The genre of complaint in the Russian speech tradition

The study of speech genres represents a growing area of research interest, given the dynamic nature of language. Russian-language research into speech genres draws upon the theoretical framework of Bakhtin (1979), while foreign studies rely on the theory of Austin (1975). However, existing studies have failed to develop theories and trace the transformation of specific genres, such as the genre of complaint. The purpose of the present study is to identify the peculiarities of how the speech genre of complaint is realised within the framework of the Russian speech tradition and to examine the evolution of the genre over time using examples from Russian literary works, song lyrics and Internet complaint websites. The research will be conducted with the use of the method of corpus analysis and method of component analysis. The present study expects to identify the key features of the speech genre of complaint and the specific characteristics of its development in the Russian speech tradition.