POSITIVE EXPRESSIVE SPEECH ACTS COMPLIMENTING AND SELF - COMPLI MENTING IN THE NOVEL CIOCOII VECHI Ș I NOI

Abstract

The present paper aims at analysing some specific aspects regarding the functioning of compliment and self - compliment - speec h acts belonging to the category of positively perceived expressives - in a literary text, Nicolae Filimon‟s novel “ Ciocoii vechi şi noi ” 1 . The purpose of the paper is to highlight the role of these subtypes of speech acts in contouring a human typology cha racterized by a specific relational system. The following parameters are taken into account: the environment in which the speech acts are produced, the target addressees, the object of the speech acts (concrete or abstract, moral or physical features of th e addressee) and the value ( inherently positive or attributed by the speaker) of the elements that mark the illocutionary force as positive. In the novel under consideration, there is a dichotomy between the characters with high moral qualities and the par venus – a social type definitory for the Phanariot times. Author‟s intention is to emphasize the victory of good and healthy moral principles.

Keywords

• Expressive speech acts
• complimenting
• self - complimenting
• literary text
• illocutionary force