Notion-related features of the performatives comprising the verb “to suggest” in English academic discourse

Abstract

The article dwells upon the study of speech acts produced within the frames of the English academic discourse wherein the illocutionary act represents an ultimate unit to consider. Hence, there is an attempt made herein to look into the notion of performativity of English verbs, with the verb “to suggest” being an integral part of the English modals can/may-comprising constructions and playing a key role in this analysis. The field of this study is dedicated to the semantics of an event in academic medical discourse, aimed at revealing the possible trends for mental representations in the course of medicine-related texts reading as well as modelling possible scenarios of such events and their occurrence. 

The aforementioned information with due account of such terms as plausibility, certainty and likelihood that are of high importance when it comes to the medicine and health-related topics, brings across the purpose of this study. This work is thus aimed at proving (and finding the corresponding evidence or reasoning) the fact that the verb “to suggest” belongs to the performative ones. Such methods as due observation and systematic analysis help us reveal the comprehensive properties of the verb “to suggest” as a basis underlying the author’s intentions and representing the new special type of performatives named “implicitly assertive” as suggested by Y.M. Suleymanova in her study dedicated to the performative types. 

In the course of this study, we consider a handful of possible scenarios with can/may-comprising constructions following the main clause introduced by the verb “to suggest” and apply the theory of speech acts developed by J. Austin. The findings we obtain herein bring us to the conclusion that the verb “to suggest” should be referred to as a performative verb, belonging to the so named class of “implicitly assertive performatives”.

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