speech act

The role of curses in biblical communication

The article studies curses, which are actively used in interpersonal biblical communication. The study shows that statements have a spiritual component and stem from ethical considerations, they act as an integrating and regulatory mechanism aimed at stabilizing the situation, and are of a dialogical nature. Linguistic, theological, and discursive methods, functional and pragmatic analysis, and comparative methods are used.

Pragmatics of Phatic Tokens

The task of the paper is to study theoretical aspects of the pragmatic use of phatic tokens. To achieve this aim, the authors review and specify the concept of phatic communication; describe the system of phatic tokens and provide a new approach to their structural organization; besides, they consider the usage of phatic tokens in different registers.

English Language of African-American Social and Ethnic Dialect: Specificity of Speech Behaviour of its Representatives

Аrticle is dedicated to the issues of speech behavior of African-American population of the United States. The author considers both models of verbal behavior of African Americans (language game, signification) and non-verbal forms which serve as a source of replenishment of the dictionary of African-American social and ethnic dialect.

Condolences: a Linguistic Perspective (on the Material of the German language)

The article deals with a specific type of etiquette statements – condolences. The first part analyzes the pragmatic conditions for making the relevant speech acts, then the author covers the language operators which generate and modify the sense elements of condolences. The paper concludes with a view on indirect ways of expressing condolences.