Ðип. 26 (2011)
Ðип. 26 (2011)
Ðип. 26 (2011)
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Pasternak T. A.COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH «JOB INTERVIEW» ...<br />
describes how effective communication in conversation is achieved in common<br />
social situations and is further broken down into the four Maxims of Quality,<br />
Quantity, Relevance and Manner. According to P. Grice, if a speaker observes this<br />
principle and is aware of mentioned maxims, it enables him to conclude about the<br />
strategies and hidden intentions of the interlocutor, generated as implicatures. The<br />
implicatures are understood as communicatively significant deviations of conserving<br />
predictable and generally-accepted conversational maxims. For example, the<br />
phrase following at the end of the job interview “Do you work with an agent?”<br />
is perceived by both interactants as mutually shared sign of successful outcome<br />
of the job interview – the candidate is hired. Flouting the Maxims of Relevance<br />
and Quantity in this case (previous discussion of the candidate’s working experience<br />
„ ... we’ll walk over to Projection and look at your film and videos” is not<br />
connected with the interviewer’s question about the agent „Do you work with an<br />
agent?”) leads to the deduction of the conversational implicature: “If you have<br />
an agent we’d like to negotiate terms of your work contract with him”.<br />
We are going to analyze the conversational maxims and their flouting or<br />
violating by the participants in the communicative strategies of English “job<br />
interview”.<br />
The Maxim of Quantity is connected with the quantity of information, which is<br />
necessary to deliver. It states: “Make your contribution as informative as is required<br />
and do not make your contribution more informative than is required by the local<br />
aim”. There are some doubts concerning the excessive information: whether it’s a<br />
violation of cooperative principle or individual peculiarity of a speaker. Sometimes<br />
excessive information can delude a speaker, causing additional questions and<br />
reasoning. Besides there can appear a side effect when a deluded speaker might<br />
look for hidden aims or significance of delivering such information.<br />
Let’s consider the example:<br />
Michael: Okay. I just saw a little gap here in your resume … eighteen months<br />
… what were you doing?<br />
Alexander: I was finishing my Master’s thesis on Ladislav Klima, the Czech<br />
novelist and philosopher. It was the most important thing in the world for me,<br />
so I had to take some time out.<br />
Michael: That’s interesting.<br />
Alexander: Yes. You know, and Ladislav Klima is my hero. He only ever took<br />
on short-time work, so I wanted to see the world through his eyes.<br />
Michael: Right. Got that. So, what do you consider to be your greatest<br />
accomplishment?<br />
In the job interview for a position of a supervisor in an electronics retail store<br />
the interviewer finds a hidden significance of delivered detailed information about<br />
18-months gap in the candidate’s resume:<br />
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