Language Game as a Means of Creating Implicit Meanings

¹ Irkutsk Transport University, Department of Foreign Languages, 15, Chernyshevsky st., 664074, Irkutsk, Russia
² National Research Technical University, Department of Applied Linguistics, 83, Lermontov st., 664074, Irkutsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: belkova-n@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article presents a number of theoretical aspects of “implicit meanings” associated with their definition and reasons making communicators use indirect communication. A typical communicative situation is described in which speakers deliberately conceal the meaning. It is called a communicative triad and involves two types of addressees – “true addressee” and “unplanned participant” of communication. When considering a number of communicative situations of the triad, which are not directly intended to conceal information, one can note the analogy with the phenomenon of “language game”, as one of its features is lack of rational grounds for its functioning. The production of implicit meanings based on the language game principle is described in the form of precedent texts inclusion, where the parameters of presence/absence of the precedent text significance for different categories of recipients, as well as the different participants’ awareness of the factors and rules of the game are significant. There are two scenarios allowing participants to complicate the meaning, which correspond to the main game types distinguished in the game theory – “game-competition” and “game-presentation”. Besides, the authors analyze the use of specialized precedent phenomena, as well as simpler means of playing with the meaning based on the category of uncertainty.