Semantics of Ambivalence in Illocutionary Speech Acts of Contemporary English Dialogic Discourse

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of strategic ambivalence in illocutionary speech acts. Ambivalence is reflected in common understanding of interlocutors as 1) the simultaneous existence of two opposed and conflicting attitudes or emotions; 2) the possibility of interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways; 3) vagueness or uncertainty of meaning. In terms of our investigation, ambivalence is viewed as the indirectness of speech acts in which speakers do not make clear which sequence of related illocutionary acts they intend. Further, ambivalence is understood as the case with negotiable interpersonal intent. Also ambivalence is defined as a rhetorical device found in an ambiguous speech act which is intentional and motivated by demographic, socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. The paper examines semantic properties of strategic ambivalent illocutionary speech acts in contemporary English dialogic discourse. It is suggested that as a multilevel phenomenon ambivalence can be realized at three levels: 1) grammatical or functional level, 2) lexical level, and 3) emotional level or emotional grounding. It has been suggested that emotionally complex events may result in the experience of ambiguous emotions existing at the same time and, consequently, evoke ambivalent speech acts. Thus, ambivalence generally refers to opposing forces existing simultaneously within an individual. Ambivalence can be circumstanced by tension between two emotions of different valency. It can be conditioned by tensions among other dimensions as well. Emotional ambivalence may be formed of a combination of high and low activation emotions in response to a certain situation or decision. Therefore ambivalent emotions may be inconsistent with respect to valency, arousal level, and / or appraisal and action tendency, strength. The essence of ambivalence concept in illocutionary speech acts lies in the speaker’s failure to make it quite clear which of the series of related illocutionary acts is intended. The reasons of using ambivalence and expectations of the addressee vary from one case to another while the ambivalence remains quite common in daily interaction. There are different levels of intention in performing a speech act. The first one is interpersonal intention – it defines the expectations of the speaker considering how s/he wants the addressee to perceive her / his speech act. The second one is perlocutionary intention – it defines what the speaker wants the addressee to accomplish by performing the speech act, or what perlocutionary effect the speaker wants to have on the addressee.