Lecture 10. The pragmatic approach to the text d. U. Ashurova, M. R. Galieva Copyright Only for Personal Use

who 
what 
how 
when 
why 
to 
whom 
where 
The 
addresser
The 
addressee 
The subject of 
communi-
cation 
Commu-
nication 
Time 
Place
Text
COMMUNICATIVE-PRAGMATIC SITUATION

---

The most relevant parameters of the communicative- pragmatic situation in 
the literary discourse are: 
● circumstances and place of the communicative act; 
● the subject and aim of communication; 
● social, ethnic, individual, characteristics of the communicants; 
● role and personal relations between the communicants. 
In the process of discourse analysis the role of intentional factors as well as 
those of linguistic personality should be particularly emphasized. 
 
THE FACTOR OF THE ADDRESSER AND ADDRESSEE 
 
The addresser (author, sender, speaker) and the addressee (recipient, reader, 
listener) are the main constituents of discourse though explicitly they are not 
presented in the text. The addresser is a creator of the text, which reflects his views, 
attitudes, evaluation, world outlook. The addresser is realized in the text through the 
communicative aim, and strives to make it recognizable for the addressee. Besides, 
he has an intention to exert a certain influence on the addressee.
So, the categories of the addresser and addressee are obligatory in discourse 
analysis. In this respect, the notion of “linguistic personality” is of paramount 
significance. The theory of linguistic personality was in full measure elaborated by 
Yu. N. Karaulov on the material of the Russian language. The scholar designated 
the notion and the model of linguistic personality. On the basis of Yu. Karaulov’s 
conception and other researches in this field the following definition can be given: 
linguistic personality is a manifold, multi-component and structurally organized set 
of linguistic competences, a certain linguistic correlate of the spiritual world of a 
personality in the integrity of his social, ethnic, psychological, aesthetic 

---

characteristics. The model of linguistic personality includes semantic, pragmatic , 
cognitive, cultural layers reflected at the verbal layer.
In literary communication, viz. in fiction, the addresser is represented in the 
“author’s image”. As many scholars state, the author of the literary work expresses 
not only the object of cognition, but also his personality. Literary communication 
presupposes actualization of all spiritual and practical abilities of a personality, his 
life experience and sophistication. The notion of the “author’s image” was 
introduced by V.V. Vinogradov who claimed that the “author’s image” is a focus, 
which combines all the parts of the work. In the fictional text the author’s image 
may have an explicit expression, but more often it is implicit. There are many ways 
of expressing the author’s image, including the plot and composition. All the 
compositional forms of the author’s speech (description, narration, reasoning) with 
different degrees of explicitness present the author’s individual viewpoint. One of 
the powerful means of asserting the author’s position is a system of stylistically 
marked units employed in the text. Among them the role of imagery should be 
particularly emphasized. Indeed, image-bearing stylistic devices are used in the text 
to express evaluative, subjective attitude of the author towards the things described. 
So, the factor of an addresser presupposes that cultural context including 
literary, social, political data should be involved in discourse analysis. Only under 
such circumstances can a satisfactory account of the text, and an adequate 
interpretation of the author’s intention be achieved.
No less important in discourse analysis is the factor of an addressee. It is the 
addressee who indirectly predetermines text construction, the choice of words and 
structures. To achieve understanding the addresser should take into account all the 
parameters of a potential addressee, his social and professional status, educational 
level, background knowledge and so on. Certainly, the information about the 
addressee is rather relative. There are texts oriented to a certain reader. For instance, 
literature for children or special texts. At the same time there are texts not intended 
for a concrete reader, such as newspaper articles, brief news information, 
announcements and so on. In other words, texts of mass media communication. In 

---

contrast to it, the readers of scientific texts are certain categories of people – 
specialists in various fields of science. As for fiction, it might contain texts designed 
for an “intelligent reader”, who possesses enough background knowledge. Thus, the 
novel by J. Fowles “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” requires the reader’s cultural 
competence and a certain educational level since it contains lots of quotations, 
allusions, references, philosophical meditations.
It should be noted that the factor of the addresser/ addressee in literary 
discourse, unlike other types of discourse, is characterized by some peculiar features 
conditioned by the fact that there are two types of the addresser: “addresser – writer”, 
and “addresser – personage”, and the two types of the addressee: “addressee –
reader” and “addressee –personage”. All this is indicative of a complex system of 
implicit relationships between the author and the reader, and a multifold 
communicative structure of literary discourse.