Violation of the Principles of Communication Ecology: Pragmatics of Spanish Portrait Interview

Public media discourse is the most important communicative environment in modern society. The processes taking place within it are most clearly manifested in the genre of portrait interviews, the purpose of which is to present a personality through deep interaction and the construction of a public image. Achieving this goal is possible in a specially constructed communicative environment based on respect for personal boundaries and the principles of harmonious interaction. This approach corresponds to the concept of communication ecology, which, however, has not yet been formed as a coherent theory. Its principles are derived in the article through a synthesis of a number of psychological and linguistic theories that focus on harmonious interaction.

The analysis of Spanish portrait interviews reveals a culturally specific paradox: systematic violations of the principles of communication ecology (provocation, manipulation, pressure) do not lead to communication failure, but are a distinctive feature of the genre.

The aim of this article is to identify and describe the strategies and tactics of such violations in the speech behaviour of Spanish interviewers and to determine their pragmatic specificity in Spanish linguistic culture. The study is based on the hypothesis that these violations are not a communicative failure, but a culturally conditioned mechanism that serves the deeper purpose of the genre – to create a vivid public “portrait” of a person.

The work applies pragmalinguistic analysis, implemented within a two-level model. At the first level, based on a synthesis of psychological and linguistic approaches, deviations from the principles of ecological communication are identified. At the second, interpretative level, the concept of alterocentricity in the Spanish language (W. Bainehauer), the model of communication as a “joint dance” (U. Maturana) and existential philosophy (J. Ortega y Gasset) are used to explain these deviations.

It has been established that strategies and tactics for disrupting the ecology of communication are used as a tool for engaging the interlocutor in dialogue, testing their personality and self-disclosure.

The conclusions are important for the theory of intercultural communication and pragmatics, as they demonstrate the cultural conditioning of communicative norms and contribute to the understanding of the specifics of Spanish media discourse.

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