Grammatical Resources Research Articles

The “classifier” Category in Mandarin Chinese and Other Languages

This paper contextualizes Mandarin Chinese within the general framework of the “classifier languages” of the world: Asian, Oceanic, Amerindian and African languages. It demonstrates that there are indeed many similarities among them, despite being geographically separated and not having any type of relationship. It continues analyzing the concept of "classifier" and the various types of classifiers in Chinese (individual, collective, partitive, temporary and standard or measure words), and comparing them with lexical and grammatical resources used in the Spanish language to express sense (recategorization) it resorts to some sort of "classifier". This paper demonstrates how “gender”in European languages is a grammar concept, semantically empty, so it should never be confused witha “classifier”. It recognizes how sometimes the overuse of classifier turns them into mere morphemesdevoid of meaning, and other times keeps alive their semantic strength and continue denoting someperceived or imputed feature of the referent. This paper concludes by rejecting two widespread ideas:1. The “primitivism” of classifier languages (against greater mental, logical and abstract developmentof the Indo-European languages). 2. The determinism in the categorization of the world and creationof a world view, as classifiers are conventional, with a strictly semantic role, but not cognitive nordeterministic.

‘Primary care sensitive’ situations that result in an ambulance attendance: a conversation analytic study of UK emergency ‘999’ call recordings

ObjectivesTo explore common features of conversations occurring in a sample of emergency calls that result in an ambulance dispatch for a ‘primary care sensitive’ situation, and better understand the challenges...

Applying functional language analysis approach in Chinese college English reading classes

ABSTRACT This paper describes a study that applies Functional Language Analysis (FLA) in Chinese college English reading context to promote students’ understanding of the reading texts. Different from other commonly practiced reading activities, FLA encourages students to explore text meanings from aspects of content, organization and attitude, and how clues of lexical and grammatical resources help construct these three meanings. Thirty freshmen from a university in Beijing, China received FLA instruction for four months. Data were collected from students’ analysis of reading tasks, presentations, and questionnaires. The study found that FLA is effective in facilitating Chinese students’ active exploration of the text. Specifically, through an examination of participants, processes, and circumstances, students were able to comprehend the content meaning accurately. With attention paid to themes, conjunctions, and other linking devices, they could picture the text structure. They also started to understand the author’s attitude by examining grammatical elements of formality, voice, mood, and modality. Additionally, FLA helped improve students’ confidence and interest in English reading. Positive influences of this approach on students’ other English skills such as listening, writing, and speaking were also reported. The findings suggest that FLA can be successfully implemented in Chinese reading classes.

How Yeats Deploys Grammatical Resources to Establish Expressive Subjectivity

How Yeats Deploys Grammatical Resources to Establish Expressive Subjectivity

Interpersonal grammar of Tagalog

AbstractIn this paper the interpersonal grammar of Tagalog is explored from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Following a brief metafunctional profile of Tagalog grammar, a framework for interpreting the discourse function of Tagalog clauses is introduced – exchange structure. Subsequently the systems ofmood, polarity, modality, tagging, vocation, commentandengagementare considered, alongside their realisation in tone, clause structure and lexical selection. The role played by these interpersonal systems and structure is then illustrated through a brief sample of Tagalog discourse. The paper demonstrates the manner in which a paradigmatic perspective can be used to integrate the description of grammatical resources typically fragmented and marginalised in syntagmatically organised descriptions.

The hurting and healing power of words (and grammatical constructions). A cognitive grammar study of the interactive and interpersonal effects of a directive construction in Polish

The paper considers the issue of how speakers use different grammatical resources to achieve different interactive and interpersonal effects in specific contexts. More specifically, the paper analyzes the pragmatic effects of a particular directive construction from Polish, which, on the one hand, exhibits a certain degree of grammatical incongruity and is not acceptable in Polish at large, but which, at the same time, was not only an attested but probably also a preferred means of performing a particular kind of directive in a specific context. In the analysis, the conventional values of the construction’s components are first analyzed via considering their selected uses in other constructions and the pragmatic effects they bring about in other contexts. The next issue under consideration is how the conventional values of the construction’s components interact with one another, as well as with contextual factors to produce particular interactive and interpersonal effects. The general claim made in the study is that a single grammatical structure may bring about diverse pragmatic effects in different circumstances. At the same time, speech act participants can easily produce and interpret the intended effects via establishing appropriate categorizing relationships between the conventional meanings of the constructional components and the relevant aspects of the specific context-bound conceptualization constituting the interlocutors’ understanding of their speech interaction.

Los infinitivos independientes en el discurso: hacia una tipología pragmática

El objetivo de este artículo es plantear una propuesta de análisis y de clasificación de las construcciones de infinitivo independiente en español basada en criterios pragmático-discursivos (v. Palmerini, 2007, 2012; Palmerini & Calò, en prensa). Una reseña del panorama de los estudios que abordan, desde varios puntos de vista, el análisis de estos especiales usos (Skydsgaard, 1977; Arjona- Luna Trail, 1980; Hernanz, 1999; RAE, 2009; Pérez Vázquez & Telli, 2012a; Quintero Ramírez, 2013a, 2014a, 2018), donde la forma no personal del infinitivo actúa como predicado ‘independiente’ en el enunciado, acercándose al funcionamiento típico de un verbo flexionado, pone de manifiesto la falta de un enfoque teórico que se centre en la dimensión del empleo en el discurso de estas construcciones y que, al mismo tiempo, procure dar cuenta de forma sistemática del conjunto de los variados usos de los infinitivos independientes observables en español. Para lograr este doble objetivo basamos nuestro análisis en cuatro criterios fundamentales (fuerza predicativa, tipo de acto de habla, contexto discursivo, funciones discursivas), que nos permiten trazar un primer mapa pragmático-discursivo del sistema de los infinitivos independientes, que plantea una revisión de la clasificación tradicional de estas construcciones. El análisis diferencia usos predicativos de usos no predicativos, identifica cuatro tipos de actos de habla (asertivo, performativo, expresivo, directivo) realizados a través de estos recursos gramaticales, y reconoce diferentes especializaciones discursivas asociadas al empleo de estas estructuras en el discurso (enunciar, narrar, explicar, compartir experiencias, etc.). Esta taxonomía llama la atención, entre otras cosas, sobre dos áreas de innovación y de expansión del uso del infinitivo independiente en español (cfr. Palmerini & Calò, en prensa): el caso del infinitivo enunciativo (con valor performativo) y el uso expresivo del infinitivo independiente desarrollado en la comunicación a través de las redes sociales.

ТАКТИКА КОМПЛИМЕНТА В АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНОМ ОБЩЕНИИ

This article focuses on a comprehensive review of the tactics of compliment in emotional and evaluative discourse with the help of methods of the modern textual analysis of English works. As a result of the comprehensive study of the tactics at the junction of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, communicative linguistics and pragmatics the authors come to the conclusion that compliment is used in primary and secondary social relations at different distances of communication for its intimization and identification of speakers in the formation of a cooperation dialogue. The compliment tactics implements a masterful moment in communication, is characterized by variability of communicative moves and lexical and grammatical resources and can be successful in case of interlocutors’ sincerity.

Repetition with slight variation primarily through final particles in Korean-English bilingual children’s interaction

Employing Conversation Analysis, this study examines self-repetition with slight variation, primarily made through final particles, in the playtime interaction of Korean-English bilingual children with each other and their caregiver(s). Final particles in the Korean language provide speakers with grammatical resources with which they can effectively modify their actions as well as stances while they repeat their own prior utterances only with a change in (a) final particle(s). The analysis shows how resayings are prompted by interactional contingencies, such as some perceived issue with the first saying or the ways in which participants deal with the first saying, e.g., lack of response. The article illustrates how speakers achieve footing shifts across turns, greater precision in the actions they seek to perform via the practice of slightly variant repetition. Implications of the complex phenomenon of repetition as a site of language learning and use in children’s talk are also discussed.

Metadiscourse and coherence in interpreting

Abstract This paper aims to look closely at the achievement of coherence in interpreting through the prism of metadiscourse, a set of grammatical resources instrumental in organizing a discourse, guiding the recipients towards an author/speaker’s preferred interpretation while taking account of their needs and expectation. Despite a general consensus on the role of the umbrella term, opinions vary on what falls under it. Further, while the conception sets an illuminating framework for empirical endeavors to delve into the way in which meaning is negotiated and represented at discoursal level, its discussion is often confined to the analysis of written text in specific genre (e.g. academic treatise), leaving its role in oral discourse scarcely explored. In this paper, we propose an adapted taxonomy for the analysis of devices as such in interpretation and relate them to the building of coherence in interpreted events. Qualitative analysis of instances from real-life situations is then presented to show that successful communication in interpreting does not only come as a result of rendering the propositional message, but also involves a process of skillfully managing various metadiscoursal devices in reconstructing intertextual and intratextual conherences, both of which serve the same communicative goal with neither enjoying precedence over the other. The proposed taxonomy of metadiscourse may have some pedagogical and practical implications.

Metapragmatic appositions in German talk-in-interaction

AbstractIn German talk-in-interaction it can be observed that so-called loose appositions are frequently used as a grammatical resource for performing selfinitiated self-repairs in the domain of reference. In the current paper, it is argued that this kind of appositional pattern can be described as a grammatical construction which indicates that the incorporated grammatical elements give alternative ‘reference instructions’ for building up compatible conceptualizations of one and the same entity with respect to different epistemic domains. Thereby it offers the possibility to incrementally adjust the design of reference instructions to divergent knowledge states of the interlocutors. The use of appositional constructions is thus frequently linked to aspects of epistemic stance regarding a lack of common ground. Hence, it is argued that aspects of the local management of epistemic asymmetries can be considered part of the pragmatic specifications of the construction. These specifications are sometimes made explicit through the use of lexical markers like also ‘that is’ so that the extended pattern which contains such markers might be called a metapragmatic construction.

Propuesta de análisis crítico del discurso en entrevistas clínicas en profundidad

In this paper, we present a model critical analysis of discourse in educational research that uses a clinical interview as an instrument of data recollection. Our model combines several elements that allow a more exhaustive study of the discourses of the participants in case studies, although the model can be used in other types of research. The factors considered in our model are: relationship between text and context, discourse markers, meta-categories and categories from the analysis of content and grammatical resources. We also added etic and emic perspectives to compare the researcher's visions with the subject or subjects investigated. Key words: educational research, critical analysis discourse, case studies, etic, emic.

LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND IDEOLOGY IN SELECTED POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIAN LITERATURE

One of the greatest threats to national development and the rights of individuals and groups in Nigeria and some parts of Africa is the growing increase in religious fundamentalism by major religions in the continent. The worsening economic fortunes of many African countries, poor and corrupt leadership, the increase in ethnic nationalism, oppression of the minority by dominant powers and ideologies, external influences from extremist groups (Islamic and Christian), among others, have been suggested as likely causes of religious fundamentalism in Africa. The postcolonial Nigerian nation has suffered calamitous losses from religious conflicts. Consequently, some of Nigeria’s 21st century writers have tried in their works to present a situation in which groups use language to construct individual and collective identities and ideologies, legitimise their actions and justify acts of violence against others. The grammatical resource of mood and transitivity employed by the writers in the text under consideration enables them to represent individual and group experiences as well as intergroup relations in social interactions. Therefore, working within the tenets of critical stylistics (CS) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study aims to expose the ideological motivations that underlie the expression of religious discourses in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Chidubem Iweka’s The Ancient Curse and Uwem Akpan’s Luxurious Hearses and their implications for national stability and development. The data reveal that the sociopolitical climate in postcolonial Nigeria breeds a culture of hatred, intolerance, violence, exclusion and curtailment of individual and group rights in the name of religion and these acts are expressed in diverse discourse-grammatical patterns.

On prepositions and particles: a case for lexical representation in systemic functional linguistics

The focus of this paper is on lexical items which are traditionally referred to as prepositions, adverbs and particles, grouped here under the term P-items. It is argued that the relative lack of detail concerning lexical representation within systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory means that there are some issues related to the status of lexis within the framework that require some development. As pointed out by Tucker [2009. In search of the grammarian’s dream: locating lexis in a systemic functional grammar. In Stefaan Slembrouck, Miriam Taverniers, & Mieke van Herreweghe (eds), From will to well: studies in linguistics offered to Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen, 415–426. Gent: Academia Press, 424]:if the theoretical principles are not fleshed out by way of description of both the actual grammatical and lexical resource of a given language, it is of little use to the majority of consumers, those who adopt it for (ultimately) the socio-semantic analysis of actual texts.By examining the treatment of P-items within the SFL framework and by drawing on the rich literature on this topic in cognitive linguistics, this paper aims to offer some proposals for integrating a more comprehensive, cognitively informed approach to lexis in SFL.

Rumo a uma retórica e poética do silêncio

The following assay presents an rhetoric examination and the poetics of silence, from a perspective that assumes the rhetoric as those procedures and methods used by the author to write and hear the silence in his authorship,while it seeking to demostrate that the poetics of silence goes beyond further on the language that appears in the writing of some rhetorical or grammatical resources. In this sense, poetry is presented as the very source of flowing writing, as a conscious act, a necesity to write what can not be said.

Cognition and metaphor as bases for the Principle of translatability and the Principle of synonymy

The problem of equivalence in translation is sometimes falsely related to the translation of lexical meanings. In this paper we take the problem to the field of mapping cognitive functions among mental categories and their representations as concepts. This requires engaging all lexical and grammatical resources of the linguistic system and not solely considering vocabulary as the source of knowledge and information found in texts, be they oral or written. Thus, the problem of equivalence is solved by accepting the basic principles of translatability and synonymy, defined in terms of those mental contents that are behind the interpretation of complex linguistic expressions.

Protofeminist Criticism of Women’s Role in the Victorian Period: A Systemic-Functional Analysis of a Fragment of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

Many Victorian novels written by women are presented from the point of view of a single narrating voice , that of the protagonist of the story in the way of autobiography. On many occasions, the events described in the story faithfully reflect the women authors’ lives. When this occurs, it is not easy to distinguish whether the addresser of the message is the author herself or the protagonist character, because there is a frequent conflation of both in these literary works. Women writers used their novels as a tool to criticize the injustices of their society, such as sexual inequality, lack of education, poverty, etc., especially at a time when women were relegated to the private sphere of the home. The authors tried to portray their restricted reality with a subtle veiled criticism. The aim of this paper is to show how a traditional systemic-functional method of linguistic analysis is able to unveil hidden or implicit messages between the lines of a Victorian proto-feminist literary text, namely Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The systemic-functional analysis of the text under focus will reveal that the author employs different grammatical resources with a strong meaning potential in order to convey subtle feminist vindications.

Center stage: direct and indirect reported speech in conversational storytelling

This paper explores how speakers use direct reported speech (DRS) and indirect reported speech (IDRS) in conversational narratives to establish the importance of particular story characters to the plot and to display the interactional goal of the story. When the story is designed as being about a particular person, the speaker uses DRS to depict the character’s behavior and qualities, thus marking the centrality of the character to the plot. When the story is designed as being about a non-human phenomenon (e.g. the quality of healthcare, the noise in the neighborhood, etc.), the narrator may use IDRS to mark characters as secondary or even tangential to the plot. By manipulating the grammatical resources of reporting someone else’s talk, storytellers can also manipulate the centrality of the story characters to the interactional point of the narrative, or the story’s “aboutness.”

Analysing symbolic expressions in secondary school chemistry: their functions and implications for pedagogy

Symbolic expressions are essential resources for producing knowledge, yet they are a source of learning difficulties in chemistry education. This study aims to employ social semiotics to analyse the symbolic representation of chemistry from two complementary perspectives, referred to here as contextual (i.e., historical) and functional. First, the contextual account demonstrates that symbolism was introduced to represent compounds according to their elemental composition, to quantify chemistry, and to explain reactivity. Further to this, the functional analysis shows that symbolic expressions entail a range of unique grammatical resources to create specialised forms of knowledge, which cannot be made by natural language alone. It is found that historically the symbolic representation was not originally directly related to the submicroscopic domain, nor did it develop sufficient means to offer particulate explanations, although an indirect link could be set up between Berzelian formulae and the submicroscopic theoretical models. It is also found that understanding the quantitative aspects is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective engagement with the symbolic representation of chemistry. Finally the present study discusses the pedagogic implications stemming from the social semiotic account of chemical symbolism.

Late L2ers can acquire grammatical features that do not occur in their L1: Evidence from the effect of animacy on verb agreement in L1 Chinese.

Second language (L2) learners often have persistent difficulty with agreement between the number of the subject and the number of the verb. This study tested whether deviant L2 verb number agreement reflects maturational constraints on acquiring new grammatical features or resource limitations that impede access to the representations of L2 grammatical features. L1-Chinese undergraduate students at three age of arrival (AoA) levels were tested for online verb agreement accuracy by completing preambles in three animacy combinations: animate-inanimate [AI; e.g., The officer(s) from the station(s)], inanimate-animate [IA; e.g., The letters from the lawyer(s)], and inanimate-inanimate [II; e.g., The poster(s) from the museum(s)]. AI should be less costly to process than IA or II sequences, because animacy supports the subject in AI but competes with the subject for control of agreement in IA sequences, and is neutralized in II. Agreement accuracy was greater overall for AI than for IA or II, and although an AoA-related increase in erroneous agreement after plural subjects occurred for IA and II, there were no AoA effects for AI. Higher scores on memory tasks were associated with greater agreement accuracy, and the memory tasks significantly predicted variance in erroneous agreement when AoA was partialed out. The fact that even late learners can do verb agreement in the case of AI demonstrates that they can acquire new grammatical features. The greater difficulty with agreement in the case of IA or II than of AI, in conjunction with the results for the memory tasks, supports the resource limitation hypothesis.