NON-VERBAL PECULIARITIES OF PESSIMISTIC UTTERANCES (A STUDY OF THE 20TH–21ST CENTURY ENGLISH PROSE)

Abstract

The article highlights non-verbal peculiarities of pessimistic utterances in 20th–21st century English prose. It has been revealed that pessimistic utterances are supported by paralingual (phonatory, respiratory), kinesic (facial expressions, gestures, body postures) non-verbal means of communication, eye contact and silence. It has been proved that paralingual means of communication are typical for non-verbal support of pessimistic utterances (67%). We consider sound codes of non-verbal communication to be paralingual and divide them into phonatory and respiratory. A wide range of phonatory non-verbal means of communication in pessimistic discourse is determined by emotional and mental states of a pessimistic speaker, and non-lingual factors that affect his/her pessimistic worldview.The use of respiratory non-verbal means of communication is determined by the peculiarities of individual psychophysiological articulatory-acoustic reactions, such as sighs, whispers, moans, stutters, sobs. It has been revealed that kinesic (facial expressions, gestures, body postures) non-verbal means of communication (12%), which support pessimistic utterances perform an expressive-regulatory function and codify the information about a speaker’s pessimistic worldview. It has been determined that eye-related non-verbal means of communication that accompany pessimistic utterances are less typical (6%). The regulation of the communication process, checking feedback, displaying cognitive activity, expressing emotions and confirming the nature of interpersonal relationships are the functions of visual contact. Silence as a non-verbal reaction of a pessimist is not frequent (5%). Conscious and deliberate use of silence by a pessimist indicates the need to use a pause to reflect on the situation, or to control emotions or regulate the communication process. It has been proved that kinesic, eye-related non-verbal means of communication and silence serve as additional means to convey speaker’s pessimistic worldview and indicate situational character of speaker’s pessimism. The data show that pessimistic utterances may be accompanied by a set of non-verbal means of communication (10%). This indicates the intensity of expression of emotional, volitional and behavioral reactions of a pessimistic speaker. A number of lexical units that serve to verbalize non-verbal means of communication which support pessimistic utterances have been identified. The peculiar features of their use in English prose of the 20th–21st centuries have been found out.