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COMMUNICATIVE ASPECT OF DISAGREEMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

Taraniuk Oksana

Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University

Scientific Supervisor: PhD, Kaminska M.,

COMMUNICATIVE ASPECT OF DISAGREEMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

The speech act of disagreement has a crucial role in everyday interactions due to the fact that it is almost impossible that all people, even those who live in the same community, have the exact similar opinion and perception on certain issues in various settings. Thus, disagreement is the two-way process of communication whereby meaning is sent and received to gain shared understanding.

The term disagreement as a speech act is used to indicate speaker’s opinion or belief contrary to the view expressed by the previous speaker [5, p.233].

Speech act of disagreement is an act, which combines all types of communicant’s negative reaction: refutation, objection, judgment, disapproval, and dissatisfaction. It is an informative, imperative or evaluative statement and has a certain realization through various means of expression [3, p.50].

One of the scholars studying disagreement – A. Pomeranz – considers it mostly as dispreferred speech act, and she further differentiates “strong” from “weak” disagreement on sequential grounds. Therefore, strong disagreements consist only of disagreement components (I don’t agree; of course not) whilst weak disagreements include other components like hesitation markers and fillers, token agreement components (yeah… but; it might be) [1, p.191]. Her classification is similar to the one put forward by C. Kakava, who also distinguishes between three linguistic realizations of disagreement:

  • strong forms,
  • strong yet mitigated,
  • and mitigated forms of

All in all, in general disagreement expressions are classified according to two main categories: strong and mitigated disagreement following K. Kreutel, A. Pomerantz and C. Kakava classifications [2].

There are strategies that indicate strong disagreement:

  1. Use of bare negative forms (No; No way)
  2. Use of the performative (I disagree)
  3. Use of the performative negation (I can’t agree)
  4. Blunt statement of the opposite (Purple is sorry)
  5. Use of insults and negative judgments (That’s a crazy idea)
  6. Use of rhetorical questions (You are kidding right?)
  7. Sarcasm (trying hard)

There are strategies that indicate mitigated disagreement:

  1. Token agreement (yeah… but)
  2. Use of hedges (it seems; it might be)
  3. Requests for clarification (could you explain it more clearly?)
  4. Expressions of regret (I am sorry, but I don’t agree with you…)
  5. Use of prefacing positive remarks towards the addressee (that’s a very good analysis)
  6. Suggestions (How about doing it in a slightly different way?)
  7. Giving explanations (I don’t really agree, because…) [1;191]

So, disagreement is a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions. It can be strong and mitigated. The choice of expressing disagreement in the process of conversation depends on the situation, intention and mood of the interlocutor.

References

  1. Gesuato, S. Bianchi, F. Teaching, Learning and Investigating Pragmatics: Principles, Methods and Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, p. URL: https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/Teaching_Learning_and_Investig ating_Prag.html?id=tI_WCgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
  1. Kreutel, K. “‘I’m not agree with you.’ ESL learners’ expressions of ” Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal, 11(3), 2007, p. 1-35. URL: http://tesl-ej.org/ej43/a1.html
  2. Nusratullaeva, Shokhista Teacher of English Faculty II (2019) “Expressing Speech Act Of Disagreement At Different Language Levels,” Philology Matters, 3(48), 2019, p.50-57. URL: https://uzjournals.edu.uz/philolm/vol2019/iss3/48/
  3. Pomerantz, A. Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In Atkinson, J. Maxwell and John Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in Conversation analysis, 1984 p.57-103. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. URL: https://www.apomerantz.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/04/agreeingdisag23d.pdf
  4. Seyyed M., Hamid R., A Comparative Study of the Use of Disagreement Strategies Among Iranian EFL Learners and Native Speakers of English. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 3(6), 2006, p.230- 251 URL: http://www.jallr.com/index.php/JALLR/article/view/414