Tactics of Opposition to Authority in the English Children’s Authoritarian Discourse

Abstract

The article investigates the ways of opposition to the addresser’s authority in the English children’s authoritarian discourse. As a children’s trait of character, authoritarianness finds its reflection in their verbal and nonverbal behaviour. The situations where both participants in the dialogue are children are investigated in the article. The child-addressee resists the power exercised by the child-addresser. The addressee’s disagreement manifestation is characteristic of situations where a child is bossed around, his acts/wishes are controlled, alien interests are imposed upon him. The addressee’s reply is completely legal as the notion of ‘pure power’ does not exist, which brings about the binary opposition of ‘power – resistance’. The addressee’s intention is preventing the addresser from asserting himself as an authoritarian speaker and avoiding the necessity to submit to his will and wishes. The child-addressee’s resistance is exercised through a range of communicative tactics meant to protect own interests and values. In the article resistance is defined as a linguistic phenomenon arising from denying the effectiveness of the addresser’s authoritarian influence; the peculiarities of the addressee’s resistance tactics have been researched; typology of resistance based on its effectiveness and its explication in the process of communication has been outlined.