Verbalization of Psychological Pressure in the Speech Act of Threat

The article examines the structural and semantic models of the implementation of the speech act of threat in the context of criminogenic communication, taking into account the socio-psychological status of the communicants. It analyzes the lexico-semantic means used for the objectification of threats and identifies speech strategies and tactics for realizing the speech act of threat. In the conditions of criminogenic communication, the following structural and semantic models of the speech act of threat are realized: both directive and commissive components are expressed explicitly; both components are expressed implicitly; the directive component is expressed explicitly, while the commissive is implicit; the directive component is expressed nonverbally, and the commissive explicitly. At the lexico-semantic level, threats are verbalized using verbs with destructive semantics, which denote physical impact aimed at causing death or harm to a person’s health. Linguistic markers of aggressive utterances in the form of threats, primarily used to lower the interlocutor’s social status, include invectives and evaluative vocabulary that points to the addressee’s low intellectual level, as well as language that actualizes the interlocutor’s low moral and aesthetic values, including zoonyms. In criminogenic communication, the following communicative strategies and tactics for implementing the speech act of threat are employed: the strategy of persuasion (tactics of insistence and argumentation); the strategy of discreditation (tactics of insult and invective); the strategy of manipulation (tactics of explanation, building trust, and exploiting the addressee’s moral values); the strategy of verbal violence (tactics of command and prohibition). Quantitative analysis of the studied communicative acts shows a predominance of the strategies of manipulation, discreditation, and verbal violence (including the tactics of insult, exploitation of moral values, command, and prohibition), which represent forms of psychological influence on the addressee’s consciousness with the aim of changing their behavior in favor of the speaker. In the social environment of prisoners/inmates, speech acts of threat are effective and successful, since the speaker's status within the interpersonal hierarchy is higher than that of the addressee.