Information on the thesis

This thesis focuses on the study of the means of representation of the phenomenon of pessimism in Modern English from the theoretical perspectives of semasiology, onomasiology, functional linguistics, linguistic pragmatics, and communicative linguistics.

The paper provides a survey of the phenomenon of pessimism from the point of view of philosophy, psychology, and social cognitive theory. The thesis clarifies the notion of pessimism as a way of world perception that emphasizes negative aspects of beingness and is manifested by certain dispositions, attributions, cognitive strategies, and mood on the individual psychological level.

Lexical and phraseological means designating the phenomenon of pessimism in Modern English have been singled out, their semantic features have been revealed and the corresponding lexico-phraseological field has been modelled.

The functional aspect of the lingual means of representation of the phenomenon of pessimism in Modern English has been analyzed. Lexical and phraseological means representing the phenomenon of pessimism in pessimistic utterances are found out. Syntactic and stylistic peculiarities of the given utterances are revealed.

Stylistic features of pessimistic utterances have been analysed. Metaphor, hyperbola, meiosis, comparison, rhetorical questions, inversion, repetitions, parallel constructions, and interrupted sentences actualize qualitative features of pessimism, create general emotional tension of a pessimistic utterance and increase its expressiveness.

We present evidence that pessimistic utterances are characterized by non-verbal support, which is closely connected with the speaker’s mental state. Paralingual and kinesic non-verbal means of communication, eye contact and silence contribute to the speaker’s pessimism actualization.

We also address the issue of pessimism as a personal factor of communicative interaction. This paper shows prominent features of the speaker’s communicative behaviour affected by his/her pessimistic world view. Our analysis provides an explanation of the structure of the communicative situation of realization of the speaker’s pessimism. The research reveals principal illocutionary goals of a pessimistic speaker and suggests main types of pessimistic speech acts. Furthermore, our investigation has made it possible to define the notion of pessimistic discourse.

This work has demonstrated that strategies for the expression of pessimism harmonize or disharmonize relationships between interlocutors. These are rigid non-cooperative communicative strategies (of negative self-expression, manipulation and confrontation) and soft cooperative strategies (a strategy of tolerance and a defensive strategy). These strategies are realized by a variety of tactics.

The results of the research suggest that the representation of pessimism in Modern English is determined by its typological features as a psychological and worldview phenomenon.

The analysis carried out in the thesis determines the directions for further research on the phenomenon of pessimism in cognitive, discourse and linguocultural aspects.

Key words: pessimism, the seme of pessimism, lexico-phraseological field of pesimism, pessimistic utterance, pessimistic speech act, pessimistic discourse.