Volume 04 Issue 02-2022
30
The American Journal of Social Science and Education Innovations
(ISSN
–
2689-100x)
VOLUME
04
I
SSUE
02
Pages:
30-33
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2020:
5.
525
)
(2021:
5.
857
)
OCLC
–
1121105668
METADATA
IF
–
8.106
Publisher:
The USA Journals
ABSTRACT
The functional-semantic explication of the linguistic phenomenon of approval and praise in English colloquial speech,
which is conditioned by psychology and psycholinguistics, is investigated. In the structure of the functional-semantic
field of the speech acts of approval and praise are distinguished: the core, the center, the near and the far periphery.
KEYWORDS
Speech acts, functional-semantic field, core, center, near periphery, far periphery.
INTRODUCTION
The speech bases of the phenomena of approval and
praise are due to human psychology and, accordingly,
the science of psychology, or rather, psycholinguistics.
Here we have such linguistic phenomena, the study of
which to some extent goes beyond the framework of
the actual linguistic methodology of cognition of the
language system and comes into contact with the field
of psycholinguistics. In this case, "the linguist is not so
much interested in the everyday use of language,
which allows people (usually linguists) in some ideal
Research Article
FUNCTIONAL AND SEMANTIC EXPLICATION OF APPROVAL AND
PRAISE IN ENGLISH COLLOQUIAL SPEECH
Submission Date:
February 08, 2022,
Accepted Date:
February 16, 2022,
Published Date:
February 28, 2022 |
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajssei/Volume04Issue02-08
Dilnoza Khamdamova
Lecturer of Karshi State University, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theamericanjou
rnals.com/index.php/ta
jssei
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Volume 04 Issue 02-2022
31
The American Journal of Social Science and Education Innovations
(ISSN
–
2689-100x)
VOLUME
04
I
SSUE
02
Pages:
30-33
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2020:
5.
525
)
(2021:
5.
857
)
OCLC
–
1121105668
METADATA
IF
–
8.106
Publisher:
The USA Journals
situations to make judgments about grammatical
correctness, establish grammatical relationships, etc."
The linguist, in this case, is interested in “... linguistic
ability in the form in which it has a psychological reality,
i.e. exists as a psychological phenomenon"[1]. The
psychological, or rather, psycholinguistic phenomenon
of approval and praise can be studied from the
standpoint of speech, namely, from the standpoint of
colloquial speech, where the factors of the human
psyche are amenable to study in the context of the
dichotomy of speech and language. At the same time,
by speech action we understand some component of
speech activity, which “... is characterized by a certain
motive and a certain goal. Speech action is such a
component of speech activity, which is characterized
by an independent intermediate goal” [2; 3]. Thus, the
psycholinguistic phenomena of approval and praise are
speech actions that are realized in a certain speech
situation and imply the linguistic property of evaluative
modality.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Language means expressing speech actions of
approval and praise are realized in a certain speech
situation, which has four heterogeneous components:
1. the grammatical person of the speaker, expressing
the indicated speech actions; 2. the grammatical
person of the listener (listeners), which may have a
contact with the speaker or a distant location; 3. some
person or some fact or event that, from the point of
view of the speaker is evaluated as a positive
phenomenon; 4. language means directly expressing
these positive speech actions. In the above
interpretation of a speech situation in which a positive
speech action is explicated, conceptual-thinking
(semantic) components and pragmatic components
merge together. Unified representation of semantic
and pragmatic components is due to the
homogeneous nature of the manifestation of language
units in speech, in which the extralinguistic and
pragmatic properties of language means are most
directly expressed in the linguistic and semantic
features of the language content plan. “The pragmatic
dimension of semiosis is the relation of the sign to its
interpreter” [4].
The interpreters of the speech actions of approval and
praise, in which the role of the pragmatic component
is great, are the face of the speaker and the face of the
listener. The grammatical person of an individual
subjected to some positive assessment from the point
of view of speaker cannot act as an interpreter of the
pragmatic-semantic dimension of an event or fact
when it is a separate part of the speech situation. But
if two persons are combined in some speech situations:
the person of the listener and the person of the
individual being evaluated, then in this case the latter
person can act as an interpreter of the pragmatic-
semantic dimension of the speech action.
Such a four-part structure of a speech situation, in
which four direct components are presented: 1. the
person of the speaker (evaluated), 2. the person of the
listener (participant in communication), 3. the person
of the person being evaluated (equally evaluated event
or evaluated fact), and 4. linguistic means (expressing
speech action) - also predetermines the four-part
structure of the functional-semantic field of speech
actions of approval and praise, in which there are: 1. the
core of the field, 2. the center of the field, 3. the near
periphery and 4. the far periphery of the field.
In fact, 91 statements were considered (as realized in
speech by a sentence), in which the decisive role is
played by whole-formed exemes expressing the
unambiguous semantics of the speaker's positive
attitude to the designated subject of speech - a certain
person, equal to some event or fact. For example:
Volume 04 Issue 02-2022
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The American Journal of Social Science and Education Innovations
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VOLUME
04
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02
Pages:
30-33
SJIF
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525
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(2021:
5.
857
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OCLC
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1121105668
METADATA
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–
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Publisher:
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1.
“Yes, I like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash
a fence every day?” [Twain, 2012. P. 26-27]
2.
“Well, well, well,’ said he, ‘you old doughface!
Struck too, are you? That’s great! But you’re too
late. Francesca tells me that Anabela talks of
nothing but me, day and night.” [O. Henry, 2013. P.
148-149]
3.
“Gift of God” he cried. “I cannot think that God will
punish me for desiring naught so good! Be it as you
will, then; take me where you please: I put my
salvation in your hands.” [Stevenson, 2013. P. 156-
157]
4.
“That’s a good boy. Fine boy. Two thousand verses
is a lot. And you never can be sorry for the trouble
you took to learn them; for knowledge is the most
expensive thing in the world; it’s a what makes
great men and good men; you’ll be a great man
someday, Thomas, and then you’ll say ‘Thank you’
to your Sunday school, to your teachers and to
your Headmaster. Now I am sure you know the
names of all twelve disciples. Won’t you tell us the
names of the first two?” [Twain, 2012. P. 52-53]
5.
“Doctor, you dear old soul,” cried she, “get up and
dance with me!” And then the four young people
laughed louder than ever, to think what a queer
figure the poor old doctor would cut. [Hawthorne,
2013. P. 34-35]
All of the above examples contain whole-formatted
lexemes that unambiguously express a positive
assessment on the part of the speaker, these lexemes
contain only a positive-evaluative component and are
intended only to express a positive opinion: 1): like, 2):
Well, well, well, 3): Gift of God, 4): good boy; fine boy,
and 5): you dear old soul.
If from the side of the language system itself, the
above-mentioned meaningful whole-formed lexemes
with the semantics of a positive assessment are
unambiguously intended only to express the positive
opinion of the speaker, then from the side of speech
and the speech situation, in which the role of
pragmatics is great, “... the assessment also expresses
the attitude of the speaker to the nominated object,
however here, the assignment to the “good-bad” scale
is based not on general logical criteria, but on those
emotions that the designated object, process or
phenomenon evokes” [6; 7]. Despite the fact that
some of these English integral lexemes, which are
significant in terms of a positive assessment, can often
be presented separately, outside the formal
grammatical structure of the sentence, for example, in
the examples: 3): Gift of God! and 4): That's a good boy.
Fine boy -, in a conceptual and semantic sense, they are
inextricably linked with the corresponding speech
situation and therefore belong to all those speech
statements that are realized in them, in these speech
situations.
In addition, all the above-mentioned significant
positively actualized whole-formed lexemes in
examples 1) - 5) are also decorated with the
corresponding intonation-phonetic means, in example
1): Yes, I like it - is an intonational pattern indicating
positive expression, manifested through lifting
descending melody. A similar melody of ascent and
descent is observed in examples 2): Well, well, well; 4):
That's a good boy. A good boy; and 5): Doctor, you dear
old soul. In example 3): Gift of God! - the emotional
component is directly explicated positive evaluation.
The extralinguistic situation determines the degree of
expression of a linguistic means expressing a speech
action. “The degree of emotional richness of an
utterance depends on the context in which it is placed,
or, more broadly, on the speech situations. Apparently,
both the speaker and the listener have a certain
emotional mood within a certain segment of the text
Volume 04 Issue 02-2022
33
The American Journal of Social Science and Education Innovations
(ISSN
–
2689-100x)
VOLUME
04
I
SSUE
02
Pages:
30-33
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2020:
5.
525
)
(2021:
5.
857
)
OCLC
–
1121105668
METADATA
IF
–
8.106
Publisher:
The USA Journals
(emotional attitude), set either by the general content
of the text, or by its first statements” [8].
CONCLUSION
Without a doubt, the English language means
expressing speech actions of approval and praise in the
given examples: 1): Yes, I like it; 2): Well, well, well; 3):
Gift of God!; 4): That's a good boy. A good boy; - are
intended
to
express
positive
evaluativeness,
unambiguously express such positive evaluative
semantics, can be repeated in other similar speech
situations, and can even show serial use in such speech
acts.
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J.R.
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