I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

theory of speech acts, pragmatic function, sub-functions of the pragmatic function, motto texts, European universities

The article analyzes texts of mottos of European universities where we can observe a strong tradition to formulate a phrase revealing their main principle, values and goals. We should distinguish between slogans and mottos. The motto of the university is a succinct and concise statement adopted as the main principle of behaviour and guide to action basing on the goal. The study includes an integrated approach to the review of the mottos texts based on the characteristics of illocutionary acts and semantic analysis of their content. Research methods include cognitive analysis, semantic analysis, lexical analysis, interpretative analysis, quantitative method, translation techniques. The analysis of speech acts of the texts of mottos revealed the presence of three groups of illocutionary acts: representative, directive and commissive. The main pragmatic functions of the mottos are the self-presentation function and the effect on the recipient. Semantic analysis of the texts content allowed identifying also such pragmatic functions as educational; informative; social-marking; memorial, inspirative, phatic and appellative. Subfunctions of pragmatic functions include actualization of knowledge in the modern world; synergy of education, fundamental sciences and applied research; opportunity for self-improvement and development of talents; focus on the future; critical importance of historical roots and experience of previous generations; emphasis on leadership in education; ensuring material success; correlation of education and the subject’s success in the future.

Yakovleva, Svetlana Leonidovna – Candidate of Pedagogics, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Practice of Teaching Foreign Languages, Kazan (Volga Region) Fe-deral University, Kazan, Russia, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5166-0699, zavkaf1@gmail.com