MARKERS OF CONFLICT COMMUNICATION IN ADOLESCENCE

Kurko Ya.D.

Moscow City Pedagogical University
Moscow, Russia
e-mail: yad.kurko@yandex.ru

Any interaction in society sooner or later leads to conflict. Recently, we have observed an increasing general conflict, manifesting itself in various spheres of life, including education.

It can be observed that conflicts tend to increase during certain age periods; these periods are called crisis periods. One of the most prominent crisis periods is adolescence. Teenagers are in the process of developing their worldview, which requires defending, which is possible through debates and discussions. Teenagers are also preoccupied with reasserting their authority and establishing a hierarchy within the group, which leads to constant conflicts of interest: everyone strives to achieve a higher position. These psychological and socio-psychological phenomena manifest themselves in adolescent speech. In this regard, we will outline some propositions that reveal the essence of these manifestations and provide a rationale for them.

The first proposition: certain markers of conflict can be identified in speech. First, it's important to clarify the terminology. In this context, conflict refers to contradictions that arise during interaction, characterized by opposition between parties and accompanied by negative emotions. In speech, negative emotions will be conveyed through certain linguistic means. These can be called conflict markers (CM).

The most obvious MC are swear words. They vary in their degree of offensiveness. We can distinguish between coarse colloquial, unprintable, and invective vocabulary [6].

The use of swear words serves several functions. First, it's intended to evoke negative emotions in the other party, lower their self-esteem, and, consequently, assert themselves. Second, it's an attempt to change the other party's behavior through provocation. Furthermore, swear words convey information about the speaker (who is speaking and in what role) and also define the recipient: who they are, what their role is, their mood, and their status. Furthermore, swear words create a general picture of the speech situation, revealing the specifics of the situation: when, why, for what purpose, and where the communication takes place [11].

The spectrum of conflict markers is broad. It includes negative evaluative and stylistically debased vocabulary (for example, when evaluating appearance, personality traits, or mental abilities), animalistic expressions and animalistic comparisons, interjections, and relativistic expressions with negative connotations [6]. According to N.P. Martysyuk, the word selection stage most clearly demonstrates the characteristics of a negative or aggressive state of communicants. In an aggressive state, conscious control over the quality of speech is reduced, and as a result, vocabulary diversity is also significantly reduced. This is confirmed by the presence in speech of ubiquitous abusive set expressions, colloquial constructions, and epithets with a pronounced negative connotation [7].

It's worth noting that in addition to lexical markers of conflict, there are also grammatical ones. P.A. Marakulina argues that the use of forms indicating the communication partner is a fairly common grammatical marker. Second- and third-person pronouns serve as an example: you, you, he, she [6]. In addition, individual verb forms can be grammatical MC. For example, the perfective imperative of a verb has the greatest conflict potential: «"Sit down! Get out of here!"» [Ibid.].

According to P.A. Marakulina, certain grammatical forms acquire negative connotations and aggressive overtones only when incorporated into certain syntactic constructions [Ibid.]. For example, adding the subjunctive mood can make a sentence sound rude and familiar: «"Why don't you shut up?"». The author also notes that the use of certain syntactic structures «…in denotative meanings with additional connotations that are not characteristic of them…» is also one of the common grammatical markers of conflict.» For example, «Do I need it?!; Yeah, I'm already running!; It doesn't bother me!. Such syntactic constructions are a negation through affirmation and contain an implied negative evaluation [Ibid., p. 3].

A distinctive feature of MK is its categorical nature. The addresser presents his own negative assessment as an absolute truth [2].

The second position: during age-related crisis periods, conflict increases.

To illustrate this thesis, let us turn to adolescence, one of the most intense and conflict-ridden periods. Adolescents begin to compare themselves with adults and younger children, coming to the conclusion that they are more of an adult than a child. This sense of adulthood leads adolescents to desire recognition by the adults around them as independent and significant. This feeling can be called a "psychological symptom" that accompanies adolescence [3, p. 146]. D.B. Elkonin defined the sense of adulthood as a specific new formation of consciousness, through which comparisons with others, which can be both adults and peers, occur. Thanks to this, adolescents find models of behavior, build relationships with other people, and restructure their activities [Ibid.]. The sense of adulthood can also be defined as a special form of adolescent self-awareness, as individual ideas about oneself as a person belonging to the adult world [12, p. 254].

A characteristic feature of adolescence is imitation or copying of behavior [8]. Most often, the object of copying is a significant adult who has achieved success.

E. Erikson viewed adolescence as a pivotal period for solving the problem of personal self-determination and achieving identity. Adolescence is often referred to as a crisis period, reflecting its turbulent course and the challenges it presents for the adolescent and those around them [12]. Adolescent crisis is understood as a breakdown and abrupt change in the entire system of personal experiences, its structure and content.

Where does increased conflict stem from at this age? Adolescents begin to view the world critically and protest against dogma, the hypocrisy of adults, their supposed correctness and infallibility, and the frequent deceitfulness of their actions. They need not just attention, but the understanding and trust of adults. They strive to take a certain position and play a certain social role not only among their peers but also among their elders. However, within adult society, attitudes that hinder this have become firmly entrenched: «"You're still a child and you should obey."». As a result, a psychological barrier grows between adults and teenagers, and in an attempt to overcome this barrier, many teenagers resort to conflictual forms of behavior [10].

Speech in adolescence is a separate and interesting topic for consideration. It can be observed that oral utterances change compared to the previous age period. The content changes, numerous descriptions are added, and the number of evaluative phrases increases. Also noteworthy is the increasing focus, consistency, and compositional clarity of utterances. Oral utterances increase in length, becoming more varied and detailed. In a scientific and methodological work on developmental psychology, V.S. Mukhina notes: "The expressive function, expressed not only through description but also intonation, noticeably develops" [8, p. 358].

Speech is one form of self-expression. During adolescence, the degree of jargon in speech increases significantly. A number of reasons for this phenomenon have been identified in various literature. The first reason is deliberate shock value. This manifests itself in a desire to challenge others, to stand out, and to break accepted rules. The second reason is an uncontrollable surge of emotion. It manifests itself in the individual demonstrating a strong emotional reaction to an event. The third reason is a manifestation of belonging to a particular subculture. In this situation, the use of certain words will demonstrate adherence to fashion. The fourth reason is a limited and meager vocabulary, as well as an inability to navigate situations of extreme emotional intensity [5].

Third position: in critical age periods of life, it is possible to identify individual markers of conflict in the speech of speakers.

For the most part, such markers are jargons related to different parts of speech: creepy (adverb), yap (noun), I was stunned (verb), Crap, your f (interjections), blunt (adjectives), etc. Also, markers of conflict can be set expressions (Teach your grandmother to suck eggs).

In addition, swearing, obscene language, and negatively charged evaluative vocabulary are used.

Below are examples from colloquial speech and literature that clearly illustrate the use of MC in adolescence. It can be seen that the main type of conflict markers – These are jargons related to various parts of speech, as well as reduced obscene and negatively colored vocabulary.

Example 1. (r/r)

- Are you completely crazy?!

            - You're really annoying with this!

Example 2. (r/r)

            - Listen, you schizo, get out of here!

Example 3. (r/r)

            – Shove your opinion up your ass!

            - Go to hell!

Example 4. (r/r)

            - I don’t understand, why are you doing this?

            - Damn it! You can't get it normally!

Example 5. (r/r)

1: Listen. Are you completely out of your mind?

2: What do you mean?

1: Smoke in the sky! What are you doing? You know I'm in love with him! And anyway... Who does that?!

2: What are you getting so worked up about? I don't understand. No one touched you, he didn't touch you. What's the problem?

1: No. You're really stupid. This is important to a girl. You can't do this! You wouldn't understand. You're a boy.

Example 6.

«Listen, you started all this. <...>

"Shut up. And get out of here."» [9].

Example 7.

«Enough, Larry,” said the Sphinx. “You’ve already driven everyone crazy with your furnishings. Calm down.”.

"There," a trembling finger with a long nail pressed against my forehead. "Because of this entity, we're sitting in this mess! We're serving coffee in bed instead of encasing it in cement!"

"Lary, what are you talking about, Larry?" he squealed. "What are you talking about, dear?" <...>

"Shut up, you little brat!" Larry yelled. "You could at least keep quiet for once in your life!"

“So what?” the Jackal was astonished. <...> Why, with such inclinations, can’t you learn to cook pasta?

- Because go to hell, you fucking idiot!» [9].

In examples 2, 3, 6 we see an illustration of an irritated demand expressed through the use of constructions with the 2nd person imperative: move; shove; go; shut up; get lost; roll away; calm down — when the intonation center IK-2 is located on it with a sharp increase in intensity, a high level and a large range of tone fall [1, p. 140].

In examples 2, 5, 7 one can see the use of negatively coloured evaluative vocabulary: schizo; stupid; jerk; fucking idiot.

The examples contain the use of a communicative unit Yes, which usually indicates the inadequacy of the interlocutor’s behavior in the situation: You're getting on my nerves; damn it; screw you; why are you getting so worked up?.

Examples illustrate the use of reduced vocabulary: I'm stunned; I'm fed up; I'm fucked; what the hell; I'm in shit; emotionally charged: you're babbling; you're getting worked up; what are you talking about?; stable expressions: smoke in the yoke; bald spot eaten away.

In examples 4, 5 the use of a communicative unit same indicates a situation that should have taken place but does not. (The statement «"You don't get it normally."» corresponds in meaning to the statement «You should have understood it in a good way, but you didn’t.».

In example 7 the use of a communicative unit Here indicates that in this case the option corresponding to the speaker’s wishes has not been realized.

It is possible to note the replacement of requests with demands and orders: shut up; go away; calm down.

To summarize, a conflictual speech act is a communication process characterized by a clash, a confrontation, from the perspective of both parties. Speech conflicts give rise to verbal aggression.

In all these examples, a pattern of irritation can be traced: when the speaker believes they know the norm for how a situation should unfold, while everyone else fails to meet it. This irritates them, and, as a result, conflict markers emerge in their speech. This opinion is formulated in a peremptory manner. Naturally, adolescents' understanding of what is normal is still incomplete and narrow, leading to constant conflict with their environment.

All of the above provisions reasonably characterize the manifestations of certain conflict markers in the speech of adolescents, such as jargon, reduced profanity, negatively charged evaluative vocabulary, and the use of orders instead of requests.

Literature

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