Dialogic unities from the text of drama as the source of linguistic material for English teaching

Merkuryeva Natalya Yuryevna, Bordyug Elena Mikhailovna

The work deals with some dialogic unities containing different types of interrogative sentences as initiative retorts. The diversity of questions – general (Yes/No), special (Wh-), alternative (with or) – is under analysis. Among Yes/No questions some variants are investigated: having direct word order and being built with inversion, deliberative (starting with Shall I), tag-questions. The composition and structure of so-called “direct” (completely satisfying the speaker) and evasive replies, expected and unexpected answering retorts are also considered. All illustrating examples are selected from the text of O. Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. The author’s using the questions in direct meaning (for requesting information) and as indirect speech acts is shown. Wilde’s stylistic tools of alternating two-component dialogic unities with various types of questions are discussed as well. The theoretical material given in the work can be recommended for teaching students of non-linguistic faculties.

Keywords:spoken English, spoken interaction, dialogic unity, authorial styles