Article

Name: The flexible functioning of the speech genre (based on the speech genre of the «personal diary»)

Authors: T. G. Rabenko

Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper develops the idea of an extrapolation of the main statements of the theory of variability to the area of genristics. Taking into account the N. S. Trubetskoy’s thesis about the existence of the variant-invariant relations in the language system and opposition of primary/ secondary speech genres marked by M. M. Bakhtin, the primary and correlated secondary speech genres are considered as the genre variants of a certain invariant. An invariant is considered as an abstract unit of language, a set of genre-relevant features integral to the speech modifications of this unit, that is, inherent in each of its modifications, called variants of the speech genre. The distinction between variants and variations of the speech genre is determined by the variation of its sub core (variants) and peripheral (variations) characteristics. Variants of the speech genre include regularly reproduced modifications of the same speech genre, preserving the identity of the illocutionary-intentional and thematic content, the formal composition structure and differing in a number of communicative-pragmatic (sub core) properties: the sphere of functioning, as a consequence, the nature of the interaction between author and addressee, the course of communication (spatial and temporal) and, possibly, the substrate (handwritten and virtual personal diaries). While maintaining the invariant properties of the genre, the variations of the speech genre reveal the variation of peripheral features, for example, associated with the content of the personal diary. The phenomenon of genre variability is studied by defining a set of core and peripheral characteristics of the primary genres including the genres of course-writing, then by tracing the realization of these features of the genre in other communicative spheres (art and virtual). Given the pragmatic conditions of implementation there appear to exist the following features: a) the dominant or invariant (illocutionary-intentional content, autocommunication, «day-to-day» aspect of the records, mono-authorship) remaining unchanged during the implementation of the genre and providing the identification of the genre in different communicative spheres; b) sub core and/or peripheral having been subjected to modification ( the options and variations of the genre) or transformation (in the case of a new genre) in the implementation of the genre in a new communicative sphere.

Keywords: variability, variant, invariant, speech genre, the personal diary

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