THE ROLE OF SUPPLEMENTARY COMMUNICATIVE UNITS IN BOOSTING AND HEDGING OF SPOKEN DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article studies supplementary communicative units functioning as discourse markers with the boosting and hedging meanings. The research is based on Russian and English spoken academic discourse.The purpose of the research is to reveal the language and monologue/dialogue dependence of quantitative and qualitative parameters in usage of boosters and hedges.Methods of continuous sampling, discourse analysis, comparative and quantitative analysis were applied.Results. The article proves that boosting and hedging signals are more frequent in spoken than in the written language. The highest frequency of occurrence of these units is registered in spontaneous dialogue, the lowest – in monologue. The frequency of occurrence of boosters and hedges also depend on the language: in Russian data it is boosters that prevail, in English – hedges. The obtained results confirm the opinion about English discourse as of softened, mitigated and non-imperative in comparison with Russian discourse. The lexical means that realize the boosting/hedging category are universal in monologue and dialogue, as well as in Russian and English data.Practical implications. The knowledge and the skills of correct, situationally adequate and appropriate usage of boosters and hedges make up an important part of communicative competence which should be taught not only to foreign language learners but to native speakers as well.

Keywords

• academic discourse
• supplementary communicative units
• discourse markers
• boosting
• hedging
• spoken discourse