FLUCTUATIONS OF SPEECH ETIQUETTE UNITS AS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF ITS SYNERGETIC NATURE

Abstract

The article explores synergetic nature of speech etiquette as a complex, open, dynamic and nonlinear system through the analysis of speech behavior of a postcolonial fiction character characterized by a multicultural identity at the crossroads of oriental and occidental worlds. The analysis of the speech parties of the postcolonial character from the point of view of the functional and synergistic approach has revealed that the system of speech etiquette undergoes external and internal fluctuations of the speech etiquette units, caused by the hybrid personality of the character, the consciousness of the communicants and the communicative situation that enables the selection of appropriate etiquette tools for the implementation of communicative intentions. The results of the contextual interpretation analysis in its synergetic dimension have shown that such fluctuations are actualized in performing the function of targeting the addressee, with the purpose of making an impact or establishing a vertical status distance. They are predominantly conditioned by the situational context and the variability of the communication tonality and may involve lexical modification of the basic forms through phonetic deviations, syntactic changes through conversion and manifestation in free syntactic phrases. Fluctuations of speech etiquette units ranging from traditional (etiquette cliché) to deviant means of etiquette communication (culturally marked, hybrid and situationally contextual units) are stipulated by the adjustment of the etiquette system to new conditions of development with regard to major synergetic factors, i.e. external environment, geographical migration and language contacts in the era of multiculturalism.