PRAGMATIC PECULIARITIES OF ADJECTIVESIN THE FUNCTION OF THE PREDICATIVE

Анотація

The aim of the article is to study pragmatic peculiarities of the predicative adjectives within the structure
Vcop+ Adj. The topicality of the study is stipulated by the general trend in modern linguistics to explore the
functional aspect of language. The analyzed extracts taken from the works of contemporary authors helped
to single out the speech acts characteristic of the structure under investigation: they belong to the speech acts
of the psychological support, namely: consolation, cheering, apology, gratitude, reproach, complimenting.
Such acts typologically make up the expressive class of speech acts and are aimed at changing the addressee’s
psychological state. Along with J. Searle’s typology that characterizes the illocutionary aim of such acts as
that of expressing certain feelings, some other classifi cations have been taken into account. For example, a)
the possibility of their belonging to direct or indirect speech acts according to the explicit or implicit ways of
expression; their simple or complex structure according to the type of the sentence; their primary (universal)
or secondary character according to the type of communicative situation.
The position of the speech act in the discourse has been also taken into account. From this point of
view we can speak about initial and reactive speech acts. Initial speech acts open communication, they are
closely connected with the next part of the discourse and stimulate its continuation or development (e.g.:
greeting, invitation, apology). Reactive speech acts function as the reaction of the addressee caused by the
verbal actions of the addresser (gratitude).
Keywords: predicative adjective, speech act, expressive, addresser, addressee, apology, gratitude,
compliment.