AFFECTIVE MEANING AFFECTED – THE BREACH OF POLITENESS PRINCIPLES IN PHILIP ROTH’S PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT
AFFECTIVE MEANING AFFECTED – THE BREACH OF POLITENESS PRINCIPLES IN PHILIP ROTH’S PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT

Summary/Abstract: The present paper deals with the affective meaning in the utterances of characters in Philip Roth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint. By analyzing the dialogues in this novel, what comes to the fore is a constant breach of (what Leech called) politeness principles and maxims. The speech acts that make up the communication between the main character (the ‘frustrated’ teenager) and his parents (especially his mother) or other women in his life are replete with elements that reveal multiple instances of ‘warped’ affective meaning that emphasize the character’s attitude and / or feelings towards another character. The important feature that is emphasized at both the pragmatic and semantic level is the abovementioned breach of politeness principles that also highlights the very theme of the novel – a mother-son relationship causing disorder in which ethical and extreme sexual impulses are usually overlapping and warring.

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