PROSODY OF A QUESTION WHEN OMITTING THE ILLOCUTINARY PROPER COMPONENT

The speech act in the theories of the topic-focus structure is understood as divided into two illocutionary components: topic and focus, known and unknown of the question. Meanwhile, there may be no clearly defi ned boundary between the two illocutionary components. However, sentences with unambiguous opposition of illocutionary components also exist. They are the result of linear-prosodic transformations applied to original sentences where the boundary between the illocutionary components is not obvious. To analyze the mechanisms of boundary establishment, the concept of an illocutionary break between the components of a speech act is introduced. Based on the material of the Russian interrogative sentence, a description is given of the linear-prosodic coding of the illocutionary break and the results of omission of the illocutionary proper component, when it is activated in the context.