Temporal correlation of verbalized and nonverbalized situation in hints (case study of the german language)

Abstract

The article deals with the referential aspect of the hint in German. The purpose of the article is to identify the types of the hint reference and their relationship with the intention «indirectly induce the addressee to act». The object of the research is statements containing hints in the German everyday dialogical discourse. The subject of the research is the referential aspect of these statements. The main research methods are the method of continuous and directed sampling, the method of contextual analysis. The article gives a working defi nition of the hint and introduces the following concepts: the indirect inducement to action, temporal correlation, the type of hint reference and the present. The typology «Temporal correlation of verbalized and nonverbalized situation in hints» is created mainly on the basis of dialogues from German fi lms and TV series. The typology also includes logically possible examples suggested by the author of the article. The typology provides 10 types of the hint reference. In a verbalized situation of one type, two tenses are combined: the present and the future. Two types of temporal correlation, past -future and future-past, were not found. The combination of tenses and the presence of lacunae indicate that the organization of content in the hint tends to time compression. If the nonverbalized situation relates to the present or future, then the presence or absence of the intention «indirectly induce the addressee to act» is equally possible. When this intention is realized, the speaker expects the addressee to perform the intended action in the present or future. In most of the identifiedcases, the addressee must act in the present. This is another example of the tendency to time compression of hint’s components. The intention «indirectly induce the addressee to act» is not realized if the nonverbalized situation relates to the past. The results of the article complement the research on hints and can be used for further consideration of the referential aspect of the hint.