The universal pragmatic principle of cooperation in the light of empathic communication

Abstract

The article focuses on the realization of the universal pragmatic Principle of Cooperation in modern English discourse. This subject is relevant in the context of the growing interest in the pragmatic aspects of empathic communication. The Gricean paradigm of Cooperation was analyzed through the exploitation mechanism on the material from modern English literary and political discourses. The research has proved that to provide empathic communication the Cooperation maxims ideally work as follows: to achieve a coordinated interaction an interlocutor should try to make his/her conversational contribution truthful (the maxim of QUALITY), as informative as it is required (the maxim of QUANTITY), relevant (the maxim of RELATION), brief and orderly (the maxim of MANNER). The relation of reciprocal determination is established among the postulates of the Cooperative maxims with the further dominance of several of them in determining the direction of a communicative act to its goal (mutual understanding and empathy through the least cost spent). To achieve empathic communication the speaker can: 1) adhere to a certain postulate; 2) avoid it in some way; 3) consciously violate a postulate, exploiting its absence according to the chosen tactics of the discursive act conduct, which generates speech implicatures.

Статья посвящена реализации универсального прагматического «принципа кооперации» в современном английском дискурсе. Эта тема актуальна в контексте растущего интереса к прагматическим аспектам эмпатического общения. Проанализировано использование парадигмы кооперации Грайса на материале литературного и политического дискурсов.

Стаття присвячена реалізації універсального прагматичного «принципу кооперації» в сучасному англомовному дискурсі. Ця тема актуальна в контексті підвищеної зацікавленості прагматичними аспектами емпатійного спілкування. Проаналізовано використання парадигми кооперації Грайса на матеріалі літературного та політичного дискурсів.