Language use in social crisis situations is usually described as
being highly ideological, and it exhibits features of affect involving the use
of negative evaluation of the perceived social enemies. The present study
aims to explore the characters’ language use in Ray Bradbury’s short story
entitled The Last Night of the World from a pragma-stylistic perspective. The
fictional dialogue that takes place between the two protagonists creates and
reflects the dynamics between them, where the unspeakable is only inferred
rather than communicated. The analysis reveals special features of verbal
communication in a crisis situation, especially focusing on the lexical
and morphosyntactic properties, as well as on the verbal interaction and
cooperation between the characters revealing their alignment. The results of
the analysis prove that the verbal and non-verbal communication between
the protagonists do not show the features described in crisis communication;
therefore, the text of the story can be interpreted as subverting the generic
language use in a critical situation
