COMMUNICATIVE AND PRAGMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF GERMAN-LANGUAGE WEBINARS ON CLIMATE ISSUES

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of German-language webinars on climate issues, namely, to the identification, analysis and description of their communicative and pragmatic features. The paper examines the existing definitions of the concept of webinar, considers the differences between webinars and other forms of communication, and describes the peculiarities of its course and field of application. For the purpose of illustration, two webinars from different organisations on similar topics are analysed. We establish that the key characteristics of a webinar are virtuality, synchronicity with the possibility of asynchronous viewing, interactivity, planned nature, and the presence of roles (moderator, speakers, listeners), describes the three-stage structure of a webinar (introductory part, presentation stage, discussion and question and answer stage), and identifies the language and speech features of each stage. The introductory part of the webinar is typically a prepared oral monologue with template expressions, which we define as a monologue-narrative. At the stage of presentations, we observe a prepared oral monologue-reflection with an introduction, an argumentative structure of the main part «thesis – arguments – inference» and conclusions. The analysis of the speech forms and tone of voice of the speakers and moderators showed that the speakers choose the means that allow them to achieve their communicative intention: not only to provide information, but also, above all, to draw the attention of the audience to the problem, to arouse their interest and trust in the actions of those involved in the problem of preserving the natural climate conditions in Europe and the world. The article is devoted to the study of German-language webinars on climate change. Given this, the main functions of a webinar on climate change are identified: communicative, pragmatic, informative, and expressive, which enter into a subordinate relationship. The communicative and pragmatic functions are manifested in the webinar material in a hybrid form and subordinate its informative and expressive functions through the communicative purpose and intention of the addressees.
A webinar on climate change is a relevant and important form of communication, and further research on this topic is promising for Germanic studies and translation studies.