Communicative Types of Self-Disclosure in Public Speaking Setting

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the study of the communicative nature of self-disclosure as a technique of verbal influence on people. The phenomenon of self-disclosure is interpreted as the process of divulging private information to others. The aim of the study is to determine the specific features of self-disclosure in a public speaking context. The paper discusses the communicative conventions and parameters of the public speaking scenario as the factors that determine a certain manner of self-disclosing. The key assumption of the study is that public self-disclosure should be viewed as a tactic of self-presentation that promotes the speaker’s image building. In order to indicate the verbal forms that speakers use while disclosing private information in public the discourse and lexical-grammatical analyses of eight celebrity interview texts are conducted. The results of the research demonstrate that the speakers use recurrently certain verbal patterns which are identified as statements of self-description (it includes statements of self-confirmation, self-assurance, personal preferences and personal aspirations), self-narrative and attitude statements. The study also shows which types of the statements are used more frequently than the others, particularly, the statements of self-confirmation, personal aspirations and self-narratives are apparently preferred by the speakers as tactics of public self-disclosure. The paper highlights the fact that the self-disclosure tactics are employed by public speakers selectively and that their choice is motivated by the speakers’ strategic goal of impression management.

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