Contrastive studies of languages usually focus on differences in lexical items, syntactic structures, semantic expressions, collocations, and so on. In the present paper we take a cognitive pragmatic approach, assuming that metarepresentation in the sense of Sperber (2000) and Wilson (2000) offers a crucial perspective in such studies. We discuss how the speech act component of higher-level explicatures is linguistically realized in Japanese and English, focusing on sentence adverbials, ‘because’ clauses, speech act particles, reported speech, private predicates, and desiderative predicates. We conclude that in the Japanese language, information concerning the speech act component tends to be linguistically realized, while such information is not necessarily realized in English. We suggest that this cognitive pragmatic approach can be applied to other languages where higher-level explicatures are basically explicit as in Japanese or implicit as in English.
{"title":"Metarepresentational phenomena in Japanese and English","authors":"Seiji Uchida","doi":"10.1075/prag.21061.uch","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21061.uch","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Contrastive studies of languages usually focus on differences in lexical items, syntactic structures, semantic expressions, collocations, and so on. In the present paper we take a cognitive pragmatic approach, assuming that metarepresentation in the sense of Sperber (2000) and Wilson (2000) offers a crucial perspective in such studies. We discuss how the speech act component of higher-level explicatures is linguistically realized in Japanese and English, focusing on sentence adverbials, ‘because’ clauses, speech act particles, reported speech, private predicates, and desiderative predicates. We conclude that in the Japanese language, information concerning the speech act component tends to be linguistically realized, while such information is not necessarily realized in English. We suggest that this cognitive pragmatic approach can be applied to other languages where higher-level explicatures are basically explicit as in Japanese or implicit as in English.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75422536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study seeks to characterise the form of verbal irony common among Nigerians by identifying its motivation, inherent properties, and communicative value. Data for this study comprised detailed field notes taken within the last five years in contexts in which utterances occurred naturally. These were then tested among informants from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds at the University of Benin to determine the prevalence and motivation of the ironic utterances. In addition, 500 questionnaires were administered to a group of students and staff in the same institution. These were analysed using frequency tables and simple percentages. Results support the claim that irony in this context is governed by a single cultural principle: “You hurt yourself by admitting a negative situation.” Although the study draws heavily from the relevance-theoretic echoic account, it seeks to reevaluate this account by suggesting that positive attitudes in negative situations are salient cultural notions that underlie the echoic account in this context.
{"title":"‘It seems my enemy is about having malaria’","authors":"F. Ogoanah","doi":"10.1075/prag.20061.ogo","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20061.ogo","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study seeks to characterise the form of verbal irony common among Nigerians by identifying its motivation,\u0000 inherent properties, and communicative value. Data for this study comprised detailed field notes taken within the last five years\u0000 in contexts in which utterances occurred naturally. These were then tested among informants from diverse ethnic and linguistic\u0000 backgrounds at the University of Benin to determine the prevalence and motivation of the ironic utterances. In addition, 500\u0000 questionnaires were administered to a group of students and staff in the same institution. These were analysed using frequency\u0000 tables and simple percentages. Results support the claim that irony in this context is governed by a single cultural principle:\u0000 “You hurt yourself by admitting a negative situation.” Although the study draws heavily from the relevance-theoretic echoic\u0000 account, it seeks to reevaluate this account by suggesting that positive attitudes in negative situations are salient cultural\u0000 notions that underlie the echoic account in this context.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76446390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Lindholm, Jenny Paananen, Melisa Stevanovic, Elina Weiste, Taina Valkeapää
In this study, we examine how support workers produce requests for concrete actions and, in this way, manage client participation in mental health rehabilitation. Drawing on Finnish rehabilitation group meetings as data and on conversation analysis, we examine how support workers design their requests for concrete action from clients, how clients respond, and how support workers deal with clients’ responses. The results reveal that support workers tend to use verbs indicating willingness when implementing their requests, whereas clients resort to the modality of possibility. By orienting to willingness, the support workers invoke clients’ sense of responsibility to contribute to group activities and simultaneously avoid questioning their capabilities. On the other hand, clients orient toward the underlying assumptions of social responsibility rather than to their own personal preferences. To conclude, our study demonstrates how support workers address the dilemma of increasing client participation and showing respect for client self-determination.
{"title":"Requests for concrete actions in interaction","authors":"C. Lindholm, Jenny Paananen, Melisa Stevanovic, Elina Weiste, Taina Valkeapää","doi":"10.1075/prag.20077.lin","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20077.lin","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In this study, we examine how support workers produce requests for concrete actions and, in this way, manage client participation in mental health rehabilitation. Drawing on Finnish rehabilitation group meetings as data and on conversation analysis, we examine how support workers design their requests for concrete action from clients, how clients respond, and how support workers deal with clients’ responses. The results reveal that support workers tend to use verbs indicating willingness when implementing their requests, whereas clients resort to the modality of possibility. By orienting to willingness, the support workers invoke clients’ sense of responsibility to contribute to group activities and simultaneously avoid questioning their capabilities. On the other hand, clients orient toward the underlying assumptions of social responsibility rather than to their own personal preferences. To conclude, our study demonstrates how support workers address the dilemma of increasing client participation and showing respect for client self-determination.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77035999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The paper explores the social interaction that takes place during the initial phases of videoconferences. The focus is on the problem of absent participants, which is often considered a reason for delaying the official beginning of the meeting. One of the resources that the participants have is to reach the absent participant by cellphone. We observed a recurrent pattern of action whereby one of the participants disengages from the video meeting to reach the missing person by phone. This negotiation process moves through four steps: (1) the detection of the problem, (2) the offer to call the missing person by one participant, (3) the acceptance of this offer by the moderator, and (4) the temporary absence of the participant from the video meeting to make the phone call. Our data concern videoconferencing in the context of international teacher training in German as a foreign language (LEELU project, https://www.leelu.eu/english/).
{"title":"Dealing with missing participants in the opening phases of a videoconference","authors":"S. Hoffmann, Giolo Fele","doi":"10.1075/prag.20035.hof","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20035.hof","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The paper explores the social interaction that takes place during the initial phases of videoconferences. The\u0000 focus is on the problem of absent participants, which is often considered a reason for delaying the official beginning of the\u0000 meeting. One of the resources that the participants have is to reach the absent participant by cellphone. We observed a recurrent\u0000 pattern of action whereby one of the participants disengages from the video meeting to reach the missing person by phone. This\u0000 negotiation process moves through four steps: (1) the detection of the problem, (2) the offer to call the missing person by one\u0000 participant, (3) the acceptance of this offer by the moderator, and (4) the temporary absence of the participant from the video\u0000 meeting to make the phone call. Our data concern videoconferencing in the context of international teacher training in German as a\u0000 foreign language (LEELU project, https://www.leelu.eu/english/).","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79883566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper aims to examine the realisation of suggestions in authoritative academic discourse through the lens of cognitive pragmatics. To date, the majority of academic suggestion research has focused on face-to-face interactions in an institutional context. However, other forms of suggesting, namely the written forms of academic suggestions have not yet been sufficiently explored. Thus, there is a knowledge gap when it comes to authoritative academic suggestions directed to policy makers. Such policy maker-directed suggestions are always bound and embedded in particular cultural contexts. As a case study, we explore the suggestions in authoritative academic discourse with the focus on illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs) and relevant construal strategies. Our data were drawn from the Blue Book of Ecological Governance (China Ecological Governance development report 2019–2020), an important manifestation of authoritative academic discourse in China. The findings indicate that three types of IFIDs are deployed to delimit Chinese authoritative academic suggestions, among which conventionalised and indirect IFIDs are preferred. Notably IFID tools pertain to speakers’ choices of construal strategies for building up the infrastructure of suggestions. The operation of these strategies reveals how authoritative academic suggestions are internally coded, as well as how they are built to externally act on. Furthermore, we argue that the speakers’ choices of construal strategies imply a degree of politeness. The study may shed light upon speech act and politeness research in Chinese linguaculture.
{"title":"Delving into suggestion speech acts in Chinese authoritative academic discourse","authors":"K. Li, Wenyu Liu","doi":"10.1075/prag.22022.li","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22022.li","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper aims to examine the realisation of suggestions in authoritative academic discourse through the lens of\u0000 cognitive pragmatics. To date, the majority of academic suggestion research has focused on face-to-face interactions in an\u0000 institutional context. However, other forms of suggesting, namely the written forms of academic suggestions have not yet been\u0000 sufficiently explored. Thus, there is a knowledge gap when it comes to authoritative academic suggestions directed to policy\u0000 makers. Such policy maker-directed suggestions are always bound and embedded in particular cultural contexts. As a case study, we\u0000 explore the suggestions in authoritative academic discourse with the focus on illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs) and\u0000 relevant construal strategies. Our data were drawn from the Blue Book of Ecological Governance (China Ecological\u0000 Governance development report 2019–2020), an important manifestation of authoritative academic discourse in China.\u0000 The findings indicate that three types of IFIDs are deployed to delimit Chinese authoritative academic suggestions, among which\u0000 conventionalised and indirect IFIDs are preferred. Notably IFID tools pertain to speakers’ choices of construal strategies for\u0000 building up the infrastructure of suggestions. The operation of these strategies reveals how authoritative academic suggestions\u0000 are internally coded, as well as how they are built to externally act on. Furthermore, we argue that the speakers’ choices of\u0000 construal strategies imply a degree of politeness. The study may shed light upon speech act and politeness research in Chinese\u0000 linguaculture.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72609346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focuses on the uses of the definite marker -tì in Longxi Qiang, a Tibeto-Burman language. Although the selection of referring expressions made by speakers is based on referent accessibility or cognitive status, at the same time, referring expressions have pragmatic and interactive dimensions. The concept of identifiability can account for the uses of the definite marker -tì; however, this concept is not sufficient to explain the selection of -tì in certain discourse contexts. Accordingly, this paper discusses the discourse uses of non-referential definite noun phrases. In addition to encoding definiteness, -tì serves as a prominence marker to trigger the interpretation that an entity, an action or a property is prominent, and the speaker intended to highlight the topicality. With respect to discourse functions, -tì is attached not only to noun phrases but also to verb and adjective phrases, fillers and connectors. These uses of -tì have been expanded into Wenchuan Mandarin.
{"title":"Definite reference and discourse prominence in Longxi Qiang","authors":"Wuxi Zheng","doi":"10.1075/prag.22024.zhe","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22024.zhe","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper focuses on the uses of the definite marker -tì in Longxi Qiang, a Tibeto-Burman language. Although the selection of referring expressions made by speakers is based on referent accessibility or cognitive status, at the same time, referring expressions have pragmatic and interactive dimensions. The concept of identifiability can account for the uses of the definite marker -tì; however, this concept is not sufficient to explain the selection of -tì in certain discourse contexts. Accordingly, this paper discusses the discourse uses of non-referential definite noun phrases. In addition to encoding definiteness, -tì serves as a prominence marker to trigger the interpretation that an entity, an action or a property is prominent, and the speaker intended to highlight the topicality. With respect to discourse functions, -tì is attached not only to noun phrases but also to verb and adjective phrases, fillers and connectors. These uses of -tì have been expanded into Wenchuan Mandarin.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76667936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study explores the interactional meaning of an invitation to bid in Korean elementary school EFL classroom interaction by adopting a conversation analytic perspective. The study argues that participants use invitations to bid to indicate that a question elicits knowledge worthy of public demonstration. The analysis of thirteen video-recorded EFL lessons revealed that teachers use invitations to bid, fulfilling instructional agenda or demands whether they are set up at the beginning of an activity or arise midway. Students similarly invite themselves to bid, showing their understanding of the meaning that the practice carries. While teachers overwhelmingly accept students’ self-invitations, they may reject them in light of the details of instructional here and now. It is argued that deciding which student population should reply is a matter of negotiation although teachers have the final say, oriented to consequences of turn allocation on the work of teaching in progress.
{"title":"The use of invitations to bid in classroom interaction","authors":"Jae-Eun Park","doi":"10.1075/prag.22001.par","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22001.par","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study explores the interactional meaning of an invitation to bid in Korean elementary school EFL classroom interaction by adopting a conversation analytic perspective. The study argues that participants use invitations to bid to indicate that a question elicits knowledge worthy of public demonstration. The analysis of thirteen video-recorded EFL lessons revealed that teachers use invitations to bid, fulfilling instructional agenda or demands whether they are set up at the beginning of an activity or arise midway. Students similarly invite themselves to bid, showing their understanding of the meaning that the practice carries. While teachers overwhelmingly accept students’ self-invitations, they may reject them in light of the details of instructional here and now. It is argued that deciding which student population should reply is a matter of negotiation although teachers have the final say, oriented to consequences of turn allocation on the work of teaching in progress.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75867934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines the linguistic and discursive format as well as the functions of hypothetical quotations in everyday, informal conversations amongst Greek Cypriot friends. Drawing from a dataset of 270 minutes of naturally-occurring conversations, this study documents the linguistic format of sixty-one hypothetical quotations and examines why speakers resort to formulating such quotations to begin with. To do so, Goffman’s (1981) work on footing and participation framework is employed along with an analysis of these quotations in interaction following the work of Goodwin (2007). This study shows that most instances of hypothetical quotations are formulated as direct quotations. There can be both self- and other-quotations, and the quotative can take various forms. Hypothetical quotations serve an array of discursive functions, such as showing the listener’s involvement in an interaction, creating humour, supporting one’s argument or refuting the argument of the other, in line with other studies in the literature.
{"title":"Didn’t she say to you, “Oh my God! In Pafos?”","authors":"Constantina Fotiou","doi":"10.1075/prag.20049.fot","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20049.fot","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study examines the linguistic and discursive format as well as the functions of hypothetical quotations in everyday, informal conversations amongst Greek Cypriot friends. Drawing from a dataset of 270 minutes of naturally-occurring conversations, this study documents the linguistic format of sixty-one hypothetical quotations and examines why speakers resort to formulating such quotations to begin with. To do so, Goffman’s (1981) work on footing and participation framework is employed along with an analysis of these quotations in interaction following the work of Goodwin (2007). This study shows that most instances of hypothetical quotations are formulated as direct quotations. There can be both self- and other-quotations, and the quotative can take various forms. Hypothetical quotations serve an array of discursive functions, such as showing the listener’s involvement in an interaction, creating humour, supporting one’s argument or refuting the argument of the other, in line with other studies in the literature.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78998763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Employing a cross-generational perspective, this study attempts to deepen our understanding of the politeness strategies Saudi females use when responding to compliments in English from an English speaker. The study investigated how Saudi females from two generations respond to compliments in an educational setting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Participants included sixty-two female undergraduate students and sixty-four female lecturers from one university in the KSA. Following a mixed methods approach, the study included two primary sources of data: a quantitative Discourse Completion Task questionnaire for eliciting compliment responses (CRs) from the two generations; and qualitative semi-structured interviews with six participants from each group. Findings indicate that participants from both groups tended to accept compliments although there was a tendency to question the sincerity of the compliments.
{"title":"Responses to English compliments on language ability","authors":"Randa Saleh Maine Alharbi, P. Strauss, Lynn Grant","doi":"10.1075/prag.21013.alh","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21013.alh","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Employing a cross-generational perspective, this study attempts to deepen our understanding of the politeness\u0000 strategies Saudi females use when responding to compliments in English from an English speaker. The study investigated how Saudi\u0000 females from two generations respond to compliments in an educational setting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Participants\u0000 included sixty-two female undergraduate students and sixty-four female lecturers from one university in the KSA. Following a mixed\u0000 methods approach, the study included two primary sources of data: a quantitative Discourse Completion Task questionnaire for\u0000 eliciting compliment responses (CRs) from the two generations; and qualitative semi-structured interviews with six participants\u0000 from each group. Findings indicate that participants from both groups tended to accept compliments although there was a tendency\u0000 to question the sincerity of the compliments.","PeriodicalId":46975,"journal":{"name":"Pragmatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81917392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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