Features of the strategy of discrediting in the English authoritarian discourse of children

The study presents the results of a discourse analysis of the confrontational discursive strategy of discrediting in the English authoritarian discourse of children. The work views the discourse of children as a field for implementing their communicative intentions. In the process of formation of their character and personality, children follow adults’ and peers’ example; they also experiment with a wide range of linguistic means in order to establish interpersonal control within the discursive surrounding. The discrediting strategy in the English authoritarian discourse of children is analyzed through the influence that a child-speaker is trying to exert over an addressee. Discrediting is understood in the paper as a macro-speech act which means damaging the reputation of the speaker and belittling his importance in communication. The necessary pre-condition for actualizing this strategy is its occurrence in public as it is intended for recipients, including an addressee himself and other hearers present. Discrediting is considered to be a face-threatening act which activates the category of impoliteness and belongs to the area of evaluative influence. The results point to three most communicatively productive tactics of actualizing the strategy of discrediting: the tactics of insult, mockery, and belittling merits of the speaker. Their implementation occurs through exerting the authoritarian child’s influence upon an addressee/a third person. The linguistic means contributing to the implementation of these tactics include negative assessment markers (adjectives, comparisons, vocatives), the ironic/sarcastic mode of communication, rhetoric interrogative and exclamatory constructions, subjunctive mood structures. Skills of discrediting the speaker verbally find their development in the further shaping of a child’s discursive personality