Discourse Situation Research Articles

The pragmatic functions of ‘respect’ in lawyers' courtroom discourse: A case study of Brexit hearings

This paper is a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the use of the word respect by the main advocates in the High Court and Supreme Court hearings of R v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (the ‘Brexit case’). Courtroom discourse has received substantial research attention in pragmatics, and previous work has largely focused on notions of face and im/politeness exhibited in power-asymmetric encounters between lawyers and witnesses in hostile cross-examination. In contrast, this paper focuses on lawyer–judge interaction in appellate hearings and explores the ways in which advocates negotiate the task of making face-threats that are inherent to the discourse situation, while maintaining the levels of professional courtesy demanded by the institution. The word respect has a particular role in managing this balance, and has attached to it well-established implicit, indexical and professional meanings within the legal profession. The corpus analysis here shows that, although the advocates in question use respect in seemingly formulaic and ritualised ways, it is used to achieve multiple facework and interactional goals. Throughout the analysis we see advocates use respect when (dis)agreeing with judges, challenging opposing counsel and making recommendations to the court.

Confucius and the “Rectification of Names”: Hu Shi and the Modern Discourse on Zhengming

The common approach to discussing Confucius’ advocacy of “correction of names” (zhengming 正名) is to join the current academic debate about its meaning, usually in philosophical terms. Rather than joining in, however, this article describes the debate itself as a historically situated discourse largely dating from the early Republican era. I argue that Hu Shi 胡適 played a crucial but largely forgotten role in the creation of this discourse. While the core of the current discourse on zhengming consists of views that can be traced to him, this discourse is nowadays often regarded as fact rather than a specific interpretation. By forgetting the historicity of this interpretation, academic reflection risks ossification and the loss of its critical spirit. The mere repetition of Hu Shi’s discourse is also contrary to his own spirit, which sought to call into question established views.

Pragmatic Role of Culture in Using Ostensible Invitations across Persian and English Languages

I first begin with the definition of speech acts with a view to providing a distinction between the traditional and modern view of speech acts and then the focus will be on making the distinction between ostensible speech acts vs. genuine speech acts. Finally, my observation relates to the Ahmadi& Rasekh (2010) paper describing the pragmatic features of two culturally Persian culture, north and centre with respect to the use of genuine and ostensible invitations in English based on ten discourse situations and utterances chosen for data collection. The data is compared with the structure of invitations in English reported by Isaacs and Clark (1990). It is concluded that that the socio-linguistic factors might prove useful to understand better the dynamics of failure to recognize the correct function of speech acts in EFL educational settings since these difficulties are reported in Ahmadi and Rakesh’s paper.

The functions and evolution of xob ‘well’ in Persian: A thetical analysis

This study aims to explore the functions of the Persian xob ‘well’ and its evolution mechanisms. The Discourse Grammar model was mainly employed to analyze the occurrences of xob in the Bijankhān corpus. The data analysis revealed that xob is significantly frequent, especially in semi-formal and informal spoken genres. It also demonstrated that xob has risen from the adjective/adverb xub with several propositional meanings most of which converge on ‘good’. Having evolved from this meaning, the core procedural meaning of xob, i.e., ‘engaging in (positive) epistemic/affective consideration prefatory to continuation’, has developed metatextual functions in the three components of the situation of discourse. To express speaker's attitude and speaker-hearer interaction, xob mainly serves the functions of direct response (signaling acceptance, sufficiency, etc.), indirect response (signaling qualification, concession, etc.), and involvement prompting (signaling attention getting, backchannelling, and soliciting consensus). Meeting the needs of text organization, xob fulfills the dual purposes of framing the text pieces and transition between topics and events. The study also highlights the contribution of cooptation and late grammaticalization to the rise of the discourse markers xob and xeyli/besyār xob ‘very well’. Overall, these findings illustrate the potential of Discourse Grammar to address theticals such as discourse markers.

Which word gets the nuclear stress in a turn-at-talk?

Information in turns-at-talk is hierarchically structured with some information made more prominent than other information. A key indicator of information structure is nuclear stress. In this paper we aim to identify factors that correlate with nuclear stress placement.Based on exhaustive manual annotation of ten-word turns extracted from the demographically-sampled subcorpus of the British National Corpus (BNC-C), we consider a large number of factors potentially affecting nuclear placement, including duration (measured in Praat, Boersma and Weenink, 2019), word class (based on PoS tags), position in the turn (each word slot representing a position), frequency (derived from BNC), surprisal (predictability of word B given word A; e.g., Jaeger, 2010), and turn part (pre-start, turn-constructional unit [TCU], post-completer; cf. Sacks et al., 1974).To determine which variables correlate with nuclear stress, we fitted a fixed-effects binomial logistic regression model to the data. The regression analysis confirmed that nuclear stress is affected by several factors simultaneously and that the probability of a word receiving stress is highest for long, surprising, infrequent words occurring late in the turn and integrated into the TCU rather than being peripheral unless they have (extremely) high surprisal values. The study offers implications for our understanding of turn structure, arising from constraints set by turn-taking, and differential action types facilitated in different turn parts. Moreover, the results provide strong support for the assumption that speakers have access to probability distributions (e.g., Jaeger, 2010) and skillfully rely on them during turn production for interactional and informational needs arising from situated discourse.

Effectiveness of a Supports-Based Approach to Peer Interactions of an Autistic Student in the Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Study

PurposeThis mixed-methods study examined the effect of a supports-based intervention on the interactions between John, a 9-year-old minimally speaking autistic student with access to a speech-generating augmentative and alternative communication device, and nonautistic peers in the classroom.MethodWe used a single-case experimental ABAB design to evaluate the relation between provision of social supports and the frequency of communicative offers between John and one nonautistic peer, Ethan. In addition, we integrated interview data and situated discourse analyses involving a variety of adult and child participants to illustrate the nature of peer interactions both before and during provision of social supports.ResultsIn summary, visual inspection of the single-case data supported a functional relation of moderate effect size between the provision of social support and an increased frequency of communicative offers between John and Ethan. Results from the discourse analysis suggested that social supports led to the (a) emergence of completed turns across peers, (b) flexible use of multimodal communicative resources, and (c) movement toward egalitarian interactions.ConclusionsThis study is one of the first to provide experimental evidence for a supports-based approach to peer interactions involving a minimally verbal autistic student. Clinical implications focus on encouraging flexible multimodality and adopting a strength-based approach that fosters autistic sociality.

Cultural and speech characteristics of the sounding word: A critical look at modern television speech

The article presents the results of a study of modern oral television speech in terms of its conformity / non-conformity with the norms of the literary language. The aim of the study was to establish the characteristics of the cultural-speech situation of television journalistic discourse. The objectives of the study are to identify and systematize the parameters of the violation of the language norm in the speech of educated people – T.V. journalists. The main methods of the undertaken research are observation, analysis, systematization, comparison, interpretation, generalization. The material of the study are the texts of the "News" and "Political talk show" genres, daily shown on the air of central Russian channels It has been established that violations of the norm of the literary language occur at all levels of the language system: phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic, as well as the level of textual organization of the utterance, which leads to the logical errors. As a result of the analysis, the authors come to the following conclusions: 1) modern television language comes into conflict with the canons of normative communication; 2) an avalanche-like violation of literary norms no longer testifies the democratization of the language, but its vulgarization, often a deliberate decrease in the cultural level of speech by journalists; 3) the turbulence of the norm in modern mass communication creates the conditions for the loss of the meaning- distinctive capabilities of linguistic units, for the weakening of the meaning of the sense-organizing rules for the combination of utterance components.

Lingvocultural Specifics of the Communicative Behaviour in Arabic English-language Business Discourse

Introduction. The paper studies specifics of the communicative behavior of native speakers of English and Arab speakers of English as a second language in business situations. The novelty of the study is implied by the fact that it establishes ethnocultural features of comissive speech acts in value-marked situations in the English-language business discourse. The relevance of the study is conditioned by the interest in speech acts functioning in lingvocultural perspective, which studies patterns of communicative behavior in cross-cultural situations and issues of verbal representation of speech acts in the speech of native and non-native speakers of English as they are employed in various genres and types of discourse.Methodology and sources. The study employs methods of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis interpretive method. The study is drawn on a corpus compiled of business letters written by employees of United Arab Emirates companies who speak English as a second language (LBLC). The corpus LBLC comprises 160 letters, 33 907 words. To identify cultural differences, Business Letter Corpus of 1 million words that contains letters written by British and American writers was chosen.Results and discussion. The results of cross-cultural comparison of commissive speech acts representation in value marked situations in the Learner Business Letter Corpus (LBLC) and Business Letter Corpus are presented. It has been concluded that both corpora under study display similarity as for functions of comissive speech acts in value-marked communicative situations whereas differences are revealed in the variation of lexical and grammatical choices that represent these speech acts and their pragmatics. In the BLC the situations when commissive speech acts correlate with apology the addresser commits themselves to obligation not to perform actions that are undesirable for the addressee or prevent the circumstances that might have negative consequences for the addressee. In the LBLC, following the communicative act of apology the addresser emphasizes the causes that have resulted in his failure to complete his obligations and promises to eliminate these causes. The texts in BLC employ explicit speech acts of guarantee that represent an obligation on condition that the addressee completes a certain action and emphasize the sincerity of the addresser. The texts in LBLC do not contain any instances of explicit speech acts of guarantee and the utterance is interpreted as a guarantee on the basis of declarations expressed in the letter.Conclusion. It is concluded that in cross-cultural value-marked situations speech acts implementation follows algorithms that are relevant in a given culture and display cultural specificity that can be studies by linguistic methods.

Augmenting Communicative Environments for People With Acquired Neurogenic Disorders

This theoretical review article describes situated discourse analysis (SDA) and explores its implications for communication sciences and disorders. Drawing on situated theories of cognition and communication, SDA aims to understand real-time communicative processes of people engaging in complex sociocultural activities in specific sociomaterial environments. For SDA, discourse points first to the multimodal processes, not the products, of communicative interactions people engage in, and recognizes that these processes are fundamentally complex, distributed, and emergent. The article begins by defining SDA and describing four theoretical principles that guide this approach. We illustrate ways SDA might alter and advance theory, research, and clinical practice by considering its application to understanding the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies by adults with neurogenic communication disorders and their routine partners. We then explore empirical evidence from a methodologically diverse set of cases. The first considers Mialet's (2012) ethnographic study of Stephen Hawking and his use of AAC technologies, which highlights the complex, distributed, and emergent nature of situated discourse. We turn then to our clinical experiences, reflecting on what we have learned from our clients who have creatively repurposed technologies to remediate their activities and to mediate successful interactions and situated learning. Finally, we discuss a participatory design research project that used SDA as a guide for the innovative design of PIMs, pseudo-intelligent mediators (i.e., devices that sense the environment and act as active agents to mediate interactions). We conclude the article with a discussion of ways SDA contributes to and advances our research and clinical practice.

Critical Perspective on Discourse in the Representation of Conflict in Ireland

This paper provides a critical analysis of the role of discourse in conflict situations, with a particular focus on dominant and competing discourses which have emerged in relation to conflict in Ireland historically. It begins with a general discussion about theoretical ideas around discourse, focusing in particular on the writings of critical theorists such as Gramsci, and Foucault. It engages with some of the key ideas about common-sense acceptance, reproduction and reinforcement of dominant hegemonic discourses, and how such hegemony emerges and is sustained. It also looks at how subordinate discourses often challenge and replace once dominant discourses. It then analyses how discourse plays a role in conflict in society and how discourse, like conflict itself, often changes in form and content depending on circumstance. Using examples of discourse, sourced from the print media and academic literature, about conflict in Ireland, the language and terminology used and how this has framed competing understandings and interpretations of the conflict, the article illustrates how conflict is reflected in competing discourses including dominant and subordinate variants. It argues that uncritical, unqualified acceptance of dominant discourse about conflict by academia and others potentially prevents the development of rigorous social scientific research, the unravelling of the underlying causes of conflict as well as potentially delaying the onset of real and meaningful peace building. It also potentially places academia firmly on the side of the status quo in conflict situations.

From the Editors

Discourse analysis, thus, is essentially a contribution to the study of language “in use.” —Teun A. van Dijk (1985) In this issue of Topics in Language Disorders, Issue Editor Dr. Davida Fromm has invited authors to provide information about advances in discourse analysis related to neurogenic communication disorders. The study of discourse is critical because as van Dijk (1985) states, examining various facets of discourse allows researchers and clinicians to best capture functional production of spoken (and written) language. First, DeDe and Hoover (2021) use case studies of individuals with aphasia to illustrate the importance of selecting appropriate discourse measures using a person-centered approach. Next, Hengst and Sherrill (2021) discuss discourse analysis for people with complex communication needs who use augmentative and alternative communication within a theory of situated discourse analysis. Then, Steel et al. (2021) summarize the literature related to narrative discourse interventions for people with posttraumatic brain injury. Roberts et al. (2021) share findings from their large database of people with cerebrovascular disease related to a sequenced picture description task. Finally, to complete this well-rounded issue, Minga et al. (2021) provide an introduction to the RHDBank, which is a shared database that includes discourse samples of individuals with communication impairments following right hemisphere damage. In summary, Davida Fromm and the authors of this issue provide guidance to researchers and clinicians wishing to expand their knowledge and use of a wide variety of discourse analysis approaches. These contributions will move the field toward an improved understanding of language in use. —Sarah E. Wallace, PhD, CCC-SLP —Gary A. Troia, PhD, CCC-SLP Co-Editors

Individual differences in discourse priming

Abstract In this paper we use corpora of four monolingual German-speaking children at 2 years of age to analyze the effect of input on the activation of chunks and frame-and-slot patterns. For this purpose, we first investigate to what extent chunks and patterns can be traced back to the direct input compared to input which is not part of the immediate discourse situation. Second, we take mean length of utterance (MLU) into account to see how the level of proficiency influences the amount of priming in each child. Results indicate that children with a lower MLU rely more on priming than children who are more proficient. This conclusion is consistent with the usage-based assumption that children’s linguistic development starts with a strongly item-based reproduction of input patterns that gradually gives rise to increasingly creative and productive uses of constructions.

Parametric status of the subject of utterance

The article proposes a possible solution to the problem of the poly-subjectness of narrative discourse, associated with the hybrid nature of artistic communication, in which not only the world of narration is modeled, but also the communicative situation of communication. As one of the parameters of the discursive process, the analysis of which makes it possible to observe the intensive interaction of a number of systems participating in modeling the imaginary world of a work of art, the subject of the statement is considered, in M. Foucault's terminology, an empty position in discourse. The narrative text can be viewed as a complex of a number of communicative phenomena, as a special type of social interaction. A speech act, in which the text becomes an integral component, represents, according to this point of view, a two-unit complex of events, the process of the speaker's production of an utterance and the process of interpretive perception of the finished speech product. The interaction of the author and the reader takes place at the point I here now (Origo), in which an event takes place, which in the theory of the speaking subject of Yu. Kristeva is defined as passing the zero position subject of evocation-process and statement-result. In a complexly structured artistic message, the dynamics of the subject of utterance is expressed in the alternation of pronoun forms. In the structure of discourse, the subject of utterance forms a position, filling which the grammatical subject realizes the relationship between the grammatical and the communicative system, which represents a complex perspective of communication. The observer's area, which determines the communicative situation of narrative discourse, completely excluding interpersonal relations (this is what Bakhtin means when he speaks of the absence of dramatic relations between the author and the reader). The introduction of the observer category makes it possible to describe the position of out-of-access, according to which the author is on the border of fiction. The perspective of the observer explains another feature of literary communication, described by M.M. Bakhtin as the birth of meanings at the moment of meeting (dialogue) of the consciousnesses of both participants.

Гипнометафора как дискурсивный механизм речевого воздействия (на примере психологических тренингов Натальи Грейс)

The article deals with the concept of hypnotic metaphor in psychiatry and linguistics and explores its application in the situation of public teaching discourse. The right-hemisphere mechanisms of perception are considered in order to detect sensory images, represented in the universal object code, since the processes of mastering the facts, which are based on similarity, adjacency, imagery, take place in the right hemisphere. The connection of mirror neurons with metaphorical thinking is assumed. The classification of metaphor types in psychotherapeutic literature is given. The article analyzes the performance of modern speaker-coaches, given as lectures, trainings, conversations and designed to effectively change the emotional mood and categorical constructs of listeners. Otherwise, listeners simply will not buy tickets for these events. It is concluded that modern lecture trainings are a kind of group psychotherapy session. Information is fed in a ‘live stream’ of right-hemisphere mechanisms involving mirror neurons. Coach rhetoric is a system of metaphors that are archetypes of consciousness and are part of the basic layer of the conceptual framework.

Variación de estilo en interacciones digitales: huéspedes y hoteles en reseñas TripAdvisor

En este trabajo se propone un análisis del estilo comunicativo que aparece en reseñas realizadas por huéspedes de hoteles y sus consiguientes respuestas, en la popular plataforma de viajes y turismo TripAdvisor. El objetivo es identificar y analizar el conjunto de rasgos lingüísticos de estilo que aparecen tanto en las opiniones de los usuarios como en las respuestas de los responsables de las empresas hoteleras. A partir del análisis de la variación de estilo sobre un corpus de reseñas y respuestas, el estudio muestra que tanto huéspedes como hoteles exhiben rasgos de adaptabilidad al medio para alcanzar sus finalidades comunicativas, pero muestran estilos comunicativos diferentes y divergentes, por no decir encontrados y opuestos, reflejo de las realidades e imágenes sociales de los usuarios y de las audiencias potenciales que posee cada uno, enfrentando percepciones polivalentes de la norma lingüística al tiempo que ampliando las posibilidades de innovación y expresión lingüística.

Inequalities in status: How do they show in discourse and what can be done about them?

This paper considers the modelling of aspects of context of situation and aspects of discourse in such a way as to bring out inequalities in status between speakers and the effects of these on the exchanges of which the discourse is composed. The paper is also concerned with ways of playing down/reinforcing such inequalities. First a partial model of context of situation will be introduced designed to distinguish different types of inequality in status, and then a model of exchange structure designed to bring out differences in discourse. It will be shown that these existing models, when applied to naturally occurring discourse, can already to some extent reveal differences of the types under consideration. However the paper will then move on to discuss how the models might be developed further. The work of other researchers who have used the models will be reviewed, notably that of Martin et al. (2009), Zappavigna and Martin (2018), Rose (2014), Muntigl (2004, 2009), O’Donnell (1990,1999). What problems have these researchers encountered, what revisions have they proposed? After discussion of particular problems and possible revisions, the paper will move to more general discussion of what is meant by dynamism in modelling.

Classification of Prepared and Extemporaneous Speech and Possibility of Application in Education

담화 상황에 따른 즉흥적 말하기와 준비된 말하기의 구분 양상은 교육 현장에서 그 실효성이 거의 없다고 해도 과언이 아니다. 특히 즉흥적 말하기와 관련해서는 더욱 그러하다. 이는 구분 자체의 문제라기보다는 이를 구분하는 교육적 기준의 마련에 문제가 있었다고 볼 수 있다. 이를 위해 본고는 맥락, 지식, 기억, 언어투식, 텍스트성의 다섯 가지 기준에 따라 준비된 말하기와 즉흥적 말하기를 구분하였다. 아울러 본고는 이러한 기준에 따라 삶과 앎, 심리학과 수사학, 일화기억과 의미기억, 구어성과 문어성, 통사결속과 의미연결로 구분하여 즉흥적 말하기와 준비된 말하기의 기준 근거를 마련하였다. 이는 말하기 교육상으로 즉흥적 말하기의 교육적 실효성을 높이고, 특히 말하기와 듣기의 생태학적 환경에 부합하는 교육 환경을 구성하는 데 일조할 것이다.It is not an exaggeration to say that the distinction between extemporaneous speaking and prepared speaking according to the discourse situation had little effectiveness in the field of education. Especially when it comes to extemporaneous speaking. This is not a problem of the classification itself, but rather a problem with the preparation of the criteria for classifying it. To this end, this paper divided the prepared speech and extemporaneous speech according to five criteria: context, knowledge, memory, language register, and textuality. In addition, this paper prepared the basis for extemporaneous and prepared speech by dividing it into life and knowledge, psychology and rhetoric, episodic memory and semantic memory, spoken and written language, and cohesion and coherence. This will enhance the educational effectiveness of extemporaneous speaking in terms of speaking education, and in particular, will help to construct an educational environment that matches the ecological environment of speaking and listening.

Effects of Phonomotor Therapy and Semantic Feature Analysis on Discourse Production.

Background Anomia treatments typically focus on single word retrieval, although the ultimate goal of treatment is to improve functional communication at the level of discourse in daily situations. Aims The focus of this study was to investigate the impact of two effective anomia treatments on discourse production as measured by a story retell task. Method and Procedure Fifty-seven people with aphasia were randomized to receive either a phoneme-based treatment, Phonomotor Therapy (PMT; 28 participants), or a lexical-semantic treatment, Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA; 29 participants). Groups were matched for age, aphasia severity, education, and years post onset. All received 56-60 hr of treatment in a massed treatment schedule. Therapy was delivered for a total of 8-10 hr/week over the course of 6-7 weeks. All participants completed testing 1 week prior to treatment (A1), immediately following treatment (A2), and again 3 months later (A3). Discourse was analyzed through the percentage of correct information units at each time point. Outcomes and Results Both groups showed nonsignificant improvements from pretreatment to immediately posttreatment. The PMT group showed significant improvement 3 months posttreatment, while the SFA group returned to near-baseline levels. Conclusion These results add to our understanding of the effects of both PMT and SFA. Future research should address understanding variability in discourse outcomes across studies and the effects of aphasia severity and individual participant and treatment factors on treatment outcomes for both of these approaches.

Gender and Politeness/Hedging Strategies in English among Igbo Native Speakers in Nigeria: A Difference in Conversational Styles

Gender and language studies in general have not been fully explored in most parts of the globe particularly in Nigeria. The objective of the study therefore was to examine the politeness and hedging strategies in the English language conversation of Igbo native speakers in Nigeria as well as establish whether men and women’s conversational styles have been gendered As a cross-sectional questionnaire and interview-based survey, the sample population was studied by means of ten-item questionnaire in the form of Discourse Completion Task and structured interview at seven Universities systematically selected from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones in Nigeria. The study instruments were completed, returned, transcribed and statistically analysed using the quantitative and qualitative tools for analysis of production and perception data respectively. Results showed that politeness and hedging are indispensable sociolinguistic elements in the conversational English of the study sample. Also, results revealed that to accomplish a communicative goal, the samples adopted different politeness/hedging strategies given the discourse situation. Also, findings showed that the female respondents were found to adhere more to linguistic politeness principles than their male counterparts considering the context hence demonstrating a difference in conversational style. The study found evidence to establish that females are more polite than males in conversations. In conclusion, findings of this study showed that respondents yielded to certain sociolinguistic factors such as age, culture, hierarchy, disposition and religion as they were believed to inform the use of a particular strategy or another.

Establishing the Symbolic Association of the Concept of 'Youth' in the British and American Literary Discourse in the 19th-21st Centuries

The article deals with axiologically marked symbolic associations related to the sociocultural phenomenon of youth. The research is conducted on the basis of social novels by British and American authors of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The symbolic meaning of the concept is formed in a textual context and motivated by cultural images, ideas and values. It does not cause an internal semantic change but complements the range of meaning in the process of discourse implementation. The study of the symbolic embodiment of the concept of YOUTH in English literary discourse is not limited to the analysis of individual words but requires conducting an interpretative-textual analysis of the coherent discourse situation, indicating the formation of an associative chain during concept actualization. Chain elements are linked internally into a single unit, forming an associative group. The symbol, carrying the axiological potential of its culture, operates in inseparable unity with the axiological component of the concept under study. The data clarify the relationship between positive and negative axiological representations of the concept.