Semantic and Pragmatic Meaning of Discursive Units in the Process of Communication of a Psychotherapist with a Client

Abstract

The aim of our research is to study semantic and pragmatic meaning of discursive units in the process of communication of a psychotherapist with teenagers with autonomic dysfunctions, using the methods of Positive Psychotherapy. Methods. The main method which has been used in our article was the method of providing psychological help to teenagers with autonomic dysfunction with a help of a five-step model of Positive Psychotherapy (Peseschkian, 2000). To analyze the empirical results of the study the psychodiagnostic technique “Balance Model of Mental Energy Distribution” was used (Peseschkian, 2000). We also used the author’s 24-scale bipolar version of the semantic differential for understanding the semantic and pragmatic meaning of discursive units in the process of communication of a psychotherapist with a client. Results. In our research we determined the semantic and pragmatic meanings of discursive words, such as: (1) actualization of the previous context; (2) anthropocentricity of the statement; (3) synonymy of the context given by discursive words; (4) antonymy of the context given by discursive words; (5) hyponymic context given by discursive words; (6) amplification of the previous context; (7) amplification of conclusions using updated key statements; (8) expectedness/unexpectedness of the addresser’s statement. Conclusions. The specificity of paradigmatic connections of discursive words (first of all, synonymous, antonymic, hyponymic, anthropocentric, actualized, amplified, expected or unexpected) is determined by their contextual dependence. We call such semantic and pragmatic communicative meanings, which differentiate discursive words in the paradigm of communicative situations in the process of communication between a psychotherapist and a client, intentional scripts. They are distinguished by variable lexical and functional possibilities, depending on the context of the utterance, as well as different variations of lexical and semantic, pragmatic and functional constructions.