Communicative categories in the cognitive-discursive paradigm

The article analyzes the phenomenon of “communicative category” and its categorical features in comparison with the communicative concept. It defines the main differences between the concepts explicitly verbalized in discourse, and communicative categories which determine the nature and principles of the discourse organization despite their predominantly implicit representation in the discourse. Communicative categories often do not relate to the key lexical item due to the fact that they reflect indistinct, often subjective and relative entities. Combinations of words indicating the communicative character of the latter are used for their lexical objectification. The article suggests the technique to describe the given formats of knowledge, including the combination of several research methods, in particular social, psycholinguistic and communicative methods, associative experiment, interviewing, questionnaire, and the analysis of the functioning of language and speech means, which represent certain communicative category in different types of discourse. Exemplified by the category of communicative mitigation, substantial structure of the communicative category and its representation in communication are demonstrated, as well as metadiscursive markers expliciting this category in Russian and German linguistic cultures are presented. The importance of considering the didactic aspect in the study of the communicative categories forming the communicative competence of the speaker is noted.