Соmmunicative cooperation and negative politeness maxima — condicio sine qua non of literary text/discourse

Abstract

The paper is devoted to a topical issue of the communicative P. Grice’s cooperation principles and J. Leach’s politeness maxima. The research is based on the theory of cooperation and politeness combined with the strategic approach to the study of communicative and pragmatic characteristics of the literary text/discourse. The subject of the analysis is the strategy of differentiation the “positive politeness” and “negative politeness” phenomena. The result of the study is the implementation of the negative politeness strategy in the modern literary text/discourse. It is carried out through specific speech tactics (such as compliance with speech formalities and communicative distance; deliberate uncertainty and vagueness of statements; contrasting of speaker’s achievements to his opponent’s negative expectations; demonstration of success in fulfilling the promises; self-presentation.) One of these negative politeness tactics is considered to be so called “political correctness.” The author comes to the conclusion that the implementation of this type of negative politeness strategy is not carried out properly. The results of the study can be used and applied in the search of the specific language tools that allow to convey literary text/discourse effectively.

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