Ваврінчік Р.Я.
Закарпатська філія Київського
славістичного університету, Україна
PERFORMATIVE UTTERANCES
IN RECENT NEWSPAPER FEATURE ARTICLES
On the threshold of the 21st century
functionalism became one of the most widely applied and researched aspects of
linguistic studies. This direction has defined the approach to language study
in many respects. It has progressed from treating the language as merely a
system to acknowledging it as the functioning and operating entity of mental
and linguistic awareness with the help of which a person acquires the ability
to categorize the world, to experience it and to exist inside of it.
Description of the language from the communicative-functional point of view
aims to reveal the interrelation between the functional type of a sentence, or
an utterance, and the purport of the communication, as well as its logical
components and communicative intention. The principles of the Speech Acts
Theory (SAT), a discipline that was elaborated and developed by John L. Austin
starting from 1939 serve as guidelines to the analysis of diverse kinds of
communication. SAT is a logical-linguistic theory that studies pragmatics and
the structure of the speech acts as the units of lingual communication and
lingual activity in general [4].
The object of the SAT is a speech act (further – SA), a minimal unit of speech
communication, a situationally and intentionally
stipulated speech utterance of a speaker, directed at the addressee and at a
certain reaction or a result [7, p. 55]. The SAT concentrates on communicative
teleology (intentionality) of a speech act treating the illocutionary force of
the utterance as a priority concept. The basic notions and components of a
speech act are: addresser, addressee, locution, illocution (consisting of the
illocutionary point and the illocutionary force), and the perlocutionary
effect [4; 6–7].
The present article aims to describe and justify
that performative utterances make up a relevant part
of the linguistic means which serve to present a subjective point of view in a
newspaper. As a semantic-pragmatic phenomenon a performative
utterance presents equivalence of saying something with doing something; to say
an utterance with certain intention means to complete an action with a certain
effect [4]. The effect being sought by a journalist in the course of
communication with his reader is to cause certain mental, spiritual, social and
mood changes. Unlike news, analytics or other ‘unbiased’ writings the features
are ‘featuring’ journalist`s personal opinion in
order to persuade, convince, influence, to impose a certain attitude, etc.
The material of our investigation consists of
British newspapers The Times and The Daily Telegraph. The analysis of 45
feature articles published in 2009–2010 has been
conducted.
On the basis of what is considered to be the
object of SAT mass media texts may hardly seem to fit into the framework of the
functional-communicational approach. This is true in relation to news items,
analytics and other ‘hard news’ materials (swift and accurate coverage of the
events). But as it was asserted by the researchers in the field of medialinguistics T. Dobrosklonskaya,
G. Solganik, I. Tokareva,
D. Crystal, T. Dijk, N.
Fairclough [1; 8–12] certain newspaper texts – like
feature articles – do correspond to the above mentioned definition of a speech
act in the part which deals with the addresser, addressee, and expectation of a
reaction. Obviously, the addresser`s role is allotted
to the journalist, or a famous person whose opinion is highly valued by the
community, or a specialist in a certain field of knowledge. The addressee is
not one person; it is common to refer to a reader as to a mass addressee. With
the perlocutionary effect that is being expected in
the course of this type of communication we mean persuading a reader to change
his\her mind in some issues, influencing his\her worldview, sometimes prompting
to some actions.
Mass media texts retaining the author`s subjective opinion and evaluation surely represent
a discourse, as they are always dynamic and up-to-date. Moreover, they are
perceived by the participants of the communication in the context of current
events [1].
This approach may also be supported by the definition of discourse formulated
by prof. Poluzhyn: «Discourse
is the unity of the process of speech activity and its result, the text» [10,
p. 90]. Whereas mass
media texts may be regarded as the fusion of all functional styles of the
language they give room for the function of information to be actualized in the
same degree as the function of impact by exploiting all available means of a
language: those which influence the recipient`s
cognitive, emotive and axiological spheres.
Features group represents a new
direction in mass media presentation – infotainment
(information plus entertainment), that is, all kinds of issue-related materials which
are not always related to the news. In the features the artistic and aesthetic
effects are being put at the forefront. Feature article
combines the
function of impact with the function of communication, and such a format of
providing information gives the addresser a good opportunity to express his/her
opinion and evaluation. It starts, as a rule, with a lead to
grasp the reader's attention and then uses conversational tone to present the
reader some information as well as to evoke an emotional response. Feature articles appeal to the emotions and feelings
of the average person, they inform, they present events,
facts and phenomena of social life. Moreover, the very act of communication
which occurs in these journalistic writings has a goal-oriented character, and
the goal is no other than to reach the reader`s mind.
Such orientation towards the reader is manifested in certain conversational
patterns, which are as a rule used in communicating with friends or good
acquaintances. With the help of performative
constructions a reader is being convinced that he/she is no less than the
ultimate addressee of an article. Performative
utterances, whether explicit or implicit, support the author`s
friendly, trusted role in communication.
(1) Don’t
get me wrong:
The addressee is being asked not to misinterpret
the author`s judgements concerning a very painful
problem for the USA – China’s manipulating its currency in relation to the US
dollar. According to the classification of performatives
by Lipska E., who distinguishes 5 classes of performatives the given speech act belongs to Directives class [3,
p. 7]. Other 4 classes are: Assertives (asserting, informing, reminding, announcing,
etc.); Comissives
(promising, swearing, assuring, etc.); Declaratives
(naming, appointing, approving, forgiving, blaming, etc.) and Etiquettes (greeting, wishing, giving
thanks, asking for excuse, etc.) [3, p. 7–8].
The example (1) exploits the implicit performative in the imperative form. Although the performative frame I
ask you, or I appeal to you is
omitted, in practice such kinds of performatives are
being recognized by means of transferring the utterance into indirect speech: “He asked me not to get him wrong”.
This tool was offered by prof. Potcheptsov
in [6, р. 436].
Those cases when the presence of a performative
frame is absolutely necessary are stipulated by specific communicative goals:
to make the speech more formal; to express additional meanings; to give
evaluation to reliability of information; to emphasize the importance of the
information [2].
In journalistic texts, and particularly in features, a very important
role is allotted to the author's speech, as the author's position is active,
open, with clear and definite evaluations. In the features it has a variety of
stylistic, aesthetic and communicative functions.
(2) We had lots of proud promises
that they were right behind us and now, over a weekend, they've all ratted. I tell you, if there's no amiable
settlement to this it will go on as long as Northern Ireland.
– SA of asserting, class: Assertives [14].
With the help of author`s speech an element of
human interest is being adduced to the story. Performative patterns provide the most efficient
way to render author`s attitudes clearly,
unambiguously, and explicitly. Moreover, this is one of the main functions of performatives: to name the illocutionary point while
performing a speech act.
(3) Don’t go there is my advice. –
SA of recommendation, class: Directives [13].
Since the example (3) may very naturally be transferred into, I advise you not to go this utterance
may be regarded performative.
(4) If this seems a depressing
prospect, then let me offer one
silver lining. – SA
of offering, class: Directives [13].
Except informing, a feature
article also offers recommendations, advice, instructions; it may even prompt
to action. Together with explicit performatives
implicit and explicitly-modified patterns are also used in feature articles.
Implicit performatives are characterized by the
absence of a performative verb but they still remain
capable of taking up the form of explicit performative
and to fulfil the same function [3, p. 6].
(5) Ask Britain’s leading ceramics designer,
Emma Bridgewater, why she came to Stoke-on-Trent to build her world-renowned
business, and she will tell you it’s all about the history and culture of the
city. –
SA of suggesting, class: Directives [14].
An explicitly-modified performative
utterance is sometimes constructed with the help of a modal verb which
undertakes to act on behalf of the 1st person present tense active
(may be conditional):
(6) “So I would say overcoming adversity was the biggest challenge I faced and
the most gratifying thing to overcome”. – SA of informing, class: Assertives [14].
Therefore,
the main function of performative utterances in
features is to eliminate illocutionary ambiguity, which may arise from
difficulty to grasp some aspects of the communicative act from the content of
the propositional part of the utterance [3, p. 9]. In mass media
discourse, in particular in feature articles performative
utterances act as indicators of the illocutionary type of a speech act. The
given research reveals that on the one hand performative
utterances play a very important role in providing opinions and evaluations in
feature articles. The performative component of the
analyzed examples prevents the reader from perceiving the information as true
or false: it is made clear by the addresser that the point of view in the
article is indeed subjective. On the other hand, out of 5 existing classes of performatives only Assertives and
Directives are most actively used in features. Other classes (Comissives, Etiquettes, and Declaratives) are employed more
rarely. The domination of Assertives and Directives
seems to be stipulated by the very nature of mass media communication: to make
you believe in such state of things which the editorial board regards necessary
and to make you act, or behave in the way they need.
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