to imitate specific acts of pronunciation, to substitute taboo speech units or to denote other real actions. The authors pay attention to the form, meaning and usage of paralanguage units in Russian. Some of the units regarded are supplied with semantic descriptions and with descriptions of spheres of their usage. The article establishes syntactic function of paralanguage units in dialogues. Paralinguistic units constitute the class of so-called signalatives, which do not denote propositions but indicate peoples’ emotions or their mental activity