The expression of passive aggression in family conflicts in selected American plays
American drama, pragmatics, pragmastylistics, characterization

Summary/Abstract: The article presents sample forms of expression of passive aggressiveness in family conflicts in selected American plays. It briefly describes the notion of passive aggression, dating back to post-war era and originally used to denote passive resistance against superiors. The linguistic expression of passive aggression relies mostly on indirectness as a means of avoiding confrontation, hurting the other person subtly though with a clear intention. Frameworks from the fields of pragmatics and pragmastylistics, such as the concept of face, implicature, theories of (im) politeness or turn-taking facilitate the understanding of how passive-aggressive utterances are constructed and expressed and provide implicit characterization cues that help the reader infer the character participating in conflict.

• Details
• Contents