The thesis considers the means of optimization of directive speech acts, which a speaker uses to achieve the desired perlocutionary effect; it also identifies functional features of interaction between pragmatic and linguistic organization of a directive speech act and the type of perlocutionary response to it.
The dissertation discusses the main characteristics of the directive speech act, felicity conditions, functioning features of compound directive speech acts, means of their expression at the locutionary and illocutionary levels, characteristics of the propositional content and classification.
Three approaches to understanding the concept of perlocution have been identified. The first one is from a speaker's point of view, when perlocution is considered as a part of speech act. The second one is from the position of the addressee, as a perlocutionary effect, which is a reaction to a certain speech act. The third approach is from the standpoint of both participants in the interaction. The third approach is the most productive, since it allows to study not individual speech acts, but discursive fragments, involving the strategic aspect of speech interaction. Thus, perlocution is a complex phenomenon that combines both the perlocutionary act and the perlocutionary effect. Perlocution, as part of a directive speech act, is the situation that the speaker intends to achieve after his utterance. The perlocutionary effect reflects a responsive speech act, which can be both successful, planned (corresponding to the perlocutionary purpose of the addresser's speech act), or unsuccessful, unexpected.
Directive speech acts belong to those that threaten the person’s face because they force the addressee to a certain course of action. For the sake of effective communication and achieving the desired perlocutionary effect, the speaker uses special devices in discursive strategies that mitigate the negative impact or, conversely, strengthen the imperativity. The global strategy of optimization of the perlocutionary effect is divided into the strategies of mitigation and intensification. Mitigation strategies are constituted from local strategies of positive and negative politeness. Intensification strategies consist of argumentative and manipulative strategies.
The German-language dialogic discourse identifies several levels of implementation of optimization strategies, which were distributed according to the felicity conditions.
The existence of a correlation between a certain type of language personality and the type of speech strategies chosen by it was confirmed. Among the main parameters influencing the choice of the speech variant of optimization of directives are age, social status of communicators, the level of personal relations between them, the ability of the addressee to perform the act, location of communicators, communication channel, presence of outsiders.
The relationship between the directive speech act and its perlocutionary effect has been investigated. Factual analysis testified to the possibility of distinguishing separate variants of the addressee's verbal response to directives, which exist in the form of the following sequences: "directive – consent" (voluntary, forced, with certain conditions), "directive – refusal" (categorical, reasonable, emotionally colored, indirect, mitigated), "directive – deferred action". The sequence "directive – deferred action" includes such options as "directive – avoidance of response" (unmotivated, motivated with an appeal to something); "directive – misunderstanding" (valid as a form of evasion of the answer, re-request); "directive – evasion of execution" (rhetorical question, objection); proposal for a new or counter-scheme of action; responsive inducement (redirection, permission, inducement proper); "directive – hesitation", "directive – counter-inducement", "directive – proposal for a new action".
