LEXICAL AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF COMPLIMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN THE DIACHRON ASPECT

Abstract

Compliment as an important element of social interaction is often the subject of research in numerous pragmalinguistic works in different linguistic cultures. However, the linguistic and stylistic expression of compliments through evaluative tokens is still ignored. That is why the aim of the article is to analyze the expressive vocabulary with emotionally-evaluative semantics and stylistic tropes used when expressing compliments in German-language dramatic works during the 18th–20th centuries. Based on the theory of speech acts of J. Austin and J. Searle, the lexical features of the implementation of direct and indirect explicit compliments are investigated, because they are realized through positive-evaluation vocabulary, in particular with the use of adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs and constant inflections. It is shown that evaluative and descriptive adjectives and nouns are typical when expressing compliments, because in this way the appearance, inner world, property, achievements and skills of the addressee are characterized. In the diachronic aspect, the changes in the linguistic realization of compliments through adjectives are traced, on the example of the common adjective gut and descriptive adjective schön, as well as through nouns on the example of tokens Engel, Schönheit / Schöne and Kompliment. Stylistic analysis of compliments showed that only 8.2% of examples are characterized by the use of stylistic tropes, of which the most commonly used are metaphor, comparison, symbol, metonymy and periphrasis. Instead, the use of antitheses, phraseologies, oxymorons, allegories, hyperbole, anaphors, gradations and epithets is rare. The use of stylistic means arouses more interest in the addressee, shows the emotionality of the speaker, and makes the compliments more intense. In the diachronic aspect, the most frequent use of stylistic tropes in the era of Weimar classics was revealed, in particular through the use of metaphors, metonymies and comparisons, and the importance of symbols in the era of Literary Modernism was established. We believe that the dynamics of the use of other stylistic means in the diachronic aspect is a prospect for further research.