Semantics of Value-Marked Discourse

Abstract

This article aimed to assert the idea of value-definiteness of discourse semantics. Utterances and discourse based on the values of communicants or their ideas about values are here referred to as value-marked. The authors applied the value-activity system approach to the study of speech communication within the framework of the study on discourse semantics. The research is based on English and Russian utterances, in which the values of communicants are actualized explicitly. It was established that utterances of this type have a special property: they enable discourse semantics to replace the communicants’ ideas about values. A detailed examination of the functioning of corresponding verbal units in speech communication allowed us to determine them as a special type of units and such discourse as a special kind of discourse, requiring further research. According to the authors, the mechanism of functioning of values in discourse reality is realized through sign programs for actualizing values in the speaker’s consciousness. These values, in turn, form the basis for creating sign programs for understanding, interpreting, and motivating the recipient’s behaviour. The authors come to the conclusion that the analysis of semantics of value-marked utterances can greatly contribute to the understanding of the nature and functions of discourse, as it allows us to prove the semiotic idea of symbolic substitution of the speaker’s and the recipient’s ideas about values in a value-marked discourse. The latter is essential for studying the principles and propositions of discourse linguistics and substantiating the functioning of axiolinguistic mechanisms in discourse reality.