Verbal and Non-verbal Means of Actualization of an Addressee’s Indirect Responsive Reaction in the English Everyday Discourse

Abstract

The article deals with the study of verbal and non-verbal means of actualization of an addressee’s indirect responsive reaction in the English every day discourse. The paper finds out that the violation of the “question – direct answer” correlation that is the absence of the reactive utterance with a direct answer to a quesіtive speech act, is actualized in the structure of the dialogical discourse by the interaction of verbal and non-verbal means of communication at the micro- and macrolevels. The microinteraction of verbal and non-verbal communicative components in the addressee’s responsive reaction while avoiding a direct answer is realized on the principle of coordination, subordination and identification. The interaction of verbal and non-verbal means of communication at the macrolevel demonstrates the ability of the addressee’s indirect non-verbal reaction to the addresser’s utterance-stimulus to fully replace the addressee’s direct verbal answer. The paper investigates the addressee’s communicative and pragmatic intentions while providing an indirect answer in the everyday discourse. The article reflects the importance of a language personality’s discursive competence while choosing a verbal or non-verbal design of a responsive reaction according to a communicative intention within a certain communicative situation. The article demonstrates the importance of proper non-verbal means of communication interpretation which promotes the efficiency of the communication process and solves the problem of linguistic economy.