FEMALE EPISTOLARY DISCOURSE: PRAGMALINGUISTIC AND GENDER APPROACHES

The article investigates the pragmatic peculiarities of the female epistolary discourse, of love letters in particular. The analysis of the emotive concept “love” conducted by the author makes it possible to interpret the female perception of men, to whom they feel or might feel affection, to describe the women’s stereotypes of the males. The article also gives details on the female addressers choice of linguistic means for the verbalising of the concept “love”. This concept coexists in the chosen type of discourse with fear and hope, female self- esteem and psychological strength. A female turns out to be not just a “fair sex” representative full of emotions, not just the one whose actions are induced by feelings, but an of? cial, admin- istrative ? gure capable of taking vital decisions and deprived of any fear to resolve dilemmas