STYLISTIC SHIFTS IN EVERYDAY CONVERSATION: THE ROLE OF CONTEXT AND COMMUNICATIVE INTENTION

Abstract

The paper is a detailed investigation into the stylistic changes in colloquial conversation at the intersection of sociolinguistics, pragmatics and stylistics. Language is not a static phenomenon, but a dynamic organism, which is constantly changing in accordance with the communicative environment, social relationships, and individual intentions of the speaker. The study explores the use of formal and informal registers, emotional expressions and modern slang in different contextual settings (social, situational, cultural) and digital media. Moreover, speakers’ conscious language choices are interpreted through Howard Giles’s Communication Accommodation Theory and Paul Grice’s theory of conversational implicature. The findings show that style-shifting is never random, but rather a very strategic and functional behaviour, which is used to create social solidarity, to show politeness, to persuade interlocutors or to maintain status. In the age of modern digital communication and globalization, stylistic flexibility has become an indispensable part of successful human interaction.