Linguistic and cultural characteristics of the speech genre “wish”

Abstract

The paper deals with the speech genre “wish” treated as emotional and volitive communicative event, its meaning is an expressed wish of implementation of something good or bad for somebody. Grammatically, this genre is a kind of mood named “optative”. It is a speech act describing a certain situation which implies an emotional reaction of a person. The reaction of an addressee for a good wish is usually expressed in words or gestures of gratitude. In case of a bad wish expressed directly it merges with a quarrel and a reverse bad wish. Common objects of good wishes are good health, happiness, prosperity, success and good luck. Good wishes may be combined with proactive criticism, accusation, reproach, or request. This speech act may be either neutral or discourse specific (used by soldiers, sailors, students, etc.), it is specifically used when addressed to elder people or applied to certain events, e.g. weddings. Bad wishes were initially pronounced as magic meant to bring harm to someone, and nowadays they are used as a kind of invectives or jokes. Bad wishes are usually combined with insult.

Keywords

• speech genre
• good wish
• bad wish
• discourse
• concept