Siberian Federal University 
- Issue
- Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (3)
- Authors
- Puskás, Andrea
- Contact information
- Puskás, Andrea : J. Selye University (Komárno, Slovak Republic);
- Keywords
- pragmatic meaning; intercultural influences; politeness; silence; minimalist dialogue; high-context communicative norms
- Abstract
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born British novelist and short story writer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. He is known for his impressive explorations of emotions, memory and (inter)cultural encounters. This paper examines how pragmatic meaning is constructed in Kazuo Ishiguro’s short story The Family Supper. The central claim is that the narrative’s emotional impact is based primarily on indirectness, silence and reader inference rather than explicit narration and communication. Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework that combines politeness theory, relevance theory and intercultural pragmatics, the paper examines Ishiguro’s minimalist dialogue, narrative omissions and restrained language and how all these can challenge Western expectations of explicit emotional expression. The story invites readers to experience grief, guilt and unresolved family tensions. Silence, indirectness and topic avoidance are shown as collective face-saving pragmatic strategies, which reflect Japanese high-context communicative norms and culture. By emphasizing the role and impact of culturally shaped pragmatic inference in literary dialogue, the study underlines the importance of intercultural awareness and sensitivity in the interpretation of contemporary fiction
- Pages
- 672–679
- EDN
- PORKEM
- Paper at repository of SibFU
- https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/158226
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