BUMPER STICKERS AS A SMALL GENRE IN THE SYSTEM OF SPEECH INTERACTION ON THE ROAD

The article addresses a new form of city urban communication, namely, car stickers. By this term I mean non advertising inscriptions and slogans that car owners stick to glasses, doors and bumpers. I regard these stickers as a small speech genre. In the beginning the situation where this genre is used is briefly described. The main properties of communication in the situation of road traffic are interactivity, a wide use of language game, creativity and concurrence. The interaction of participants in this sphere of communication is covered by three main sub-situations: “driver ↔ driver”, “driver ↔ road police officer” and “driver ↔ pedestrian”. The stickers can realize various communicative strategies and functions: information, excuse, warning, self-affirmation, threat, appeal, and so on. Another parameter that distinguishes the stickers is thematic content. It can include the following categories: road traffic in general, personal information about the driver, political and patriotic discourse. A large number of stickers, for instance, expressions of gratitude have only a phatic function. The article also includes a comparison between the stickers and communication in internet chats, which is also to a high extent regulated by the anonymity of participants.