O gatunku toastu : aspekt lingwistyczny i kulturowy

Abstract

Despite being known for a very long time, the toast as a non-literary genre still has been attracting researchers’ interest. The main reason for this interest is an enormous variety of this genre in terms of its topics and generic composition. Toasts are a part of etiquette consisting of linguistic behaviour and non-verbal effects serving as a kind of reference if interpretation problems arise. Toasts are usually treated as an illocutionary act expressing a certain intention. In the formal semantic analysis of toasts, a significant role is played by the situational context involving the speaker – the person proposing a toast, the hearer i.e. a group of people to whom the toast is made, and neutral observers participating in the act who are not direct addressees of the toast. The context also involves non-verbal behaviour accompanying words, such as certain gestures and requisites.