EXPLICATION OF PRETENDED UNDERSTANDING AND PRETENDED MISUNDERSTANDING OF A SPEAKER IN ENGLISH PORTRAYED ARTISTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the cognitive-discursive analysis of the communicative situations of misunderstanding arising between the speaker and the listener in English portrayed artistic discourse. The investigation has been helpful to state that in modern English novels the pretended misunderstanding is determined by the character’s unwillingness to answer the question or somehow respond to the utterance, addressed to him or to her. In the case of pretended understanding, it has been experimentally found out that the reasons for pretended misunderstanding on the part of the interlocutor are his or her embarrassment or shame, a willingness to «save the face». In real communication, the listener is usually unaware of the pretended misunderstanding, but in the artistic portrayed discourse, it is highlighted by the character’s inner speech or by the author’s description of his or her non-verbal behavior.