Authors’ names:
- Svetlana Ye. Bugrova, Nadezhda N. Lisenkova – Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Abstract:
The article deals with the phenomenon of implication which is regarded as a number of additional implied meanings, not formally represented in the utterance but resulting from explicitly expressed language units or accounted for by pragmatic factors. Implication is supposed to be the obligatory component of the semantic structure of indirect speech acts, indirect representatives included. The form of any indirect speech act which is the result of transposition of syntactic structure can be transformed according to its actual meaning, or implication. However, indirect representatives which generally have the syntactic structure of an interrogative sentence demonstrate various abilities for transformation. The interrogative construction may be syntactically parallel to its declarative transform; in many cases, though, there are considerable deviations from the original. It suggests that there may be different types of implication in the semantic structure of indirect representatives: conventional, where the meaning of the utterance is the mere sum of the words employed, and complicated, which can be only understood in a wider context. It is stated that implication can be represented in different degrees depending on the ability of the sentence structure to be transformed according to its actual meaning. Conventional utterances are characterized by the minimal degree of implicitness; the ones that realize their adequate communicative purpose only in certain contexts contain larger amount of implicit information. The most complicated cases are those where the implied statement cannot be represented verbally though in general it is perceived by the listener in accordance with its illocution.
| Section | LANGUAGE AND CULTURE |
| DOI: | 10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2024-65-1-25-36 |
| Downloads | 77 |
| Key words | indirect speech acts; representatives; implication; interrogative sentences; the English language |