NON-LINEARITY AS SYSTEMIC PROPERTY OF FUNCTIONAL SPACE OF BUSINESS ENGLISH DISCOURSE

The article discloses the notion of non-linearity in terms of functional (pragmasemantic) characteristics of business English discourse. The authors support the traditional concept of linearity in reference to speech structural organisation; but at the same time they note that the formation of the sense system makes a much more multifaceted process than a successive addition of text components.
Firstly, numerous links are established in a speech chain not only between adjacent units, but also between distant parts of the text. Secondly, even successive phrases acquire additional connotations and sense accretions, as in the course of speech build-up pragmatic and semantic components accrue as specific properties peculiar to this very context and disappear or transform in a different medium. Thirdly, such interaction of all the text elements results in generating «new senses» which the famous linguist, academician L.V. Shcherba, considered even more important than the text syntax. Thus, multisided and diverse discourse links and relations create its aggregate non-linear functional space, which actualises sense accretions on the principle of synergism (figuratively speaking, «2 + 2 = 5»).
The authors analise this phenomenon based on the examples of different business English registers. The authors come to the conclusion that irrespective of the genre, style, national variant of English the property of non-linearity is always realised in communicants’ actual interaction. This property must be used intentionally and appropriately for enhancing the efficiency of rhetoric impacts and harmonising partners’ interaction, especially in international communication.