Genre «letter in the pack»: discursive construction of the addresser and the addressee
The paper focuses on the commercial genre «letter in the pack», specifically on the discursive construction of the addresser and the addressee. Methodologically, the author draws on speech genre theory and social constructionism to demonstrate how the categorized and typified personal experience of the addresser is transmitted onto the addressee and how this results in the construction of the axiologically charged system «addresser – addressee». The analytical model embraces the consideration of illocutionary force in the context of social practices, representations and discursive techniques used to construct the addresser and the addressee, as well as the addresser’s axiological views that are embodied in the genre. The analysis reveals that the genre mixes social practices and the relations «addresser – addressee» are constructed in axiological – not commercial – terms. Following similar axiological principles predetermines the representation of the addresser and addressee as belonging to the «us» – group. The author also claims that social constructionism and speech genre theory can be integrated to explore the linguistic ways employed to represent and interpret social reality.
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