DOI 10.51955/2312-1327_2021_4_48

Tatiana I. Semenova

Daria A. Skulimovskaya

Abstract. The subject matter of the paper is the speech act of warning and its communicative function and pragmatic potential in English political discourse. The theoretical background of the research is a set of principles and assumptions of cognitive pragmatics to the study of the semantic and pragmatic properties of the speech act. Of central concern in the study is the issue of illocutionary potential of the speech act of warning.  The study reveals syncretic nature of the speech act of warning that has both an assertive and a directive use. The paper brings into focus the issue of the complex hybrid nature of the speech act of warning.  The study discusses focus shift mechanism as a cognitive operation involved in the illocutionary potential of the speech act of warning .The paper considers pragmatic potential of the speech act of warning in maintaining power relations in political discourse. The results obtained may be helpful for further study of illocutionary semantics of speech acts.

Key words: speech act of warning, illocutionary semantics, assertive illocutionary point, directive illocutionary point, hybrid speech act, syncretic speech act, focus shift.

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