Cognitive and pragmatic approach to the study of the language game phenomenon: theoretical aspect

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Cognitive and pragmatic approach to the study of the language game phenomenon: theoretical aspect

Tymchuk Olena - Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of English Language Practice, Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University (Ukraine, Drohobych)

Summary

The article studies the functions of the language game, which are determined by the author's intention and expressed in a particular textual organization of a discourse as a means of implication of pragmatic effect. It analyzes the difference in the understanding of the term «the language game» in modern linguistics, as well as some debatable approaches to differentiating the concepts of «the language game» and «the situational game». It proves that the language game phenomenon appears as a deviation from the normative use of a certain language unit, a deviation from language stereotypes, which connects the language game with a deviation from rules of pragmatic use of language resources.

Keywords: the language game; pragmatic effect; author's intention; cognitive paradigm; coding; language paradox.

Анотація

Когнітивно-прагматичний підхід до вивчення явища мовної гри: теоретичний аспект

Тимчук Олена - кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри практики англійської мови, Дрогобицький державний педагогічний університет імені Івана Франка (Україна, Дрогобич)

На сучасному етапі дослідження мовної гри особлива увага приділяється вивченню когнітивних механізмів її продукування і сприйняття носіями мови. Це уможливлює більш повний аналіз системи мови, її структурно-семантичних особливостей, пізнавально-прагматичного потенціалу. Мета статті - дослідити сутність явища мовної гри у когнітивно-прагматичному аспекті.

У ній розглянуто функції мовної гри, визначені інтенцією автора й оприявлені в особливій текстовій організації дискурсу як засобу імплікації прагматичного ефекту. Прагматична націленість мовної гри на реципієнта безпосередньо пов 'язана з вираженням авторської ідеї. Проаналізовано розбіжності щодо розуміння самого терміна «мовна гра» в сучасному мовознавстві, а також деякі дискусійні підходи щодо розмежування понять «мовна гра» і «ситуативна гра».

Досліджено, що парадоксальний ефект явища мовної гри полягає в тому, що її аномальність і асистемність досягаються системними мовними засобами, імплікованими у формі порушення мовного коду в результаті залучення мовної гри у процес комунікації. Виявлено, що у сучасному дискурсі мовна гра існує як форма впливу на реципієнта з метою передачі авторської оцінки, що може виявлятися як імпліцитно, так і експліцитно.

Доведено, що явище мовної гри у функціональній перспективі постає як порушення нормативного використання певної мовної одиниці, порушення мовленнєвих стереотипів, що пов'язує мовну гру з відхиленнями від правил семантичного та прагматичного використання мовних ресурсів.

Підтверджено, отже, що процес мовної гри постає як діалектична взаємодія мовного стандарту й усіх відхилень від нього.

Перспективи подальших досліджень пов'язані з поглибленим розглядом теорії про мовну гру як семантико-стилістичне явище, а також із дослідженням особливостей функціонування цього явища на різних мовних рівнях. cognitive pragmatic language game

Ключові слова: мовна гра; прагматичний ефект; авторська інтенція; кодування; когнітивна парадигма; мовний парадокс.

Formulation of the problem

The language game as a conscious deliberate non-standard use of a certain language unit is a manifestation of a pragmatic attitude towards attracting attention in order to achieve the effect of influencing the intellectual and emotional sphere of an addressee. Language allows considerable freedom to express the creative potential of the language individual. Language activity, which is an integral aspect of a language personality, has the ability to express a deliberate violation of a language rule (norm, canon) in order to attract attention to the experiment with a language sign. As a result, on the basis of a normative language code, a speaker can intentionally provoke a conflict of existing standards in the language of normative use of a language unit with its non-standard use. The communicative behaviour of a language personality reflects the semantic, linguistic, and motivational levels of its language competence. Language behaviour reveals language potency, which makes it possible to move from knowing the language to using it. The dynamics of speech processes in the modern communicative space largely reflect the linguistic and cognitive tendencies of language development under the influence of both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. In modern linguistic studies, there is an increase in cognitive tendencies, the convergence of cognitive, social and structural paradigms, which is caused by the need for comprehensive study of the language material. The study of the language game in the cognitive-communicative aspect is relevant because it investigates this phenomenon in a new perspective, namely, it identifies associative connections, patterns, peculiarities of the language organization of the phenomenon of the language game and patterns of its cognitive organization in the language. The actuality of the research takes into consideration the fact that existence of numerous definitions and classifications of the language game confirms that this is a complex, multifunctional phenomenon, not yet having unambiguous interpretation in linguistics thus its study lies in the sphere of special interest of linguists.

The aim of the research is to investigate the phenomenon of the language game in the cognitive-communicative aspect. The use of this approach in reference to the study of the language game indicates the presence in the language consciousness creative speech models, scenarios, shows the ways of language and speech development. The language game involves performing certain linguistic creative activities with a linguistic sign by a linguist. This is a kind of creative linguistic process, which is a deliberate departure from the normative rules in order to attract an addressee's attention to the paradox created by linguistic means.

Analysis of the investigation

Despite great attention paid to the study of the creative function of language, the phenomenon of the language game as a type of heuristic activity hasn't so far received clear understanding in terms of linguistic and extralinguistic factors, means and techniques. Linguistic works on the language game highlight different aspects of this phenomenon. Jacobson, for instance, distinguishes such functions of the language game as a constituent of a communicative act: expressive (emotive), conative (incentive), reference, fatal (contact setting), metalinguistic and poetic (Jacobson, 1962, p. 256). The language game as a process correlates with metalinguistic function due to the fact that it involves the creation of new language forms by manipulating with language units of different levels and unusual use of the capabilities and features of the language system. Expressive and contact setting functions are located in the field of pragmatics and correlate with the sender of the message, whose goal is to create a new language form and attract attention of the audience; the addressee, whose goal is to determine the text value inherent in the new form and restore the function of the original language units that have been processed; and communication process, the purpose of which is to realize a comic function of the language game. Poetic and referential functions are related to the structure of speech, and their correlation with the objects of reality (referents) designated in them is located in the sphere of semantics and syntactics. The newly created language form, which is the result of the process of mental play activity, is characterized by the presence of two or more meanings, the opposition of which underlies the creation of a comic effect.

Classifications presented in the foreign research, dedicated to the language game, are built on different principles. Similar cases of the language game are interpreted differently by the researchers depending on what aspect of the language game is put at the forefront. The most popular is the classification by linguistic phenomenon. It mostly identifies such types of the language game as homonymic, paronymic, polysemic, derivational, grammatical, etc. This identification can be found in the works of the foreign linguists, such as R.J. Alexander (1997), D. Cristal (Crystal, 1998), V.Z. Sunnikov (1999).

A number of works by foreign linguists present the classification according to the principle of expression in the text the elements of the language game. G. Milner (1972, pp. 18-19), G. Ritchie (2004, p. 116), investigating the phenomenon of the language game based on the phenomena of homonymy, paronymy, polysemy, etc., distinguish its paradigmatic and syntagmatic subclasses. The paradigmatic game involves a formal expression in the text only one transformed meaning, while the second remains implicit, implied; the syntagmatic game implies a formal expression of both transformed meanings at the same time. Often the binary opposition is not enough to describe all types of the language game and that leads to necessity of highlighting chiastic or mixed types of the language game (Milner, 1972, pp. 18-19).

Presentation of the main material of the research

The term «language game» was first introduced by the Austrian philosopher, logician and linguist Ludwig Wittgenstein in his work «Philosophical Studies» (Vitgenshtein, 1994). The scientist sticks to a broad interpretation of the concept, referring to the language game any activity related to the language.Wittgenstein developed a concept of communication through the language and evolution of the language as a product of language activity. The basis of the language, he believed, was language behaviour of speakers, their language practice in many different life situations, which he called «language game». Any act of speech presented in his concept as the language game, performed by speakers with the meanings of words, phrases, with meanings of idioms is being transformed, changed, acquires new meanings in a new life situation. In a new kind of activity language units, language models, speech forms are being replayed each time once again. As a result of this mixture of language and activity old language models, obsolete meanings of words and forms of speech are gone and they are replaced by the new ones. Every new saying is a realization of language units in a new situation, in a new «language game». Thus, in the language, the rules and patterns of use do not exist once and forever.

D. Cristal states that the sphere of the language game and the forms of its representation in the language is almost as limitless as all space the language occupies as a means of communication and «playing with words is a universal human activity... People delight in pulling words and reconstituting them in a novel guise, arranging them into clever patterns, finding hidden meanings inside them, and trying to use them according to specially invented rules in enormous diversity» (Crystal, 1998, p. 64).

Investigating the nature of the language game, Sannikov distinguishes intentional use of the tropic and figurative capability of the language, i.e. properly «games» with structural units and models of the language and situational jokes based on humorous tricks in different life situations. The author determines situational jokes as substantive jokes and states that they should not be confused with language jokes (Sannikov, 1999, pp. 108-114). Here we can find children's jokes, tongue twisters, fables, built on the absurdity and comic nature of situations and deliberate illogicality of a statement. According to Sannikov's arguments we can make a conclusion that the mechanism leading to creation of a language joke, is based on deep knowledge of the system of the language, norms of language units usage and a certain arsenal of creative interpretation of language units through intentional deviation from regulatory language inventory in order to create a comic effect. Situational jokes, in his opinion, have nothing to do with the language game. In this way Sannikov limited the language game as a phenomenon of the language to language jokes, excluding situational jokes from the sphere of linguistic research. Moreover the author says that language jokes can be used in written texts only. The only thing the researcher has overlooked is the fact that often substantive jokes and cases of playing with language units, i.e. the language game in the proper sense of the word, are so entangled that it is difficult to separate them. And everyday life of a speaker is full of both language jokes and situation jokes.

The paradoxical comic effect of the language game phenomenon is that its anomalousness and asymmetry are achieved by systemic language means, which, in the case of involvement of the language game, deviate from the language norm. In linguistic terms, the involvement of the comic into the sphere of linguistic research is associated with the development of a cognitive and pragmatic paradigm in linguistics, the transition to a comprehensive study of the language and a shift in the focus of linguistic research to the study of language functioning in communication. As a result of involving the language game into the communicative process there emerges a newly created unit. It is considered as a communicative unit, which should be seen as a language anomaly of a particular level of the language system, functioning in the associative creative field. The cognitive function of the game is to implement by the language game a cognitive strategy of cognitive style, experiment with the language sign, influence on the intellectual sphere of the addressee. The interpretation of the language game in this aspect is based on the language creative activity of the author and the receptive (interpretative) activity of the addressee, including the subject and communicative experience of the latter, which necessitates the semantic (cognitive) analysis of the entire text.

The language game has a clear cognitive and pragmatic strategy that defines the associative setting of the speaker, which is manifested in the construction of phonetic, word-forming, lexical-stylistic transformed units while using formal- semantic linguistic code.

Therefore, the language game is aimed at modeling the language phenomenon, creating a new language unit. The identification of the parameters of the language unit-prototype in the created unit and the creation of a pragmatic expressive effect is the result of updating associative links, involvement of language competence of the language personality. There arises the creative attitude of the individual to the use of language means, such as the ratio of awareness of the language standard and the setting for deviation from it in the language behaviour of the individual during the implementation of the pragmatic installation for the language game. Attracting a deliberate departure from the language standard, in particular the use of the language game, involves resorting to the study of the sphere of norms and anomalousness in the language, since many language innovations have emerged as contradictory to the system that gave birth to them. The interpretation of the phenomenon of the language game only as a language irregularity, an anomaly that does not affect the language system as a whole, demonstrates an underestimation of the importance of the above mentioned phenomenon in the language activity of communicators in terms of its cognitive nature.

Linguistic research has repeatedly emphasized the importance of interpreting non-standard use of language material not as errors but as specific operations with knowledge in order to deliberately complicate the communication process. The language game is one of the manifestations of the interference of a language personality into the processes of conventional language usage. It should be emphasized that the language game is characterized by a deliberate setting for deviation from the rules when creating new language units, which determines its emotional and intellectual impact.

Nowadays the study of the language game within a cognitive and pragmatic approach is considered to be the most relevant. Therefore, it is suggested to consider creating and use of a new language unit which is aimed at possessing playful effect, by the subject of the language game as an act that involves the exercise of a pragmatic intention to influence the addressee. An attempt is made to go beyond the traditional stylistic analysis of the language game into the broader, more complex analysis, encompassing all language levels - from phonetic to textual - and to consider the effect of this phenomenon on the emotional and intellectual sphere of the addressee.

Manipulation with the figurative resources of the language, deliberate violation of language norms for the purpose of influence is the prerogative of esthetically organized speech. The language game by nature is just playing with units and models of the language in order to attract the listener's attention or to influence the listener. The language game presented in this way can manifest itself everywhere: in oral speech, i.e. may be an attribute of everyday speech practice of speakers and in written language, where it can get from oral speech. It shouldn't be forgotten that the language game appeared long before written forms of speech, like any game activity in general. The evidence of this fact can be traced in childish language, where children who can't yet write, play with language units in spoken language. Some successful products of the language game can find themselves in the vocabulary, become the common property of speakers and for some time linger in the language. The language game may not be a relevant attribute of any style or genre: it is equally inherent in spoken styles of speech, including jargon and argot, youth slang, Internet communication, the language of mass media and fiction. It may have a comic effect and it may not. It may be used once randomly, but may acquire the character of regularly used game speech codes, formed as a result of prolonged use in speech practice of people.

Each language personality possesses certain communicative, social and psychological roles, the totality of which creates different variants of language behaviour, embodied in infinite variety of utterances and texts. Depending on the communicative portrait of the addressee a strategy of language behaviour of the speaker is built and thus communicative effect of the text is realized. This takes into account the organization of language personalities in the unity of their semantic, linguistic, cognitive and pragmatic levels. In the same context, the problem of language and conceptual picture of the world acquires particular relevance. The problem of language personality is associated with difference in understanding.

Different perception of the same text by individuals is based on different perception of the external reality by each language personality or a group and it leads to individual attitude towards information, this text contains. In this regard, nonstandard understanding depending on the addressees' affiliation with one or another social group, their knowledge, experience, attitudes, motivation, interests is taken into consideration. The language game is an important technique for increasing a pragmatic potential of any text (oral or written). It is also a pragmatic intensifier, built on the conscious destruction of usual, traditional development of events. As it has already been mentioned the language game is a deviation from the norm, contrast. It is aimed at mobilization of attention, past experience, interests. It is the interest that drives the addressee for active mental work aimed at resolving language riddles.

Conclusion and prospects of further research

Perception of the language by a person ontologically contains a clash between conventional and potential in language activity, the dichotomy «system - norm», in other words, awareness of the potential of systematical realizations of the language is carried out with the gradual assimilation of normative canons. It should be noted that the discrepancy between the system and the norm is obviously a major contradiction, complicating the further coding process. Thus, the possibilities (creative potential) of the system appear in the focus of the language consciousness of a person, and what is fixed by the norm is on the periphery. Due to these capabilities, the speaker sometimes prefers to create non-standard language innovation units rather than reproduce regulatory ones. Thus, the processes described above determine the relation of the language game with both the cognitive and pragmatic component of the language activity of an individual. The prospects for further research are seen in deepening the development of the theory of the nature of the language game as a semantic-stylistic phenomenon, as well as in the study of the functioning of this phenomenon at different language levels.

Література

Витгенштейн, Л. (1994). Философские исследования. Философские работы, 2, 77-319.

Санников, В.З. (1999). Русский язык в зеркале языковой игры. Москва: Языки русской культуры.

Alexander, R.J. (1997). Aspects of Verbal Humour in English. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Crystal, D. (1998). Language Play. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Jacobson, R. (1962). Linguistics and Poetics. Структурно-типологические исследования (с. 264-266). Москва: Изд-во Академии наук СССР.

Milner, G.B. (1972). Homo Ridens: Towards a Semiotic Theory of Humor and Laughter. Semiotica, 5 (1), 1-30.

Ritchie, G. (2004). The Linguistic Analysis of Jokes. London: Routledge.

References

Vitgenshtein, L. (1994). Filosofskie issledovaniia [Philosophical research]. Filosofskie raboty - Philosophical works, 2, 77-319 [in Russian].

Sannikov, V.Z. (1999). Russkii iazyk v zerkale iazykovoi igry [The Russian language in the mirror of the language game]. Moskva: Iazyki russkoi kultury [in Russian].

Alexander, R.J. (1997). Aspects of Verbal Humour in English. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Crystal, D. (1998). Language Play. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Jacobson, R. (1962). Linguistics and Poetics. Strukturno-tipologicheskie issledovaniia - Structural and typological studies (pp. 264-266). Moskva: Izdatelstvo Akademii nauk SSSR.

Milner, G.B. (1972). Homo Ridens: Towards a Semiotic Theory of Humor and Laughter. Semiotica, 5 (1), 1-30.

Ritchie, G. (2004). The Linguistic Analysis of Jokes. London: Routledge.

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