Role repertoire of the family discourse participants in a situation of frank communication: symmetric and asymmetric relations

Abstract

The article deals with the communicative situation of frank communication in the English family discourse from the point of view of the role repertoire of its participants. The role repertoire and addresser-addressee configuration of interactants of the English family discourse “HUSBAND-WIFE” affects the choice of communicative strategies and tactics, and the classification of roles is considered from the standpoint of symmetric/asymmetric relations of the speakers. The tactics of self-approval, overloading the perceiver with information, playing on feelings, self-expression, and the use of flattery embody the strategy of frankness. The family communication is studied on the material of the English-language discourse, which is represented by works of fiction, with the involvement of general scientific, structural-semantic, pragma-semantic, discursive, and quantitative methods. The proposed algorithm for analysing the family discourse is a complex of four stages. At the first stage, we identify the types of roles of participants regarding social relations and the context of works of fiction; at the second stage, we define the characteristic strategies and tactics of the family communication; at the third stage, we examine the structural-semantic and communicative-pragmatic means of implementing strategies and tactics; and the fourth stage is dedicated to establishing the peculiarities of speech influence implementation in situations of family communication.