INTRODUCTORY PHRASES AS MARKERS AND MODIFIERS OF SPEECH ACTS: EVERYDAY CONFESSIONS

 The article is devoted to pragmatic analysis informative statements, marked with introductory phrases of confession in smth. We compiled the data from Russian National Corpus and analyze statements with the twelve stereotypic introductory phrases. These language units are borrowed from the repentance lexicon: to confess, to repent, to admit; from the sincerity lexicon: not to hide, frankly, honestly, truth, conscience, sin; with the necessity: need, necessary, must. Speech acts of confession spread behind the frames of semantic components, that compile the meaning of the verb to confess. They are used in many situations different from its prototypical purpose. The speech acts of confession are used in three generalized situations: 1. Statements about the speaker’s actions (personal activity, fact in the past time, negative evaluation). 2. Statements about smb’s actions (non-personal activity, fact in the past or in present time, negative/positive evaluation). 3. Value judgments (non-personal activity, opinion, negative/positive evaluation). The statistical analysis helps to find out fuzzy boundaries for some introductory phrases usage. The comparative analysis of statements with confession units and the same statements without these units revealed some ethical settings, overcome with the statements of confession, and perhaps national peculiarities of the speech etiquette.