Unrestricted remark as a genre of parliamentary speech (based on Russian parliamentary discourse of the early XX century)

Abstract

The article deals with the remark as a special genre of Russian parliamentary speech. The author analyses various approaches to parliamentary genres. Parliamentary discourse is viewed as institutional, having a dynamic genre structure. The research studies the institutional restrictions imposed on statements in the form of a remark. There is a conclusion about the role of procedural regulation in the formation of a system of discourse genres and the possibility to distinguish unregulated and regulated remarks. The State Duma discussions of the early twentieth century are a basis of the research which focuses on unrestricted remarks from the hall and their genre status. Parliamentary remarks are classified according to the communicative aspect. The article presents the results of the analysis of more than 200 statements by members of the State Duma from the hall, recorded in official transcripts. Three types of remarks are singled out: an interrogative remark, a replying remark and an imperative remark. The conclusion is made about the provocative nature of the remark as a parliamentary genre. The functional features of two types of remarks are distinguished: a regulated remark is conventional and dialogic; an unregulated remark is aggressive and provocative. The main features of an unregulated remark are non-normativeness in terms of procedural regulations, super-briefness (one phrase), reactivity, expressiveness, evaluativeness and provocativeness.

Keywords

• remark
• genre
• parliamentary speech
• parliamentary discourse
• institutional discourse
• provocativeness
• parliamentary regulations
• conventionality