Adriana A. Modern English-speaking Family Discourse

The present dissertation analyses modern English-speaking family discourse in the light of modern theories of discourse as social interaction and process. The first chapter considers major social, economic, gender and ideological theories of family change. The study singles out eight family types in the modern Western society: 1. nuclear (Western-European, traditional, bourgeois) family; 2. neo-traditional family; 3. symmetrical family; 4. blended (reconstituted, combined, remarried) family; 5. weekend family; 6. consensual unions (cohabitation); 7. one household family; 8. gay/lesbian unions (same-sex marriage/partnership, single-sex unions). There is a direct interconnection between socio-cultural changes and the verbal behaviour in a family unit. The family communication has become an entirely new discourse formation. Interpersonal communication between family members is determined by a certain sex-, age- and family role-dependent addresser-addressee pattern, typical and new conflict communicative situations, the need to meet communicative challenges of the family members, and is characterised by the use of a vast number of communicative tactics. The second chapter retraces the traditional and new stereotypes in terms of family roles. It is suggested that in English-speaking countries the role allocation within a union is impeded by the double act of traditional and new role stereotypes which affect modern state of the family interpersonal communication. The last chapter deals with interpersonal communication within two major addresser-addressee patterns WIFE-HUSBAND, PARENTS-CHILD.