Communicative and Linguistic Characteristics of the Comic Discourse (on the Material of English-Language Belles-Lettres Works)

Abstract

The article deals with the investigation of the communicative and linguistic features of the comic discourse on the basis of the English-language fictional works by M. Spark, R. Dahl, K. Vonnegut Jr, I. Shaw, R. Carver and K. Barry. The author represents the description of a comic discourse in terms of Linguistic Pragmatics. Extra-linguistic components of the literary text creating and actualizing, which include pragmatic characteristics, social and cultural factors, psychological peculiarities, cognitive component and paralinguistic supplement, are described. The article also provides a detailed classification of comic discourse linguistic components on the material of belles-letters communication in the works of aforementioned writers. All linguistic characteristics within five groups, according to the violation/lack/incompleteness of the discourse certain communicative qualities disclosure, are distinguished. Besides, there is a thorough analysis of the presupposition as a constituent part in the comic discourse definition. The article dwells on the interlocutors’ micro and macro presuppositions introducing, the absence of which leads to non-cooperative communication with, predominantly, a comic effect. The results of the experiment show that the participants’ (readers’ particularly) background knowledge helps them interpret a literary discourse. The article continues the study of special special means and techniques of comic effect producing that provides a further understanding of the authors’ individual styles.