THE PRAGMATIC ASPECT OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES IN BULGARIAN

Abstract

The present paper studies the use of grammatical forms for establishing, keeping and regulating the relationship between speaker and listener. This usage is the way in which the pragmatic aspect of the linguistic sign is realized. The examples are primarily from Bulgarian fiction books. On the basis of these examples, the author argues that although grammar is categorization of our experience and as such offers standard patterns to the user, it nevertheless possesses great pragmatic potential. It provides the speaker with various possibilities to make a choice of a certain form and by breaking the set of grammatical rules to express a wide range of additional meanings.