FUNCTIONS OF PARALINGUISTIC UNITS IN RUSSIAN TEXTS

The purpose of this work is to discuss the functions of paralinguistic units in Russian monologue and dialogic texts. Of the three types of paralinguistic units — sequences of sounds signifi ed in context, phonations and linguocultural complexes — the functions performed by sequences of sounds and linguocultural complexes are considered. Many of these functions are compared with the functions of linguistic units. It is shown that some of them are general, while others are specifi c of paralinguistic units. Paralinguistic units serve to imitate sounds made by animals or special mechanisms. Besides, they are markers of current human emotions or states. Special functions of paralinguistic units are noted, such as a magical function, the function of displaying the life of the human body, simulating pronunciation pathology or someone else’s speech.
The work also poses some problems concerning the relationship between paralinguistic units with verbs denoting actions accompanied by sounds (grinding, kissing, creaking), and non-verbal units of one type (paralinguistic) with non-verbal units of another type (gestural). The authors come to the conclusion that a complete lexicographic description of such verbs in explanatory dictionaries should contain information about the sounds accompanying these verbs, and the lexicographic description of input units in paralanguage dictionaries should include information about the combination of these units with gestures.