LEXICAL AND PRAGMATIC MEANS OF IMPLEMENTING THE ATTENTION STRATEGY IN GERMAN ENTERTAINMENT DISCOURSE

Abstract

Background. For many decades, the attention of researchers has been riveted to the phenomenon of discourse. Its subjects, key functions and concepts were considered. The grounds for discourse typology were identified. The relevance of the study is explained by the fact that the communicative environment of German entertainment discourse is little researched, and the need for a more detailed analyzing of its constitutive features and strategies. Purpose of this study is to describe lexico-semantic and syntactic means, verbs of various types, used to implement the attention strategy in German entertainment discourse. Materials and methods. The material of this study was the “star” interviews texts posted on the websites of the German publications “Der Spiegel” and “Die Zeit”. The methods of continuous sampling and generalization, as well as the method of semantic analysis, were used in the work. Results. The entertainment attraction, their ability to diversify people’s lives, contributed to the modification, modernization and continuity of many traditions and customs. The paper deals with the types and genres of entertaining discourse, its subjects, and the originality of communicants’ conversation. It is emphasized that one of the most frequent strategies used by participants in the entertainment discourse is the attention strategy. This strategy is implemented through a set of specific constructions (“ich bin / war”; “ich habe / ich habe nicht”; “mein, meine” plus a character trait), verbs of various types (“mögen”, “lieben”; “können”), lexico-semantic and syntactic techniques. Practical implications. The results of the study can be used in lectures on stylistics, pragmatics, imagology.

Keywords

• discourse
• entertaining discourse
• “star” interview
• attention strategy
• lexico-semantic devices
• syntactic devices