The functional-semantic field of deprivation in family and everyday discourse

Abstract

The article presents an analysis and the results of a study of verbal and semantic means expressing deprivation semantics in family and everyday discourse. The aim of the study is to identify, systematize, and describe linguistic means representing the semantics of deprivation, loss, restriction, and deprivation-related experiences in family and everyday discourse. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to substantiate the autonomous status of the functional-semantic field of deprivation within the system of functional semantic fields, as well as by the importance of examining the linguistic representation of family dysfunction and domestic violence. The social significance of the research is associated with the need to respond to the social demand of the Republic of Kazakhstan aimed at eliminating domestic violence and increasing public attention to this problem. The research material consists of utterances from family and everyday discourse based on edited confessional narratives of women who experienced domestic violence and various forms of deprivation. The reliability of the findings is ensured by the analyzed factual material and by the use of a set of research methods. The principal methods include functional-semantic analysis, communicative-pragmatic analysis, and discourse analysis. The study identifies the field components of the functional-semantic field of deprivation according to their semantic representation and the linguistic means that verbalize this semantics. The analysis demonstrates a centrifugal organization of the identified means, extending from the core and center toward the periphery. This distribution indicates the autonomous status of the investigated field within the thesaurus of field structures. The findings demonstrate that deprivation semantics is expressed not only through the direct designation of losses and deprivation but also through implicit constructions that create an emotionally intense representation of the situation. Lexemes with negative evaluative meaning and grammatical constructions conveying modal shades of impossibility, hopelessness, and limitation play a significant role. These linguistic means contribute to conveying states of oppression, dependence, and deprivation and reveal the ways in which traumatic experience is verbalized in family and everyday communication. The impact function of the analyzed linguistic means is primarily directed toward the reader and is realized through the use of utterances representing family and everyday discourse. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of the linguistic representation of domestic violence and social trauma and demonstrate the linguistic and sociocultural significance of studying deprivation semantics in discourse.