There has been ongoing research contrasting online vs. Face-To-Face (FTF) interactions for more than a decade. This study fills the gap in the literature considering FTF vs. online contexts by comparing the norms and patterns of complimenting in Persian and explores the complimenting strategies, syntactic patterns, and internal and external modifiers used in each setting. The corpus included 366 FTF compliments related to the topic of appearance. Findings demonstrated that in both settings explicit and formulaic compliments are used more frequently than implicit and non-formulaic ones. However, implicit compliments in FTF interactions were less prevalent than those in online settings. FTF compliments did not show the same level of creativity as the online ones did and a more diverse set of adjectives were used in online vs FTF compliments. Finally, the paper provides implications for further research.
{"title":"Comparing compliments in Face-to-Face vs. online interactions among Iranian speakers of Persian","authors":"Ali Derakhshan, Zohreh R. Eslami, Farzaneh Shakki","doi":"10.1075/ps.22102.der","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22102.der","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 There has been ongoing research contrasting online vs. Face-To-Face (FTF) interactions for more than a decade.\u0000 This study fills the gap in the literature considering FTF vs. online contexts by comparing the norms and patterns of\u0000 complimenting in Persian and explores the complimenting strategies, syntactic patterns, and internal and external modifiers used\u0000 in each setting. The corpus included 366 FTF compliments related to the topic of appearance. Findings demonstrated that in both\u0000 settings explicit and formulaic compliments are used more frequently than implicit and non-formulaic ones. However, implicit\u0000 compliments in FTF interactions were less prevalent than those in online settings. FTF compliments did not show the same level of\u0000 creativity as the online ones did and a more diverse set of adjectives were used in online vs FTF compliments. Finally, the paper\u0000 provides implications for further research.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48352178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The retraction of a previously published research article, often due to the discovery of fraud or scientific error, can pose considerable threat to an author’s career and reputation. This paper examines legitimation strategies in the retraction notice (RN), a document in which authors formally announce their decision to retract an article. By analyzing 300 RNs published between 2010–2021 in Q1 biomedical journals, this study finds that 76% RNs contain at least one legitimation strategy, with Mortification, Full/Partial Denial, and Corrective Action being the most frequently used. Moreover, a comparison of RNs that report fraud, misconduct, error, unreliable data/results, and other similar matters shows that fraud-related RNs have the highest incidence of legitimation strategies. Authors committing fraud often employ Mortification, Disclaimer, and Reassurance, while authors reporting scientific errors put more emphasis on Good Intention and Perseverance. This study contributes to the understanding of legitimation and image repair in scientific discourse.
{"title":"Correcting the scientific record","authors":"Yuting Lin","doi":"10.1075/ps.22008.lin","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22008.lin","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The retraction of a previously published research article, often due to the discovery of fraud or scientific error, can pose considerable threat to an author’s career and reputation. This paper examines legitimation strategies in the retraction notice (RN), a document in which authors formally announce their decision to retract an article. By analyzing 300 RNs published between 2010–2021 in Q1 biomedical journals, this study finds that 76% RNs contain at least one legitimation strategy, with Mortification, Full/Partial Denial, and Corrective Action being the most frequently used. Moreover, a comparison of RNs that report fraud, misconduct, error, unreliable data/results, and other similar matters shows that fraud-related RNs have the highest incidence of legitimation strategies. Authors committing fraud often employ Mortification, Disclaimer, and Reassurance, while authors reporting scientific errors put more emphasis on Good Intention and Perseverance. This study contributes to the understanding of legitimation and image repair in scientific discourse.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"165 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135557845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Evidentiality is a linguistic category that comprises forms and meanings related to the source of information in utterances, the use of which may impact judgments about the degree of certainty expressed by a speaker. The main dichotomy is first-hand (direct) vs. second-hand (indirect) evidence. This distinction is grammaticalised in Japanese only, though certain related meanings can be expressed in English lexically or constructionally. The relevant forms in both languages also function as indirectness-for-politeness markers. We used a judgments elicitation task and found that statements with Japanese evidentials (both first- and second-hand) and with English markers of uncertainty lead to judgments of lower certainty than the statements without the evidential forms and meanings for the majority, but not for all speakers. In addition, monolingual and bilingual usage in both languages has parallels such that these two typologically distinct languages appear closer and certainty judgments by their speakers similar.
{"title":"Evidential meanings in native and learner Japanese and English","authors":"Luna Filipović, Mika Brown, Paul E. Engelhardt","doi":"10.1075/ps.20089.fil","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20089.fil","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Evidentiality is a linguistic category that comprises forms and meanings related to the source of information in utterances, the use of which may impact judgments about the degree of certainty expressed by a speaker. The main dichotomy is first-hand (direct) vs. second-hand (indirect) evidence. This distinction is grammaticalised in Japanese only, though certain related meanings can be expressed in English lexically or constructionally. The relevant forms in both languages also function as indirectness-for-politeness markers. We used a judgments elicitation task and found that statements with Japanese evidentials (both first- and second-hand) and with English markers of uncertainty lead to judgments of lower certainty than the statements without the evidential forms and meanings for the majority, but not for all speakers. In addition, monolingual and bilingual usage in both languages has parallels such that these two typologically distinct languages appear closer and certainty judgments by their speakers similar.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135642737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Previous research has investigated aspects of deontics, epistemics, and resistance in medical settings. However, few have focused on deontics and how resistance shapes the responses of deontic authority ( Stivers and Timmermans 2020 ), especially in online medical counseling. Utilizing the data collected from online medical consultation and adopting a discursive approach, this study investigates how doctors deploy deontic authority to resolve caregivers’ deontic right-based resistance. It is found that caregivers’ deontic right-based resistance comprises two major categories: strong deontic right-based resistance and weak deontic right-based resistance. Accordingly, doctors tend to use strong deontic authority to resolve caregivers’ strong deontic right-based resistance and mitigated deontic authority to resolve weak one. Because doctors’ deontic authority is particularly vulnerable in online contexts, it is proposed that doctors value their deontic authority in the decision-making of a treatment plan, which they manifest by protecting their deontic authority when their deontic territory is invaded.
{"title":"Deontic authority-based resolution of deontic right-based resistance in online medical consultation","authors":"Minwen Wei, Yongping Ran","doi":"10.1075/ps.21033.wei","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21033.wei","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Previous research has investigated aspects of deontics, epistemics, and resistance in medical settings. However, few have focused on deontics and how resistance shapes the responses of deontic authority ( Stivers and Timmermans 2020 ), especially in online medical counseling. Utilizing the data collected from online medical consultation and adopting a discursive approach, this study investigates how doctors deploy deontic authority to resolve caregivers’ deontic right-based resistance. It is found that caregivers’ deontic right-based resistance comprises two major categories: strong deontic right-based resistance and weak deontic right-based resistance. Accordingly, doctors tend to use strong deontic authority to resolve caregivers’ strong deontic right-based resistance and mitigated deontic authority to resolve weak one. Because doctors’ deontic authority is particularly vulnerable in online contexts, it is proposed that doctors value their deontic authority in the decision-making of a treatment plan, which they manifest by protecting their deontic authority when their deontic territory is invaded.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"205 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135643256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The aim of this study is to explore humor as a means for deconstructing identities in humorous narratives written by adult L2 learners. Norton Pierce’s (1995) notions of investment in L2 learning, imagined identities, and imagined communities as well as the concepts of script opposition and target employed for the sociopragmatic analysis of humor ( Attardo 2001 ) are exploited for demonstrating how humor constitutes a means for deconstructing L2 learners’ imaginary projections and investments in L2. The analysis reveals that L2 learners use humor in their narratives to account for their failure to fulfill their imagined identities as competent speakers and legitimate members of the host community, or for the flouting of their expectations concerning the behavior of the members of the imagined host community. Moreover, humor emerges as a strategy allowing learners to attenuate potential threats against their own positive face or that of host community members ( Brown and Levinson 1987 ).
摘要本研究旨在探讨幽默作为解构成人二语学习者幽默叙事中的身份认同的一种手段。诺顿·皮尔斯(1995)关于第二语言学习投资、想象身份和想象社区的概念,以及幽默社会语用分析中使用的剧本对立和目标的概念(Attardo 2001)被用来证明幽默如何构成解构第二语言学习者对第二语言的想象投射和投资的手段。分析表明,二语学习者在叙事中使用幽默来解释他们未能实现自己作为称职的演讲者和东道国社区合法成员的想象身份,或者是对他们对想象中的东道国社区成员行为的期望的蔑视。此外,幽默作为一种策略出现,使学习者能够减轻对自己或接待社区成员的积极面孔的潜在威胁(Brown and Levinson 1987)。
{"title":"Deconstructing imagined identities and imagined communities through humor","authors":"Spyridoula Gasteratou, Villy Tsakona","doi":"10.1075/ps.20079.gas","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20079.gas","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of this study is to explore humor as a means for deconstructing identities in humorous narratives written by adult L2 learners. Norton Pierce’s (1995) notions of investment in L2 learning, imagined identities, and imagined communities as well as the concepts of script opposition and target employed for the sociopragmatic analysis of humor ( Attardo 2001 ) are exploited for demonstrating how humor constitutes a means for deconstructing L2 learners’ imaginary projections and investments in L2. The analysis reveals that L2 learners use humor in their narratives to account for their failure to fulfill their imagined identities as competent speakers and legitimate members of the host community, or for the flouting of their expectations concerning the behavior of the members of the imagined host community. Moreover, humor emerges as a strategy allowing learners to attenuate potential threats against their own positive face or that of host community members ( Brown and Levinson 1987 ).","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135642769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Collective attacks related to controversial issues are pervasive in online communication. However, public opinion is often reversed later when earlier reports are revealed to be misinformation, which may lead to remedies offered to the victim by netizens. We call such phenomena online public opinion reversal (POR) events, which reflect group polarization from attack to remedy. This paper explores the pragmatic strategies that netizens employ to launch attacks and offer remedies in such events, examining a dataset including 300 netizen-generated attacking comments and 300 remedial comments collected on Weibo. The study identified two main categories of online attack strategies and seven types of remedial strategies. Chinese netizens prefer to employ on-record strategies when launching attacks. When an earlier report is revealed to be fake, they employ apology as the most frequent remedial strategy. Preferences for different attacking and remedial strategies and potential influencing factors are also discussed.
{"title":"Attacks and remedies in online public opinion reversal events","authors":"Yiman Wu, Wei Ren, Yi Zhang","doi":"10.1075/ps.21095.wu","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21095.wu","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Collective attacks related to controversial issues are pervasive in online communication. However, public opinion is often reversed later when earlier reports are revealed to be misinformation, which may lead to remedies offered to the victim by netizens. We call such phenomena online public opinion reversal (POR) events, which reflect group polarization from attack to remedy. This paper explores the pragmatic strategies that netizens employ to launch attacks and offer remedies in such events, examining a dataset including 300 netizen-generated attacking comments and 300 remedial comments collected on Weibo. The study identified two main categories of online attack strategies and seven types of remedial strategies. Chinese netizens prefer to employ on-record strategies when launching attacks. When an earlier report is revealed to be fake, they employ apology as the most frequent remedial strategy. Preferences for different attacking and remedial strategies and potential influencing factors are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135642063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The burgeoning digital economy has also aroused wide public concerns over its improper use of personal data for economic and political profits. This study focuses on the milestone Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and examines how Mark Zuckerberg succeeded in avoiding public blame during two US Congressional hearings. An integrated analytic framework has been established by combining blame theory and critical discourse analysis to examine blame-avoiding strategies used by Mark Zuckerberg during the two Congressional hearings. The findings have revealed not only the topics but also the specific strategies and the linguistic means and realizations for these strategies. It is expected that this study can generate significant implications on blame-avoiding strategies by digital corporations for their inherently flawed business models.
{"title":"Blame-avoiding strategies for a digital scandal","authors":"Ming Liu, Yanxi Lu","doi":"10.1075/ps.21063.liu","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21063.liu","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The burgeoning digital economy has also aroused wide public concerns over its improper use of personal data for economic and political profits. This study focuses on the milestone Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and examines how Mark Zuckerberg succeeded in avoiding public blame during two US Congressional hearings. An integrated analytic framework has been established by combining blame theory and critical discourse analysis to examine blame-avoiding strategies used by Mark Zuckerberg during the two Congressional hearings. The findings have revealed not only the topics but also the specific strategies and the linguistic means and realizations for these strategies. It is expected that this study can generate significant implications on blame-avoiding strategies by digital corporations for their inherently flawed business models.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"302 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135643025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The widespread panic associated with media exposure is a serious challenge to worldwide governments in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, alleviating negative social emotions, particularly panic, is an urgent issue for the state media. By using the comments of a Weibo post from The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League, drawing on the notion of extrinsic emotion regulation, this paper conducts a detailed analysis of negative emotions regulation through discourse strategies by the Chinese state media and their effects in the context of COVID-19. The results demonstrate that, by exploiting language strategies, the state media can arouse positive emotions amongst users, thus distract the public from experiencing negative emotions. In addition, the state media participate in online interactions, thereby creating positive public emotional spaces. This study indicates that digital platforms like Weibo, occasionally equipped with emotionalized narrative, are of significant value in the regulation of negative emotions in public crisis contexts.
{"title":"Where there is panic, the media are close by","authors":"Qingsheng Jiang, Yansheng Mao, Zhou Yuan","doi":"10.1075/ps.20078.jia","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20078.jia","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The widespread panic associated with media exposure is a serious challenge to worldwide governments in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, alleviating negative social emotions, particularly panic, is an urgent issue for the state media. By using the comments of a Weibo post from The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League, drawing on the notion of extrinsic emotion regulation, this paper conducts a detailed analysis of negative emotions regulation through discourse strategies by the Chinese state media and their effects in the context of COVID-19. The results demonstrate that, by exploiting language strategies, the state media can arouse positive emotions amongst users, thus distract the public from experiencing negative emotions. In addition, the state media participate in online interactions, thereby creating positive public emotional spaces. This study indicates that digital platforms like Weibo, occasionally equipped with emotionalized narrative, are of significant value in the regulation of negative emotions in public crisis contexts.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45005764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trust is of great importance in modern society, but few studies look at it from a linguistic perspective. This paper explores the discourses of trust based on the data from the BLCU Chinese Corpus (BCC). This paper finds that the communicator’s inner states of trust, suspicion, or distrust could be revealed through various metalanguage labels. This paper also indicates several trustworthiness cues that would help determine whom to trust, including (i) the speaker’s credibility, image, and identity, (ii) the relation between speaker and hearer, and (iii) the information being addressed. Further quantitative analysis demonstrates that credibility plays a vital role in trust building, diminishing, or breaking. Besides, the communicators’ image or relation contributes to their trust-building, but there will be suspicion or distrust if their identity is not as expected. This paper will contribute to the theoretical understanding of trust from a linguistic perspective and an account of how people maintain trust in interpersonal communication.
{"title":"“Trust X, because Y”","authors":"Kun Yang","doi":"10.1075/ps.21103.yan","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21103.yan","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Trust is of great importance in modern society, but few studies look at it from a linguistic perspective. This\u0000 paper explores the discourses of trust based on the data from the BLCU Chinese Corpus (BCC). This paper finds that the\u0000 communicator’s inner states of trust, suspicion, or distrust could be revealed through various metalanguage labels. This paper\u0000 also indicates several trustworthiness cues that would help determine whom to trust, including (i) the speaker’s credibility,\u0000 image, and identity, (ii) the relation between speaker and hearer, and (iii) the information being addressed. Further quantitative\u0000 analysis demonstrates that credibility plays a vital role in trust building, diminishing, or breaking. Besides, the communicators’\u0000 image or relation contributes to their trust-building, but there will be suspicion or distrust if their identity is not as\u0000 expected. This paper will contribute to the theoretical understanding of trust from a linguistic perspective and an account of how\u0000 people maintain trust in interpersonal communication.","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42767611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Scott (2022): Pragmatics Online","authors":"Ying Dai","doi":"10.1075/ps.00064.dai","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.00064.dai","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44036,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics and Society","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41617209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}