прагматика и медиа дискурс / Mikhalkova_pragmatics_of_invective_some_corrections

“Я потом изловчился, развернулся и его маму уыиграл” (Самый сильный борец Абхазии Ашот) –

the hint at the sexual intercourse with the mother of the defeated only means a physical victory in a fight. And in the example with “the phrases, after which you definitely won’t have sex” (Подслушал в сексшопе) it is a question of sexual failure: the phrase “You’re like a brother to me!” does not entail accepting of kinship – it is an indirect way to explain, that a girl does not want any intimate relations.

Ridiculers in the invective of origin can be the following people: representatives of one race (usually a majority), a fighter/a sportsman/a couch, a kin to a road policeman, a politician, a judge, a female secretary, a comedian, a scientist, a housefather, a priest, a girl. Sketches about sportsmen with this type of invective are quite numerous. Not only kinds of sports, but also the status (winner, popular) can vary. Here, we would like to underline once again an accompanying role of an invective of relationship in the description of a physical fight.

It appears, that, on the whole, representatives of the enlisted groups do not have any common generalizing characteristics, that explain such grouping. It can be noted, that in the show they are viewed either as absolutely adequate persons (the judge, the secretary), or as fighters for the majority opinion (the politician, the priest). So it can be assumed, that the status of the ridiculer should either correspond to the norm (for the first group), or be overestimated (for the second).

For ridiculers of the second group (see above) the competition presupposes winning the majority’s attention, and for the first group it means restoring the social order and eliminating negative social phenomena (like racism or, vice versa, unwanted migration). Concerning the invective about national minorities, it can be noted, that competition here also has a role of introducing a new phenomenon into the society, and as it is a stranger, alien nation, it should be introduced as losers.

Table 12

Levels of invective semantics in the invective of origin and family connections

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The archetypical component defines trickster, as a stranger of obscure origin. At the level of clusters, Comedy Club gives a variation of the mentioned way of victory acknowledgement through an intercourse with the antagonist’s mother. The social context is constructed on ethnic stereotypes, typical for each culture (in Russian discourse: attitudes to southern nationalities; in the American: to AfroAmericans). Consequently, the realia mentioned in the text basically belong to the semantic field of nationalities, although the American discourse allows to give names of certain existing people, when the Russian only gives collective names.

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CONCLUSION (SECOND CHAPTER)

The quantitative distribution of invective names according to their types in

the Russian and American mass media discourses is as follows:

The statistical representation of invective names in ascending order,

irrelevant of the type of invective, is shown in the diagram:

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with many names: in case a joke fails, the next one will make up for it. And the

more jokes there are, the less is the risk of a failure.

2.The most representative semantic groups in Comedy Club – unusual sexual likes, deviant social behavior and destructive nature – are characteristic of a certain type of Russian Post-perestroika mass media discourse, called “chernukha”. This type of discourse sprang in the 1990s as a reaction to the privatization of media. Its aim was to illustrate negative social changes, that happened in Russia after the USSR was disbanded and at the same time to draw new audience, using the most tabooed means – pornography, scenes of crime and violence, propaganda of smoking, drugs and alcohol, etc.

3.SNL puts an accent on the more neutral types of invective – social status and intellectual deficiencies. By ‘neutral’ we mean semantically independent groupings of invectives61, that do not focus on topics of crime and violence, sexual perversions and abuse. The American show is more careful in treatment of minorities. No invective names, mentioning sexual minorities were found; in Comedy Club homosexuality is mentioned in 13 names. The invective of origin, that often entails race connotations is also the most unpopular type in SNL.

Let us compare the semantics of archetype in two discourses.

61 i.e. not necessarily connected with other types, unlike, for example, the invective of food preferences, that often accompanies the invective of physical deficiencies.

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From the theory of archetype it can be concluded, that the image of trickster is essential in the discourse of comedy TV-shows, as it is used to create the opposition between the nature and culture, chaos and order, thus, provoking a competition between the speaker and hearer of a humorous invective. This image is universal. For both shows it is typical to connect intellectual deficiencies with incorrect illogical speech. Furthermore, unpopular social elements are usually sexually deficient and feel lonely and isolated.

On the other hand, two discourses differ in actualization of some of its features. For example, in SNL trickster is closer to the image of joker – its impersonifications tend to cheat on the audience and break laws. The criminal nature of trickster is often underlined, as well as criminal character of unusual sexual likes (Comedy Club also mentions some types of crimes of sexual nature, but they are not forwarded as criminal). The topic of race is also tabooed: the AfroAmerican group is the only group, treated in the opposition to the “white minority”, but their origin is not represented as “wrong, alien”.

Comedy Club is more concentrated on the physical side of image of trickster. It names straightforward all kinds of acts, that break public order: swearing, spitting, beating others, leaving excrement, going out naked, taking drugs and alcohol, etc.

The correlation of semantic clusters in the two shows is as follows:

Table 15

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Semantic clusters in the image of trickster in Russian and American mass media discourse

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The clusters demonstrate two directions in the Russian and American discourses: the Russian is focused on the revival of carnival, folklore culture, and the American – on the normative and cognitive functions of humor.

Texts of performances in Comedy Club abound in features of masquerade: food as phallic symbols, costumes and masks (mentioned in the text, though the performers are ordinary clothed), invocations (each time, when the host invites a new performer, he ascribes different vices to them). Comedy Club tends to connect all kind of victories to sexual victories. If the person ridiculed is characterized by social or intellectual deficiencies, they will entail blames of physical unattractiveness and animal disorderly behavior.

SNL focuses on the competitive side of invective: vices and deficiencies are connected with deceit, that is done with the aim to get benefit – more money (ads) or attention (in dialogues with stars, politicians). In these clusters the social function of humor is reflected. The invective names commonly describe those candidates, who were losing in pre-election campaign (Hillary Clinton, John McCain). At the same time the winner of president elections 2009 Barack Obama became an object of invective only two times.

Also, in American discourse destruction and vices entail legal responsibility. The judging side is often represented in images of policemen and judges.

As for the other two levels of invective semantics – stereotypes and modern informational context – they give an individual picture for each discourse.

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