PRAGMATIC SPECIFICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE ACT

Abstract

The research in the anthropological linguistics paradigm focuses on centers connected with humans and their needs. The language world is a part of the human world, and this fact has given a start to numerous new problems and corresponding linguistic branches. Linguopragmatics is one of them. It analyzes the communication process in “locution – illocution – perlocution” coordinates (J. Austin). Given the high influence on society, business communication has become a study object which demands various research methods application. The pragmatics of the speech in advertising, manager-communication, etc., expands on the everyday life level as well as into the individual consciousness via the usage of communication tactics, often inconspicuous. The article attempts to reveal the methods of addresser’s linguistic influence on the addressee in the housing commerce field. Our attention was drawn to realtors and real estate advertising developers using the adjectives to denote a small space – “duzhe malenka”, “kompaktna”, “krykhitna”, “malenka”, “malenkykh rozmiriv”, “mala”, “malohabarytna”, “malyusinka”, “nevelyka”, “nevelychka”, “smart” – recorded as synonyms in the modern dictionaries. We were interested in their semantic one-dimensionality in the nowadays speakers’ perception. In order to confirm or deny the hypothesis about the absolute synonymity shown by some of the mentioned tokens and synonymous relations between all components of the named bunch, we conducted an experiment in the student environment to reveal any semantic nuances in the tokens designating a small room. Words that are treated as synonyms in modern dictionaries actually reveal certain peculiarities when perceived: 1) not all lexemes are perceived as absolute synonyms by respondents; 2) the analysis showed a clear tendency towards gradation of certain adjectives; 3) the respondents were able to identify and formulate the semantic difference between the analyzed lexemes. The analysis results were confirmed by studying micro-contexts selected from internet communication. In addition to the meaning difference between the selected lexemes, the semantics of the recipient’s perceptual image depends on other factors, particularly, on the connotative effect created by the situation or text. Being aware of such nuances makes it possible to influence an addressee’s perception, transforming the reality accordingly to an addresser’s desire.