PSYCHOLINGUISTICS OF DESTRUCTIVE SPEECH COMMUNICATION: IN MEMORY OF E.F. TARASOV

Myskin S.V.

Moscow City Pedagogical University
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: myskinsv@mgpu.ru

Introduction

In the context of the global development of information technology, the popularity of communication professions is growing: journalists, bloggers, television and radio hosts, politicians, press secretaries, PR technologists, business coaches, etc. Professional public communication, online communication, online conferences, etc. are now integral attributes of the development of social relations, personal self-realization, and economic well-being. People have begun to communicate, discuss, and converse more. It can be said that the accessibility and openness of global forms of communication are an essential feature of modern professional life. At the same time, this feature of modern professional communication allows us to characterize it as a process of increased intensity [7]. Intensive communication is associated with additional psychological stress on the professional. This often leads to a destructive impact on the emotional sphere of the individual and, ultimately, contributes to the development of emotional burnout syndrome.

Teaching professionals are particularly susceptible to the effects of communication overload. These include, first and foremost, teachers, lecturers, social workers, educational psychologists, and educators. Of course, even before the spread of information technology, teaching was considered challenging, and with the widespread use of computer technology in education, the communication burden on teachers has increased exponentially. Given these circumstances, the state education system places special emphasis on preventing teacher burnout. Various training sessions, relaxation exercises, and individual consultations are conducted. Undoubtedly, preventative measures are necessary and important for ensuring the effectiveness of teaching. However, a number of issues currently exist that require the special attention of researchers and practitioners. These include the psycholinguistic aspects of teachers' speech under chronic communication overload. For example, the impact of communication overload on the effectiveness of teaching. After all, a teacher's speech (written and oral) is the primary means of carrying out their professional activities. It is through speech that students develop their educational knowledge, and its impact and adequacy are directly linked to the psycho-emotional state of the teacher. This raises the pressing issue of uncovering psycholinguistic anomalies in the process of generating educational messages (texts) by teachers experiencing emotional burnout. Which stages of message generation—the formation of semantic notation [6], deep grammatical structures, verbalization, or all at once—suffer from information overload? How, in this regard, are the expression and content planes of the educational text transformed? How does the transformation of the educational speech message due to emotional burnout affect its semantic perception by the recipient? These and other issues become key when considered in the context of the joint educational activities of the teacher and student. Overall, the listed aspects constitute a relevant problematic field of psycholinguistics of the professional speech of the teacher.

Markers of verbal deviations in the professional speech of teachers

The need for a psycholinguistic analysis of teachers' speech is determined by the fundamental principles of the theory of speech activity [9]: a) communication is a process aimed at organizing joint activities; b) the professional activity of teachers is realized in speech form. The combination of processes in speech organizations и implementation professional activity is the main condition for increasing the degree of stress of various types: neuropsychic, emotional, cognitive, physical, etc. In psychology and psycholinguistics, various parameters of speech functioning in stressful situations have already been considered [e.g., 8]. The works are mainly devoted to the analysis of the transformation of semantics, grammar and motor skills of speech under the influence of situational (short-term) stress factors. For example, temporaryыthere are limitations in completing the task, etc. The work of a teacher can be characterized as an activity carried out in chronically stressful conditions.

Deeper speech destructions are traditionally considered by neuropsychology and neurolinguistics [5; 10]. Collectively, they are represented by aphasiology. Substantiating the types of agnosia and aphasia, A.R. Luria examines in detail and systematizes speech disorders at each stage of generating or perceiving a message. Based on the scientific developments of L.S. Vygotsky [2], Yu.D. Apresyan [1], A.K. Zholkovsky and I.A. Melchuk [3], N. Chomsky [11] and others, A.R. Luria described the following complex model of generating a speech message: the emergence of a need and motive (1), which are embodied in an idea, a thought (2), then the thought and its semantic representation (3) are recoded through inner speech into a deep syntactic structure (4), which is further transformed into a surface syntactic structure (5) and, finally, into an expanded utterance (6) [5, p. 51].

Based on this model, it can be assumed that markers of verbal deviations caused by increased psycho-emotional stress should be sought at every stage of the subject's speech. We present a generalized list of some verbal deviations presented in the scientific literature [5; 8; 10, etc.] (Table 1).

Table 1

Verbal deviations caused by psycho-emotional stress

 

The stage of generating a speech message	Markers of verbal deviations
Programming, motive, thought	Decreased conscious control over dominant motivation, fragility of communicative intention, «forgetting» of the goal, violation of superphrasal units, etc.
Semantic level	Indecisiveness bordering on polarity in assessments; words with semantic inexclusivity; decreased vocabulary diversity, stereotypicality and primitiveness of personal vocabulary; use of speech patterns and clichés; "telegraphic" style; ambiguous statements that hinder understanding; prevalence of subject associations over abstract ones, decreased speed of associative reaction, etc.
Lexical and grammatical design	Increased speech dynamics due to the use of more verbs than adjectives and adverbs; selection of the most frequent simple and short words; an increase in the number of filler words, neologisms, and paraphrases; the appearance of irrelevant repetitions of phrases or their parts; an increase in uncorrectable logical and syntactic errors, etc.
Motor implementation	Slowing down or speeding up the rate of speech, clear pronunciation of words, an increase in the number of pauses, interruptions of speech with non-phonological formations and sighs, incompleteness of phrases, etc.

As Table 1 shows, the range of verbal disruptions is quite broad. Of course, these manifestations are also observed under conditions of short-term stress. However, speech then returns to normal functioning. In conditions of chronic stress, these verbal markers are persistent.

Verbal deviation markers in the speech of teachers with emotional burnout syndrome were studied experimentally [4]. A total of 58 teachers participated in the experimental procedures, divided into two groups: a group with emotional norms and a group with increased psychoemotional stress. Participants were asked to write essays on three assigned topics. The essays were then analyzed for the presence of verbal deviation markers. No consistent markers of verbal deviations were identified in the emotional norm group. The data obtained in the group with increased psychoemotional stress are summarized below (Table 2).

Table 2

A generalized analysis of the identified markers of verbal deviations in teachers with increased psycho-emotional stress

 

Stages of speech production	Emotional Stress Group«
Motor implementation
Essay length/number of essays The required essay length is 300–350 words.	Less than 200 words / 17; More than 350 words / 9; More than 650 words / 3
Lexical and grammatical design
Terms of semantic non-exclusivity	Terms of semantic non-exclusivity were identified in 14 essays: «"This can't be"; "Never"; "Nobody"; "Always"; "Without a doubt"; "It goes without saying"; "It's indisputable"; "This should be as clear as day"; "I'm sure of it"; "I make the rules here" (without explanation).
Superphrasal unity	The superphrasal unity in essay 7 is broken: «"Love for one's homeland begins in childhood, when a person begins to appreciate the places where they were born and raised, their customs, books, and culture. That's why our country is multinational and multicultural." «"Students are required to wear a school uniform.... Every student carries notebooks and pens with them"; "The day should begin with exercise, and important matters should not be put off until tomorrow.".
Associations	Inappropriate associations were found in 5 essays"Your school uniform will be glad to see you"; "My house liked my daily routine"; "Make your breakfast like a movie"; "The textbook is like the teacher.".
Perseverations	Cases of speech repetitions, «getting stuck,» and returning to what was previously said were identified in 20 essays: «"Morning exercises are usually done in the morning"; "School uniform in an educational institution"; "I was very touched and the story of one veteran was etched in my memory. He left a note on the Reichstag. On the wall, he wrote the name of his teacher, Zinaida Ivanovna Kopylova (the name simply etched itself in my memory!)"; "The issue of the regime has been raised for a long time, it is one of the difficult questions"; "The incident I want to tell you about happened a year ago"; "Fifty rubles in money", "Save every minute of time"; "Enthusiastic surprise"; "Facial expressions"; "Memorable souvenirs"; "Official cliches"; "The main essence"; "Premonition in advance"; "Valuable treasures"; "Regime habits".

An analysis of the obtained results allows us to conclude that the characteristics of teachers' psychoemotional states determine the transformation of their professional speech. This is manifested in illocutionary-perlocutionary speech patterns and verbal redundancy, a decrease in assertiveness with a simultaneous increase in imperatives, directives, and expressives, semantic inexclusivity, inappropriate associations, and perseverations.

A psychological interpretation of the results of the study can be presented as follows. Chronic stress experienced by teachers distorts the motives for their professional speech activity. Inappropriate unconscious motives shape a speech strategy that creates a "false" purpose for speech actions—sharing the teacher's negative psycho-emotional tension with the audience. Such "emotional" speech by the teacher is not based on the dialectical principles of persuasion and argumentation, but relies on psychological mechanisms of suggestion and audience infection. This speech strategy shifts the balance between cognitive (subject-related) and emotional (affective, functional-situational) components in the recipient's consciousness in favor of the latter. As a result, the subject-related knowledge formed in the student's mind will be distorted and fragile.

Conclusion

The issue of teachers' professional speech has come under renewed scrutiny at the Moscow School of Psycholinguistics over the past ten years. This surge in research and publications is linked to contemporary Russian society's demand for a widespread spread of destructive verbal communication. In recent years, under the guidance of E.F. Tarasov, the concept of a pathogenic text has been developed, the psycholinguistic essence of which is the speaker's lack of collaborative intention. Yevgeny Fedorovich classified such texts as defamation, libel, "fakes," aggressive texts, and so on. As the aforementioned study of teachers' professional speech under chronic psychoemotional stress demonstrated, psychological deviations alter the entire structure of speech production. While under "psychological norms," any text is constructed on the basis of an incentive for joint activity and collaboration, in anomalous communication, the recipient's agency is disregarded. Logically, the professional speech of an emotionally burned-out teacher can also be classified as pathogenic.

The problem of destructive communication is most fully described in a series of publications by the author of this article and E.F. Tarasov devoted to the phenomenon of "pathology of the linguistic personality" and destructive speech communication in general. Over a relatively short period of time, the following articles have been published: "Linguistic Personality in Normal and Pathological Conditions," "On the Formulation of the Problem of the "Pathology of the Linguistic Personality," "On the Formulation of the Problem of the Pathogenic Text," and others (a full list is provided in the section "Publications on the Problem of Destructive Speech Communication"). Given the relevance and high applied potential of the problem of destructive speech communication, it is attracting growing interest from the scientific community. This is a great achievement thanks to the great scientist and master of psycholinguistics, Evgeny Fedorovich Tarasov.

Publications on the problem of destructive speech communication

Myskin S.V., Sapilova N.A. Prevention of bullying among children and adolescents in educational organizations // Organizational psycholinguistics. Moscow: OOO "Agency of social and humanitarian technologies", 2022. No. 2(18). P. 46–70.

Myskin S.V., Trukhanovskaya N.S. Psycholinguistic problems of bullying // Language and thinking: psychological and linguistic aspects : Abstracts and Materials of the XXII International Scientific Conference dedicated to the 150th Anniversary of Moscow State Pedagogical University and the 70th Anniversary of the Birth of Professor A. A. Gagaev, Pokrov, September 14–16, 2022 / Ed. by A. V. Puzyrev. [Electronic publication for online distribution]. Moscow: Moscow State Pedagogical University, 2022. pp. 104–109.

Myskin S.V., Berezhkovskaya E.L., Oltarzhevskaya L.E. Safe School. Monitoring and Ensuring the Safety of the Educational Environment in Secondary Schools: A Study Guide. Moscow: Agency for Social and Humanitarian Technologies, 2023. 146 p.

Myskin S.V. On the formulation of the problem of «pathology of linguistic personality» // Organizational psycholinguistics. Moscow: OOO «Agency of social and humanitarian technologies», 2023. No. 3(23). P. 10–24.

Myskin S.V., Kudryavtsev V.T. Linguistic personality in norm and pathology / Proceedings of the International Conference "Mental health of the individual. Languages of psychiatry and psychology", October 19-21, 2023, Yerevan, Armenia. Yerevan: ASPU, 2023. pp. 430-443.

Myskin S.V., Tarasov E.F. On the formulation of the problem of pathogenic text // Proceedings of the international interdisciplinary scientific conference "Linguistics of the first quarter of the 21st century: trends, results and prospects", Tver, October 12-13, 2023 / Ed. A.A. Romanov. - Tver: TSU, 2023. Pp. 306-309.

Myskin S.V. The Problem of Pathology of Linguistic Personality / IV International Scientific Conference "Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach", November 24–26, 2023, Shanghai, China. Shanghai, China: Shanghai International Studies University, 2023.

Myskin S.V. Psychological and «pathological» transformations of linguistic personality // Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference «Language and personality: socio-cultural and psychological transformations», December 15–16, 2023, Moscow. Moscow: Agency for Social and Humanitarian Technologies, LLC, 2023. pp. 15–20.

Myskin S.V., Tarasov E.F. The concept of pathology of linguistic personality / Linguistics of the first quarter of the 21st century: trends, results and prospects: collective monograph / Ed. A.A. Romanov. - Tver: TSU, 2024. Pp. 43-56.

Myskin S.V., Tarasov E.F. The Problem of Simulative Text in the Youth Subculture of a Megacity // Proceedings of the IV International Scientific and Practical Conference «Dialogue of Cultures. Culture of Dialogue in a Multinational Urban Space», February 27 – March 1, 2024, Moscow. Moscow: Moscow State Pedagogical Univ., 2024. pp. 459–463.

Myskin S.V., Kravtsov L.G. Speech invariant of aggressive and autoaggressive discourse // Philological sciences. Scientific reports of higher education. 2024. No. 5 (1). P. 51–63. DOI: 10.20339/PhS.5.1-24.051

 

Literature

1. Apresyan Yu.D. Lexical semantics: synonymous means of language. Moscow: Nauka, 1974. 366 p.
2. Vygotsky L.S. Development of higher mental functions. Moscow: Publishing house of the Academy of pedagogical sciences, 1960. 500 p.
3. Zholkovsky A.K., Melchuk I.A. Towards the construction of a working model of language ("meaning=text"). Machine Translation and Applied Linguistics, issue 11, 1969.
4. Isakova K.V. Psycholinguistic features of professional speech of teachers under stress: specialty 10.02.19 "Language Theory": dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences, 2022. - 174 p. - EDN MAQKXT.
5. Luria A.R. Main Problems of Neurolinguistics. 3rd ed. Moscow: LIBROKOM Book House, 2009. 256 p.
6. Melchuk I.A. Levels of utterance representation. (General structure of the «Meaning=Text» model). Preprint. Moscow: Institute of Languages of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1972. 45 p.
7. Myskin S.V. Structure and content of professional communication // Questions of psycholinguistics. Moscow: Institute of Languages of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Medical Academy, 2020. No. 1 (43). P. 54-63.
8. Nosenko E.L. Emotional state and speech [Text] / E.L. Nosenko // Kyiv: Higher school, 1981. 196 p.
9. Tarasov E.F. Speech activity theory: development prospects // Organizational psycholinguistics. Moscow: OOO "Agency of social and humanitarian technologies", 2023. No. 4(24). P. 35–5
10. Khomskaya E.D. Neuropsychology. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2010. 496 p.
11. Chomsky N. Language and Thinking. Translated from English. Moscow: Moscow State University Press, 1972. 123 p.

References

1. Apresyan YU.D. Lexical semantics: synonymous means of language. Moscow: Nauka, 1974. 366 p.
2. Vygotskij LS. Development of higher mental functions. Moscow: Publishing House of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, 1960, 500 pp.
3. ZHolkovsky AK, Mel'chuk IA. On the construction of an effective model of language («meaning=text»). Machine Translation and Applied Linguistics, issue 11, 1969.
4. Isakova KV. Psycholinguistic features of professional speech of teachers under stress: specialty 10.02.19 "Language Theory": dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences, 2022. - 174 p. - EDN MAQKXT.
5. Luria AR. Main problems of neurolinguistics. Vol. 3. Moscow: Librokom Book House, 2009. 256 p.
6. Mel'chuk IA. Levels of presentation of utterance. (General structure of the «Meaning=Text» model). Preprint. M.: IRJa AN SSSR, 1972. 45 s.
7. Myskin SV. Structure and content of professional communication // Issues of psycholinguistics. Moscow: Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Medical Academy, 2020. No. 1(43). P. 54–63.
8. Nosenko EL. Emocional'noe sostoyanie i rech' [Tekst] / EL Nosenko // Kiev: Vishcha shkola, 1981. 196 s.
9. Tarasov EF. Speech activity theory: development prospects // Organizational psycholinguistics. Moscow: OOO «Agency for Social and Humanitarian Technologies», 2023. No. 4(24). P. 35–50.
10. Khomskaya ED. Neuropsychology. SPb.: Piter, 2010. 496 s.
11. Homskij N. Language and thought. Translated from English. Moscow: Izd. MGU, 1972. 123 pp.