STRATEGIC DIVERSIFICATION OF AUTHORITARIAN DISCURSIVE BEHAVIOUR OF A TEENAGE GIRL IN MONO-GENDER COMMUNICATION WITH ADULTS

Abstract

The quick pace of development in modern society impacts the way a person communicates in various life spheres. Quite unexpected are the transformations in the sphere of power relations both in the formal and family contexts. This article aims at investigating the manifestation of authoritarian communication by a teenage girl and the strategic diversification in mono-gender contexts with women, in particular with the representatives of the nuclear (mother, cousin) and non-nuclear (doctor, mother’s friends, neighbours) zones of the person’s discursive surrounding. Authoritarianness implementation in interaction has been studied in adult speakers in general, and in children’s authoritarian communication with adults and children. Yet, focusing on the diversification of the strategic arsenal of a teenage addresser in mono-gender pairs with women addressees is highlighted for the first time. In order to achieve the goals set, the following methodology steps have been taken: we have selected discursive fragments which illustrate the attempts of a teenage girl to implement authoritarian strategies; relying upon the findings of linguistic pragmatics and the contextual analysis method we have characterized the variable linguistic features of implementing authoritarianness considering the factor of the addressee. It has been established that there is an interdependence between the pragmatic factors of the communicative situation (zones of one’s discursive surrounding, psychological disposition, social roles) and the authoritarian speaker’s strategic repertoire. The teenager resorts to implementing authoritarian manipulation with the representatives of the nuclear zone of their surrounding via the tactics of pretend kindness, appealing to emotions and blackmailing, and the strategy of selfassertion by means of the tactic of insult with the speakers from the non-nuclear zone of discursive surrounding, with whom there is observed a tendency to reduce the communicative distance and lowering the register of communication.