SPEECH ACTS OF CONTROL IN ENGLISH DOMINANT PARENTAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The paper deals with typology, functioning and verbal representation of speech acts of control in English dominant parental discourse. The concept of speech acts of control has been clarified then directive of order, directive of demand, directive of prohibition and directive of warning types have been singled out. The analysis of linguistic forms of directive of order, directive of demand, directive of prohibition and directive of warning utilized by parents in dominant communication has been carried out. The analysis of the control speech acts by levels of directness in dominant parental discourse reveals the prevalence of direct mode stipulated by parental higher social position and authority. It was found out that linguistic forms of directives of order are affirmative imperative constructions and negative imperative constructions, lexico-grammatical level of directives of order are represented by imperative sentences comprising verbs that call for action completion or denote action cessation. It was revealed that when conveying categorical requirements, impolite and even disrespectful attitude, directives of order include negative-evaluative adjectives, obscene words. Linguistic expression of directives of demand are affirmative utterances containing volitional verbs. Directives of prohibition in dominant parental discourse are represented by affirmative constructions with verbs naming ban and disallowance. The category of modality is also employed for verbal representation of the directive of prohibition. The directives of warning are represented by imperative and affirmative constructions with modal verbs of obligation, negative imperative constructions and affirmative constructions with prohibitive nomination, negative constructions of egocentric character. The analysis of the lexical and syntactic means that comprise speech acts of control makes it possible to single out structural models containing addressing. This paper aims to compensate for the lacunae that are currently present in the field of English dominant parental discourse study in terms of speech act representation.