PRAGMASEMIOTICS: INTRODUCTION OF THE TERM AND PERSPECTIVES OF ITS STUDY

Abstract

Introduction. Pragmatic phenomena exploration from semiotic viewpoint is among unresolved problem of the present-day linguistics. Scientific indifference to this matter can be explained by traditional concept of linguistic sign as a unit that relate to a designated object or situation in a conventional way and forms obligatory structural links with other signs.
The paper introduces a new pragma-semiotic facet of pragmatic phenomena and identifies the taxonomy of “pragma-sign” as specific units connoting some regular associations with particular types of situations. The purpose of the study consists in identification the pragmasigns
and specifics of their motivation by the structural characteristics of the situations they connote. The following methods have been applied to analyze the conversational discourse data: pragma-semiotic analysis added by the explanatory tools of Gricean pragmatics, speech act theory and politeness theory. The major results of the research are as follows: pragmatic phenomena can be considered as specific signs that contain an additional information about some connotative features of situations. Some “structural” similarity with the connoted information about a situation is characteristic for the iconic pragma-signs; the stable associations of particular pragmatics with the connoted information related to certain types of situations support the idea of indexical pragma-signs. Similar to nominative signs, pragma-signs can integrate the characteristics of various signs – with the predominance of features and functions of one of the types. Among the connoted signified, indexed by pragma-signs, there may be the speaker’s conventional strategy, a specific feature of the speaker-listener relationship or invariant connotative property of the signified situation (“delicacy”, etc.). Pragma-signs can be used interchangeably while
signifying the same situation. These observations lead us to the conclusion about the reality of pragma-signs as the linguistic phenomena and the object of pragma-semiotic study.