Pragmatic Markers of Speech Aggression in the Discourse of Drama

The paper examines the phenomenon of speech aggression in the discourse of drama. Dramatic action, as was stated already in antiquity by Aristotle, is based on the representation of human conflict. Nevertheless, verbal aggression in drama has not been explored in contemporary linguistics. Besides, the investigation of pragmatic parameters and markers is still relevant for artistic discourse, drama in particular. The study aims at identification of markers of speech aggression in the plays written by Russian playwrights: Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”, Arbuzov’s “Cruel Games” and Sadur’s “Ekhaj”. To achieve the aim, firstly, the author analyses the usage of pragmatic markers in the characters’ speeches irrespectively of their aggressive behavior. It makes it possible to identify the linguistic units that realize different pragmatic functions in the plays: hesitation, emphatization, metacommunication, discourse structuring, etc. Secondly, the analysis of aggressive remarks is fulfilled. The results show both qualitative differences (the markers used) and quantitative differences (the frequency of their usage) as compared with the data received at the first step of the research. The prospects of the study lie in the pragmatic analysis of plays written by contemporary Russian and foreign playwrights who work in different genres as well as in developing the analysis procedure using corpus annotation tools

Aggression · Discourse analysis · Drama · Pragmatics · Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication · Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies · Psycholinguistics and Behavioral Studies