Vol 20, No 3 (47) (2025)
Articles
Guest editor’s foreword
Abstract
The thematic issue of the journal deals with a wide range of issues related to the manifestations of (im/anti)politeness in various genres functioning in both real and virtual environments. It is shown that nowadays research on politeness is not prescriptive or limited to the analysis of etiquette formulas– it is carried out from the perspective of discourse analysis, in conjunction with the social context, communicative situations, established ethical norms and value orientations. The place of genres on the politeness–impoliteness–antipoliteness scale is dictated by cultural norms and depends on the sphere of communication, its participants and their relationship. The consideration of the problems raised the issue is aimed at the development of systematic methodological approaches to the study of politeness in various genres, creation of algorithms for its analysis, and non-standard approaches to the study of speech genres.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):220-221
220-221
General Problems of the Speech Genres Theory
Tonal-pragmatic characteristics of politeness and impoliteness in different speech genres
Abstract
The paper deals with tonal and pragmatic characteristics of politeness and anti-politeness expressing benevolent or unfriendly, serious or non-serious attitude to the communicative partner in personal or status discourse. The paper is based on the assumption that there is a genre specificity of politeness expression. An important indicator of the ethno-cultural specificity of politeness is the priority of respectful attitude towards in-group and out-group members. Politeness is a graded communicative phenomenon. Such gradation makes it possible to construct a conventional scale of politeness. The opposite poles of this scale are accentuated politeness and demonstrative impoliteness, between which there are points of standard politeness and insignificant deviations from the norms of polite behavior. Some speech genres, particularly invitations, act as clichéd forms of polite behavior. Accentuated politeness is usually formal and can be an indicator of threat. Demonstrative impoliteness manifests itself in two main formats – rude and mocking behavior. In the postmodern era, tonal and pragmatic conceptualization of politeness can turn it into sarcastic and mocking behavior towards the addressee. Demonstrative jocular impoliteness can act as an indicator of in-group communication, usually in people of low social status.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):222-230
222-230
Phatic units of language and the theory of speech genres
Abstract
The article discusses approaches to the description of the phatic communication domain and the connection between the concept of phatics and the theory of speech genres. The proposed consideration of the concept of phatics is based on the fundamental difference between the approaches to phatics by B. Malinowski and by R. Jakobson. Reliance on the function of contact maintenance makes it possible to identify a separate group of linguistic means that formalize speech subgenres of microdialogue. These means are considered as the domain of phatics 1 (F1). They serve exclusively to maintain the process of communication and are “superimposed” on the informative component of the microdialogue. The means of F1 are subdivided into linguistic units and rhetorical devices. The area of phatics 2 (F2) includes small talk, i. e. discursive structures that are fundamentally different from the linguistic means of area F1. The article focuses on the typology of linguistic units of phatics 1. Alongside the already well-known and well-described units, such as vocatives and etiquette formulas, the group of F1 units also includes dialogic discursives (introductory words marking the speech act and increasing the impact on the interlocutor, such as: would you be so kind, don’t be silly, I’m telling you, etc.), tag questions (isn’t it?, okay?) and communicatives (short stereotyped responses: sure, no way, you bet, deal, not a chance, etc.). All these units have special discourse-pragmatic properties that are strictly connected with the speech subgenres they formalize. Due to their properties, F1 linguistic units can become the object of specialized lexicographic description.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):231-238
231-238
Written and oral genres in the Japanese language: Ways of interpreting information and politeness
Abstract
Texts in Japanese intended for written perception are constructed significantly differently from oral ones. The complex nature of Japanese writing (Chinese characters and two alphabets: hiragana and katakana, to which the Latin alphabet has now been added) leads to the fact that written and oral genres here have significant features, which are considered in the article. Written and oral texts differ not only in the communication channel, but also in many other parameters. The use of politeness forms (keigo) in different genres is shown: for example, a scientific report in printed or handwritten form does not require the obligatory use of these forms in relation to the reader or to the scientist being cited, but if this report is presented, then they are necessary. The differences between the linear perception of oral speech and the nonlinear perception of written text are discussed: written Japanese texts are constructed so that the reader, first of all, perceives them not letter by letter, but immediately identifies the most significant hieroglyphs. Mastering Japanese writing requires additional effort, but knowledge of hieroglyphs compensates for this. In oral texts, the problem of removing homonymy is acute. In written texts, additional means of expression are possible that are impossible in oral speech.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):239-243
239-243
Studies of individual genres
Transformation of the genre “public apology”
Abstract
The article is devoted to the characteristics of the genre of public apology in the semantic and pragmatic aspect in the Russian mass media space. The choice of the subject is due to the growing popularity and increasing frequency of apologies made through media and social networks. This trend can be explained by changes in the socio-cultural landscape and the transformation of societal value orientations. The aim of the article is to substantiate the assumption that public apology, as a variant that emerged through the modification of the invariant model functioning in interpersonal interactions, is transforming into a homonymous genre that has different genre-forming characteristics. In recent years, the development of the so-called “cancel culture” has resulted in public resonance, harsh criticism and condemnation of particular actions (including speech) of people or organizations. Public apologies are an effective way to mitigate those negative consequences and try to save or restore reputation. This leads to a serious change in some genre-forming features, in particular, the disappearance of sincerity, the emergence of compelled speech acts, and a change in the addressee factor. The addressee of the apology is now seen as having two facets: nominal and real. The public apology functions as a reactive genre, which makes it possible to observe the transformation of the two-step implementation model (offensive action – apology) to a three-step one: offensive action – reaction of the public/representatives of government structures – apology. All this supports the conclusion that the public apology ceases to be a variant of the apology genre and is instead evolving into an independent hybrid genre.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):244-253
244-253
The boundaries of (anti-)politeness in the speech genre of scientific review
Abstract
The article examines scholarly reviews in terms of communicative categories of politeness and antipoliteness, as well as the strategies associated with them. It offers a generalized description of the scholarly review as a speech genre, highlighting key parameters for analyzing (anti-)politeness: the roles of participants, communicative-pragmatic relations between them, and the conflict potential inherent in the critical evaluation of another scholar’s work. The authors propose adapting G. Leech’s maxims, which align with the communicative category of politeness, to the genre of scientific reviews and introduce five specific principles: the maxim of constructive criticism, the maxim of academic respect, the maxim of impartiality, the maxim of scholarly dialogue, and the maxim of academic support. Through the analysis of empirical data, four primary antipoliteness strategies in scientific reviews are identified: direct discrediting of the reviewed work, undermining the author’s status, destructive rhetoric, and formal discrediting. The study concludes that the boundary between politeness and anti-politeness in scholarly reviews is not rigid but rather represents a continuum influenced by factors such as genre conventions and norms, the constructiveness or destructiveness of criticism, the reviewer’s intent, and the emotional tone of the review.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):254-264
254-264
Speech genre “zamechanie” on the scale of “politeness – anti-politeness”
Abstract
The article analyzes major linguistic and pragmatic properties of utterances that native Russian speakers classify as ‘zamechanie’ (roughly, critical remark). The purpose of the research is twofold: firstly, to answer the question whether ‘zamechanie’ can be seen as a speech genre and, secondly, to determine its position on the “politeness – anti-politeness” scale. The analysis is based on the data from the Russian National Corpus and recordings of oral speech collected by the author. Based on linguistic and extralinguistic criteria, the research shows that ‘zamechanie’ can be interpreted as a speech genre. Though the variety of guises of ‘zamechanie’ in speech makes it difficult to describe the formal linguistic properties of the remarks under study, the analysis of corpus data allows us to identify a number of speech formulas with which native speakers of Russian express their critical assessment of the addressee’s behavior. In addition, the specifics of ‘zamechanie’ as a speech genre can be identified by analyzing the metacommunicative comments of Russian native speakers: regardless of the specific language design of the remarks, they are identified as ‘zamechanie’ due to a common intention – the speaker’s need to critically evaluate and (ideally) change the behavior of the addressee. It is the negative assessment that distinguishes “zamechanie” from advice, order, recommendation, question, hint, etc. The pragmatic properties of ‘zamechanie’ are analyzed in the article from the point of view of the pragmatic concept of ‘face’. The analysis of contexts allows us to conclude that ‘zamechanie’ is a speech genre that poses a threat to the addressee’s “positive” face, since by making a remark, the speaker indicates that the addressee’s behavior does not conform to socially accepted attitudes and norms.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):265-272
265-272
Politeness of a doctor in the mirror of consumer reviews
Abstract
The article examines the politeness of medical workers – how it is reflected in the genre of reviews on the consumption of medical services published on the Internet. Methodologically, the work fits into the traditions of discourse studies, semantic and stylistic studies. Theoretically, the article is based on the ideas of media linguistics, discourse studies, genre studies, semantic syntax and stylistics. An analysis of a small corpus of texts of the named genre published on the official website of the Ministry of Health of the Novgorod Region allowed us to establish that politeness as a parameter of speech behavior and at the same time a characteristic of the doctor’s attitude to a patient is among the parameters of medical communication regularly assessed by patients and their relatives. In reviews, the discussion of politeness brings to the forefront such parameters as readiness to communicate, genre repertoire, the importance of non-verbal means of communication – particularly a smile – and perlocutionary effects of polite utterances. The paper describes the range of linguistic means used to describe the doctors’ speech, such as lexemes, analytical expressions, and idioms. It is concluded that politeness is differentiated along the lines of communication spheres, discourse, genre and social type of communicators. The paper also outlines the prospects for further research of the topic in the context of discourse analysis, media linguistics and linguodidactics.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):273-279
273-279
Assessment of doctor’s communication skills and professional tact as a genre-forming feature of a review of medical services
Abstract
In online reviews of medical services, the consumer’s assessment of the doctors’ communication skills and their professional tact is an essential feature of the genre. According to the target audience, this parameter is vital for the overall assessment of the quality of medical service. The empirical base represents the reviews of doctors posted on the websites of specialized online publications and forums. Based on the analysis, positive and negative patients’ assessments of the doctor’s communication skills and professional tact were identified. It has been established that the assessment of the success rate of the communicative interaction with the doctor is one of the essential features of the Internet genre under study, since it reflects the addresser’s intention aimed at the formation of public opinion about the services provided. The study defines the parameters of the medical specialist’s communicative competence according to which the assessment in the review is made. The list includes the ability to communicate the necessary information to the patient in a complete, understandable and delicate form; empathy; tact; compliance with professional ethics; skills in controlling dialogic interaction; tone of communication, etc. Based on the comparison of positive and negative assessments of individual parameters of communicative competence, techniques of effective and riskprone communication between a doctor and a patient were identified, along with their discursive characteristics. The results can serve as a basis for expanding research on professional medical communication based on oral and written sources of patient reflection.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):280-289
280-289
The speech genre of refusal in American and Russian business communication in terms of emotive politeness
Abstract
The speech act of refusal is an undesirable speech act that can cause negative emotions in the interlocutor and requires mitigation tools in order to maintain effective and conflict-free communication. The mitigation tools are seen as acts or pragmatic moves that accompany refusal to communicatively support the addressee and, taken as a whole, form a speech genre. Like other speech acts and genres, refusal has ethnocultural specificities, which if ignored can lead to sociopragmatic failures in intercultural communication. The aim of the study is to identify the most common models, functional and stylistic characteristics of the speech genre of refusal in American and Russian business communication and to compare the extent of its orientation towards emotional support of the addressee in the compared lingua-cultural contexts. The material consisted of 50 authentic rejection letters to a job application (25 Russian and 25 American) from different companies. They were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively on the basis of speech act theory, speech genre theory and politeness theory. The results showed that the American refusal is characterised by greater positivity, emotionality, verbosity, focus on the form and feelings of the addressee; the Russian refusal is shorter and more informative, it is less characterised by emotionality and emotional sensitivity. The results illustrate the prospect of comparative studies of speech genres with the focus on emotive politeness.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):290-299
290-299
Back-handed compliment in the genre structure of interpersonal communication
Abstract
The article examines backhanded compliment, its place in the structure of speech genres, correlation with politeness and linguistic characteristics. It is shown that, from the perspective of intentionality, it is represented by two types: 1) awkward compliments indicating the speaker’s linguistic or emotional incompetence; 2) ‘insults in disguise’. The tactics used in delivering a backhanded compliment include: expressing doubt about the addressees’ merits or achievements; discrediting their actions; comparisons that diminish the merits of the addressees or those they are compared to; compliments through self-deprecation; excessive exaggeration; suspicious compliments indicating ulterior motives; and sarcasm disguised as a compliment. The linguistic features that make it possible to identify a backhanded compliment include: the combination of a secondperson pronoun (you) with an evaluative predicate (“You are X”); focus on some aspect of personal identity (gender, age, occupation, appearance); the use of auxiliary words such as for, even if (and), but, also, despite, in spite of, if it weren’t for; the speaker’s misunderstanding of the word’s inner form and its connotations; the use of inappropriate allusions, qualifiers that turn the compliment into its opposite, and implications that suggest a negative evaluation; the use of metaphors and comparisons not typical of the given culture. It has been identified that in response to an ambiguous statement, addressees may: 1) accept it as a compliment; 2) laugh it off; 3) challenge the interlocutor; 4) do nothing (ignore the statement).
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):300-308
300-308
Internet Genres
The genre of video apology in the context of contemporary ethics and politeness
Abstract
The paper focuses on the description of the genre of video apology, its forms and linguistic features. This genre has taken shape over the last decade and functions in the sphere of networked public discourse characterized in the paper. The popularity of on-camera apologies is increasing and attracts the attention of specialists from different spheres. This necessitates a linguistic comprehension of video apologies viewed as a polycode genre. The material under analysis comprises more than 25 video clips posted online over the last 10 years. The paper describes the differences between interpersonal, public, and video apologies as well as general prerequisites of the latter related to the violation of ethical norms accepted in society and correlated norms of polite speech actions and behaviours. The features of the communicative situation of a video apology discussed in the paper include: different composition of participants, the variability of its components depending on the hosting platform, and long storage in the internet space. We distinguish two main forms of video apologies: monological and question-and-answer ones – and identify the most frequent speech clichés and strategies.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):309-318
309-318
Correlation of the private and public in the genre of the reader comment
Abstract
The article deals with the analysis of reader comments in American media discourse to identify the signs of privacy and publicity in this genre. The relevance of the study of reader comments is due to their significant role in the formation of the public sphere. With the rapid development of the digital technologies and social platforms, the genre of the reader comment has become an important channel for leading public discussions on vital topics and expressing personal opinions, which causes the problem of delineating the private and public in the genre under study. The research was conducted using reader comments on articles published in the online edition of “New York Times” during August and September 2024. The methods employed included: observation, description, contextual analysis, interpretation, and quantitative counting techniques. The study examines the definition, key characteristics, and functions of reader comments. The analysis was aimed at the following aspects: user identity, language style, the use of emojis and symbols, forms of address, comment topics, and lexical markers of publicity and privacy. The following signs of privacy were identified: anonymity in username selection, the use of language typical of spoken speech, the use of emojis, reduced communication distance, sharing personal information and expressing emotions in comments, addressing the author of the article or one of the commentators, and lexical markers such as I, my, me. Signs of publicity include: providing the user’s real name, posting on general topics, addressing a broad audience, highlighting important social issues, and employing lexical markers such as park, people, we.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):319-326
319-326
Imperative internet comment as a special genre of conflict internet communication
Abstract
The article examines the imperative internet comment as a special genre of conflict internet discourse. The research was based on the study of two communities of the social network “VKontakte”, differing in the structure of social connections: vertical type (official community “VKontakte with authors”) and horizontal type (“Showbiz stars news”). Using automatic methods of data collection and analysis, it was established that this type of text demonstrates a stable negative tonality (about 30% of all comments), confrontational character, and expressiveness of linguistic means. In communities with a vertical structure, imperative internet comments occur three times more frequently and are predominantly used to criticize platform administrators. Analysis of illocutionary characteristics showed the prevalence of appeals and requestives in a community with a vertical structure, and the dominance of conflict statements aimed at excluding “outsiders” from communication in a community with a horizontal structure. Linguistic features include the use of lowered expressive nominations of people, distorted spelling, and elements of expressive syntax. The research made it possible to justify the identification of the imperative internet comment as an independent speech genre and determine its specificity in various types of internet communities.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):327-336
327-336
Implementation of speech aggression in the genre of Internet commentary in social networks of frontier regions: Speech act stratification, lexical content and thematic focus
Abstract
The network space presupposes communicative interaction, characterized by depersonalization, hypertextuality and achronicity of interaction, a high degree of anonymity and low responsibility for the content produced. Comments reflecting the dynamics of the audience’s mood in real time, which become a factor destroying speech and ethical normativity, are of great importance. Internet comments are the reaction of communicants to the news feed, which constitutes the thematic “anchor” of the entire hypertext space, and can contribute to the rapid expansion of the field of conflict in social reality, instantly replicating provocative, invective and hostile content. The purpose of the study is to identify the frequency of use, speech act specification and thematic orientation of provocative vocabulary, to determine the level of verbal aggression in the genre of commenting on socially significant news stories by users of social networks. The empirical material was the research corpus created by the authors, including initial posts and micro-contexts of comments and sub-commentary reactions from social networks in the frontier regions: Dagestan, North Ossetia-Alania and Karachay-Cherkessia, containing a discussion of socially significant news events for the first quarter of 2024. The study showed that comments are characterized by increased emotionality and broad potential for extrapolation of conflict from communicative reality to social reality. Constatives, invectives, quesitives and directives predominated in network interaction. To emotivize and intimate commentary statements, vulgarisms and pejoratives were mainly used. The largest share of identified topoi is aimed at negativizing attitudes towards situationally tied state policies and ethno-confessional conflictivization. The predominance of soft hate speech and the minimal number of menatives and performatives indicate a low level of verbal aggression in regions with a uniting supra-ethnic religiously determined basis; the absence of such and the intensification of social demarcation in the frontier regions of the multi-confessional and multi-ethnic composition (KCR) causes an increase in the level of the hate speech used in the genre of Internet commentary to average.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):337-350
337-350
Online conman discourse: Speech genres, strategies, tactics (based on the Russian language)
Abstract
The article considers online conman discourse as a special type of marketing discursive practice: its communicative purpose, agents and clients are defined; the main speech genres and communicative strategies and tactics, which are implemented in them, are singled out and analyzed through the prism of Tony Robbin’s marketing sales funnel; the inexpediency of its attribution to fraudulent discourse is substantiated. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest of scientists from various scientific fields in the phenomenon of infogypsyism and the insufficient study of its linguistic side. The material for the study was the Russian texts of online conman discourse dedicated to the promotion of information products – online courses. The results of the study showed that different elements of the marketing sales funnel are actualized in the speech genres of conman discourse, which can be divided into informative elementary and complex, evaluative elementary and complex, imperative elementary and complex. Actualization is carried out with the help of manipulative strategies: the strategy of positioning the information product, the strategy of appeal to the addressee’s problem situation and the strategy of appeal to success. The identified strategies are implemented through the tactics of argumentation, promise, intimisation of communication, emotional impact, inflaming negative assessments, approval/criticism, creating a positive image of the company/information product, directive tactics.
Speech genres. 2025;20(3 (47)):351-360
351-360