Linguo-pragmatic analysis of invective communication in Russian and British dramaturgy

• Leontieva T.I.

  Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service
  Vladivostok. Russia
  Professor of Cross-cultural Communication and Translation Department Ph. D. in Pedagogics (FLT)

The theme of misunderstanding and aggression, of invective communication, is raised with the view to finding ways out of extraordinary situations. Since private lives are hidden from our eyes and ears, literature helps to study the national traits of Russians and the British. Two great playwrights A. Chekhov and N. Coward have been selected for analysis, the play “The Bear” by the Russian writer and “Private Lives” by the British one. The goal of the analysis is to find common traits in the behavior of the Russians and the British in aggressive acts accompanied with invectives as well as the ability of both nations to stop hostile interaction. Are the nations radically different or, on the contrary, is there anything in common between them under unforeseen circumstances? Verbal, non-verbal, and psychological analyses of the characters’ speech are made within the frames of “conversation analysis” as well as psychological reasons of inadequate behavior are explained. Reasons of aggression in the two countries are examined, conflict causes between men and women are studied under the extraordinary circumstances of a conflict. Linguostylistic and pragmatic analysis of the heroes’ utterances proves the point that there is a lot in common between us and that tolerance is the best policy. The algorithm of the study also includes psychological analysis of the characters’ behavior in a sudden conflict caused by an incident. As a result of the undertaken analysis it has been pointed out that the characters of the Russian play as well as the British one after conflict, aggression and open hostility do find a positive solution of their problems and find a common language. Instead of conflict behavior they offer smiles, say pleasant words to each other, etc. The main conclusion from the study conducted in this article is the emotional commonness of the Russians and the British under unnatural circumstances and the break of possible stereotypes about the cold hearts of the British and the hot and wild character of Russians.

Keywords: conversation analysis, conflict behavior, conflict cause, invective, aggression, verbal and non-verbal markers, interaction, tolerance.