Pragmatic Status Research Articles

Semifactives in comparatives

This is more complicated than I realized. How are we to understand the status of realize's complement in a sentence like this? What sort of relationship must this complement bear to its matrix environment, in light of realize's status as a cognitive factive or semifactive predicate (Kiparsky & Kiparsky 1970; Karttunen 1971)? Comparative constructions, I suggest, do much to illuminate the nature of semifactives and the semantic–pragmatic status of their clausal complements. Specifically, I propose that semifactives support graded awareness—knowledge of something less, but not more, than the full truth with respect to some question or issue—while requiring that their complement be informationally consistent with the matrix environment, rather than presupposed true. The picture that emerges fits naturally with pragmatic approaches to presupposition generation and projection (Beaver 2010; Simons, Beaver, Roberts & Tonhauser 2017; Degen & Tonhauser 2022) and depends on sensitivity to scalar polarity and orientation (Kennedy 2001).

Aesthetic speech acts: their pragmatic status, function, and realization

The subject matter of this article concerns the interpretation of texts and statements of an aesthetic nature in the light of pragmatics, i.e. as aesthetic speech acts. The author treats aesthetic speech acts as stimulating ones, which are opposed to both representative acts and determinative acts (especially, directive ones). A characteristic feature of stimulating speech acts is their persuasive nature, i.e. such a language action that induces and encourages the addressee to experience emotions but does not influence them in a volitional way. Aesthetic reactions are self-steering and do not depend on the subject’s will. Therefore, the realization of aesthetic speech acts, in comparison with other acts, is specific: it is not possible to use specialized (lexical or grammatical) exponents of the illocutionary function, e.g. performative verbs. To perform the aesthetic function, various elements of the plan of content and the plan of expression are used, which suggest the aesthetic intention of the sender: 1) the semantic content of the text or utterance; 2) its form and structure; 3) context and communication situation; and 4) translation of text/message, including the media. Due to their functional and formal features, aesthetic speech acts are divided into several subtypes: 1) macro-, meso- and micro-acts; 2) free and complementary acts; and 3) communicative and non-communicative acts.

Information structure of converb constructions: Estonian -des, -mata and -maks constructions

Abstract This paper describes the variation in information structure of Estonian -des, -mata and -maks constructions, and analyzes the factors influencing this variation. The paper describes information structure via the categories of information status and information role. Information status, which refers to the general pragmatic status of a linguistic unit, has two possible values: an information unit or an element of an information unit. Information role refers to the pragmatic status of an element in the information structure of a larger information unit. Information role has five possible values: focus, background of the comment, topic, frame or prominent element. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article gives an account of the variation in the information status and information role of Estonian converb constructions. In addition, this paper discusses the way in which the relevant explanatory variables relate to the information status and role of converb constructions. This analysis gives an overview of how the information status of converb constructions relates to the presence of punctuation, the position of the converb construction relative to the main clause, the number of words in the converb construction, the semantic function of the converb construction, the position of the converb within the construction, the morphological form of the converb, and the number of modifiers of the converb. This analysis also discusses how the information role of converb constructions relates to the position and semantic function of the construction and the presence of a lexicogrammatical prominence marker.

Нужна ли часть вне целого? (К статье А.В. Циммерлинга «Конкретно: синтактика без семиотики?»)

Before delving into the connections between linguistics and semiotics, it is essential to es­tablish a clear demarcation between these fields, which necessitates a precise definition of each subject. However, the approach taken by Anton Zimmerling in this regard is subject to de­bate. In the discussion of semiotics, the focus tends to lean towards interpretations that recog­nize the dual understanding of signs, while unilateral conceptions of signs are often over­looked. Linguistics is typically confined to the study of language itself, and the treatment of linguistics concerning speech (text) is often seen as a concealed branch of philology. Moreo­ver, it remains unclear whether the distinction between language and speech pertains to lin­guistics or philology. This ambiguity extends to the status of linguistic pragmatics. To address this issue constructively, it is useful to differentiate between five concepts en­compassing language and speech: hermeneutics, philology, linguistics, semiotics, and prag­malinguistics. Each of these concepts delineates a specific ontology and corresponding metho­do­lo­gical approach. By considering them as orthogonal axes within a fan matrix, one can identify 25 possible approaches for studying speech, including those that are currently em­ployed and potential ones. Within this framework, philological linguistics, as discussed by Zimmerling, finds its place, and the transitions of scholars like Witzany from biohermeneu­tics to biopragmalinguistics and Ongstad's shift from philology become more comprehensible.

The at-issue status of ideophones in German: An experimental approach

Formal linguistics generally assumes that form-meaning relations in spoken language are arbitrary and not iconic. Ideophones, such as the English splish-splash have been considered exceptions to this rule of arbitrariness. Recently, however, researchers have begun to examine iconicity in spoken language more closely. Following work which established the default not- at-issue status of iconic co-speech gestures, here we discuss the crosslinguistic evidence for the (not-)at-issueness of ideophones and the factors that may have an influence upon this. We also present what we believe to be the first experimental work on the at-issue status of ideophones, conducted with German speakers. Although German may not be a prototypical ideophonic language, we argue that German ideophones follow crosslinguistic patterns in terms of at-issueness and provide initial evidence for the not-at-issue status of sentence- medial adverbial ideophones in German. This evidence comes from sentence-context matching tasks, where the mismatch effect was significantly larger for sentences containing standard adverbials than those containing sentence-medial adverbial ideophones. We presume that speaker judgements concerning how well target sentences match discourse contexts should be more impaired by mismatches induced by material relevant to the Question Under Discussion (QUD), i.e. at-issue material, than those induced by material irrelevant to the QUD, i.e. not-at- issue material. We thus argue that speakers’ ratings indicate that sentence-medial adverbial ideophones in German are not at-issue. This paper suggests a starting point for investigating the pragmatic status of ideophones crosslinguistically and also allows for comparison to previous research on other iconic enrichments, in particular gestures. This then has implications for our understanding of the at-issue status of iconic enrichments and how these enrichments interact with each other.

Oman’s Foreign Policy and Its Mediating and Balancing Role in the Middle East

Oman, with its geographical location and ancient tradition, is a country that has succeeded in being a balancing factor, despite its distance from the central tensions of the Middle East and its ineffective appearance in regional politics. Especially during the 50-year reign of Sultan Qaboos that began in 1970, Oman was able to establish strategic relations with regional and global actors and adopted an exceptional foreign policy understanding in the Middle East during the Cold War period. After the death of Sultan Qaboos, Haitham bin Tariq took over the rule of the country as the new sultan of Oman. Under the new Sultan’s power, a pragmatic status quo approach has become the main pillar in the country’s foreign relations, as the traditional foreign policy understanding has been built on independence and moderation at a level that matches Oman’s will and capacity.
 This study presents a perspective on Oman’s foreign policy approach of Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman, based on the analysis of traditional foreign policy framework and practices developed during the reign of Sultan Qaboos who was the architect of the country’s international relations. In this regard, this article examines in chronological order the continuities and ruptures of Omani foreign policy, which has been able to pursue effective policies, despite its low profile in the Middle East, by especially the mission it has assumed in the Gulf since Sultan Qaboos assumed power in 1970. The article also discusses the successful policies of Sultan Qaboos to remain moderate under all conditions and preserve the status quo in the Gulf. The study discusses in detail the exceptional case of Oman in the region using process tracing.

Язык сногадательных книг XVIII века — язык массовой литературы

The article examines the linguistic features of 18th century fortune-telling books published in Moscow and St. Petersburg and representing “mass literature” at the time of the emergence of the book market and the rapid development of secular (civil) book printing in Russia. The vocabulary of dream books, as a rule, does not fall into the field of study of linguists and is not recorded in the academic dictionaries of the 18th century, although it reflects the main processes taking place in the Russian literary language of this time, and often more vividly and more clearly: for example, active word creation, caused by tracing foreign words and mastering borrowings, and the pragmatic setting of these publications to a specific addressee. In the traditions of the enlightened 18th century, the language of dream books claims to be “intellectually”: they actively use scientific terminology, book words and expressions, new words are created, including neo-Slavicisms. At the same time, there are also numerous colloquial, folklore units. The article notes that in the texts of enigmatic books, these multi-style elements do not enter into a “stylistic conflict”, that the pragmatic status of such publications (commercial product in the book market) justifies their coexistence.

НЕСКРОМНОЕ ОБАЯНИЕ АНГЛИЦИЗМОВ: МАГНЕТИЗМ ТЕМНЫХ СЛОВ

Statement of the problem. Problems related to lexical borrowings invariably arouse the interest of linguists. Probably, both the possible reasons for borrowing and their socio-cultural consequences are particularly attractive for studying. Therefore, it is urgent to study the factors contributing to the readiness of the language community to unconditionally accept borrowings from the Anglo-American and their active use. The purpose of the article is a socio-cultural analysis of borrowings, their semantic and pragmatic status in the Russian language. To achieve the goal, discursive, linguoculturological and semantic methods of analysis were used. Research results. One of the catalysts of the above-mentioned turbulent process is the impenetrability of the internal form of a foreign word for most native speakers of the Russian language. Such lexemes often become the germs of new myths channeled through the media and used to manipulate public consciousness. Conclusions. Today’s features of the borrowing process speak of their proximity to traditional verbal magic. Public speech of representatives of the Russian ruling stratum act as a serious impulse encouraging the use of Anglicisms instead of semantically adequate Russian words.

Статус человека через статус животного (на примере французской метафоры “loup” / «волк»)

The aim of the study is to identify the semantic and pragmatic status of the animalistic metaphor “loup/wolf” in the French language. Employing diachronic analysis, the researcher traces the characteristics of the metaphor, which are preserved in the fable and paremiological stock and accentuated in the language of modern business and politics. The study is novel in that it is the first to substantiate the statusness of the French animalistic metaphor, using the lexeme “loup/wolf” as an example. As a result, a person’s linguopragmatic status represented by the conceptual metaphor “loup/wolf” in modern French socio-economic and political discourses and its connections with national cultural codes have been determined.

Перспективы конвергенции религиозной и игровой деятельности в постсекулярную эпоху

The article explores the relationship between religion and play as two types of activity. The relevance of this comparison is dictated by the fact that a playful attitude to religion is fraught with conflict situations, since under certain conditions it borders on sacrilege, "insulting the feelings of believers". The author of the article proceeds from the fact that in order to clarify the boundaries and areas of intersection of religion and the game, it is advisable to clarify the concept of religion. The "classical" concept of religion, as shown by a whole series of religious studies and historical studies, is essentially Christian-centered, therefore, in order to enter a broader subject field, it requires revision. An appeal to anthropology and the history of religion shows that religious practices do not exclude, in principle, a gaming relationship. Moreover, in some historically and anthropologically fixed religions, the game is an integral part of the relationship to the superhuman world of gods and spirits. Even in the Christian tradition, remnants of the game component of religious practices remain, for example, in the form of carnivals. The author comes to the conclusion that the separation of religion from the game occurs only in Modern times, when the very concept of religion becomes clearer, and religion in scientific, political and legal discourse is separated from other activities (science, politics, art, economics, etc.). Therefore, paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, the separation of the game and religion is a side effect of secularization. The postsecular situation allows for the convergence of religion and games in a variety of forms: in the cultural and historical reconstruction of "neo-paganism", in the parody practices of "Pastafarianism", in the form of cosplay "Jedi", etc. The blurring of the boundary between religion and play in modern culture is facilitated by aesthetic practices that cultivate the so-called "post-irony" is a special communicative state in which participants are not able to accurately determine the pragmatic status of messages sent and received, and it is this discrepancy in interpretations that generates conflict situations, the theoretical understanding of which is devoted to the article.

Weighing Psycholinguistic and Social Factors for Semantic Agreement in Dutch Pronouns

Previous research has shown that Dutch pronominal gender is in a process of resemanticization: Highly individuated nouns are increasingly referred to with masculine and feminine pronouns, and lowly individuated ones with the neuter pronounhet/’t‘it’, irrespective of the grammatical gender of the noun (Audring 2009). The process is commonly attributed to the loss of adnominal gender agreement, which is increasingly blurring distinctions between masculine and feminine nouns and, therefore, requires speakers to resort to semantic default strategies (De Vogelaer & De Sutter 2011). Several factors have been identified that influence the choice of semantic vis-à-vis lexical agreement, both linguistic and social. This article seeks to weigh the importance of both structural and social factors in pronominal gender agreement in Belgian Dutch, using the Belgian part of the Spoken Dutch Corpus. A multivariate statistical analysis reveals that most effects are structural, including noun semantics and the syntactic function of the antecedent and the pronoun, as well as the pragmatic status of the antecedent. The most important social factor is speech register. We argue that these effects support a psycholinguistic account in which resemanticization is seen as a change from below, caused by hampered lexical access to noun gender.

Scalar Inferences in the Acquisition of Even

Scalar inferences are ubiquitous in human reasoning. Correspondingly, language has many means of expressing and encoding them. One of these means is the focus particle even, which utilizes scalar inferences to signal the pragmatic status of asserted content as noteworthy. The vehicles that even employs to signal noteworthiness are scalar likelihood inferences. A peculiarity of these inferences is that they are presuppositional in nature (not-at-issue) and yet, they are responsive to the polarity of the sentence expressing the proposition whose likelihood is signaled. This property raises intricate questions about what learners might expect scalar operators of this sort to look like (initial hypothesis space) as well as what type of evidence and learning strategies they have access to as they figure out the specific properties of even in adult English. This paper presents a detailed study of this development, combining data from a series of comprehension experiments and corpus studies. We find that children are sensitive to the basic scalar nature of even much earlier than previous literature has claimed. We additionally find, however, that children sometimes exhibit non-adult-like responses to even sentences, which we argue provide insight into their developing grammar. On this view, the child grammar offers a larger option space for even than the adult grammar. Becoming adult-like, in turn, involves eliminating some of these options, namely those that are underutilized in production due to their limited conversational value.

Toponyms as Elements of Region-Specific Studies: Problems of Translation (Based on Crimean Toponymy)

The article examines toponymic realia as a means of verbalizing lococentrism in region-specific discourse. Bilingual region-specific texts about Crimea and Sevastopol serve as material for analysing methods of pragmatic adaptation, used in translation of culturally significant toponymic realia that are part of the culturally meaningful vocabulary. As in any translation, when translating toponyms one must consider the primary purpose of translation. If that pur-pose is to ensure that foreign guests should easily find their way around a new linguistic and cultural space, the translator’s task will be to recreate the initial sound of toponyms so that foreign recipients may accurately and quickly identify local realia. Conversely, if the purpose of translation is to introduce foreigners to the local history and culture, the main task of the translator will be to render pragmatic meanings and culturally significant connotations of toponyms, paying particular attention to symbolic and axiologically important objects. After a comprehensive analysis of the material, we have concluded that the most efficient method that allows the translator to accentuate culturally valuable characteristics of toponyms is the “add-on” translation (when a specific culture-focused commentary is introduced into the translated text). In our work we used methods of contextual, semantic, conceptual, and comparative analysis to identify the pragmatic status and the degree of cultural importance of toponymic realia, and to determine the best way of their pragmatic adaptation in translation. The results of the study may be used by translators working with region-specific tourism-related literature, travel periodicals and websites, especially those that are dedicated specifically to Crimea and Sevastopol. The present study may also be helpful at the initial stage of pre-translation analysis when the translator has to determine the pragmatic function of the original text and the type of region-specific vocabulary predominant in it.

Cognitive and pragmatic factors in language production: Evidence from source-goal motion events

In order to talk about an event they see in the world, speakers have to build a conceptual representation of that event and generate a message that selects the pragmatically appropriate (e.g., informative) parts of that event that they want to talk about. To further understand the relationship between a speaker's conceptual representations and the pragmatic factors that influence message generation, this work investigates the extent to which different aspects of an event could be affected by pragmatic constraints. We focus specifically on source-goal motion events (e.g., a butterfly flying from a lamppost to a chair) because the conceptual structure of these events is well-understood, but the role that those representations play in message generation is yet unclear. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the pragmatic status of the source (e.g., the lamppost) – in particular, whether starting points of motion were or were not already known to an addressee. We found that sources were mentioned significantly more in the latter case, where they provided new, previously unknown information to the addressee. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the same pragmatic factors could affect goals, or endpoints of motion events (e.g., the chair), in the same way; results showed that they could not. We conclude that conceptually peripheral elements of an event (i.e., sources) are more susceptible to communicative factors than those elements which are conceptually privileged (i.e., goals). We consider the implications of our findings for the relationship between event cognition and pragmatics and discuss how theories of event cognition can be integrated into current models of language production. We also discuss the implications of our work for open issues in the domain of event cognition.

ФРАЗЕОЛОГО-ПАРЕМИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ЛИЧНОСТИ В СИНХРОНИИ ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРЫ

The article presents an analysis of semantically stable units of the Russian language in the structure of the linguistic identity through the prism of discursive synchrony. Phraseological and paremiological descriptions are considered as a facet of linguistic culture, operating, along with traditional phraseology (including paremiology), phraseological neoplasms, or neo-phraseologisms. The emergence and functioning of these units is manifested especially figuratively in the structure of the linguistic identity, developing synchronously with modern society, which is reflected in this study. In addition, particular descriptive approaches to determining the pragmatic status of paremias containing a structural, semantic or structural-semantic anthropomorphic component are commented on in the work. The language units selected from the lexicographic fund of modern philology are presented as illustrative content, the conditions for the implementation of anthropomorphic techniques are justified. Examples of the functioning of these units in the structure of a linguistic identity are given, which allows us to talk about the potential possibilities of verbalization of the anthropomorphic conceptosphere. The selected linguistic material in one way or another captures the experience of previous generations, the ethnocultural characteristics of the nation, the mental-intellectual level of the cultural community, etc., demonstrating aspectual features of the formation of linguistic identity.

SHORT REVIEW OF THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF GLOBAL ENGLISH

The aim of the paper is to analyze the study of the spread of the English language as global language, its place in communicative relations in various socio-economic spheres, sociolinguistic and pragmatic status of English. The article addresses the study of sociolinguistic and pragmatic features of internationalization of the English language. Various interpretations are expressed in the scientific schools of world linguistics about the social role of the English language, which managed to get the status of an international language, but in these interpretations they remain spiritualized, being reflected in the philosophical ideas and points of view of different authors. However, the distinctive aspects of the social status of a language on the territories of different countries and their linguistic indicators are overlooked. It becomes more difficult to comment on the factors that ensure the interrelation of the language, as a phenomenon developing in an objective way and under the control of synergetic patterns, with thinking. Scientific research on sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of the English language is being elaborated in the leading scientific centers and higher educational institutions of the world, including: Cambridge University (England); Oxford University (England);University of Illinois (USA), Free University of Berlin (Germany); University of Warsaw (Poland), Aoyama Gakuin University (Japan), Moscow State University (Russia), Linguistic Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia).

SOCIOLINGUISTIC PRINCIPLES OF THE USE OF ENGLISH IN THE LANGUAGE ACTIVITY OF THE POPULATION OF UZBEKISTAN

The aim of the paper is to analyze the spread of the English language in Uzbekistan, its place in communicative relations in various socio-economic spheres, sociolinguistic and pragmatic status of English in Uzbekistan. Article addresses sociolinguistic principles of the use of English in the language activity of the population of Uzbekistan, by defining sociolinguistic and pragmatic features of the communicative role of the English language introduced in Uzbekistan, in order to determine the perspectives for its formation. In particular, the article establishes that citizens of the country use English as an international language of communication, it performs a communicative function, and Uzbek serves as a source of knowledge and retains its cognitive function. Besides, the article provides data from an experimental evidence to determine the specificity of thinking by members of different peoples and identifies the characteristic features of the Eastern way of thinking that affect the English language of the area. The author of the article also gives the results of comparative analysis of grammatical and lexical features of the media language on the example of newspapers “Uzbekistan Today” and “USNews and the World Report”.

Impoverished pragmatics? The semantics-pragmatics interface from an intercultural perspective

AbstractThe semantic-pragmatic interface debate is about how much actual situational context the linguistic signs need in order for them to be meaningful in the communicative process. There is evidence that interlocutors in intercultural interactions rely moreSome of the ideas in the paper are based on chapter six in Kecskes (2019).on the compositional meaning of linguistic signs (semantics) than contextually supported meaning (pragmatics) because actual situational context cannot help pragmatic implication and interpretation the way it does in L1 communication. At the same time in pragmatic theory there seems to be an agreement between the neo-Gricean account and the post-Gricean account on the fact that the process of implicature retrieval is context-dependent. But will this L1-based contextualism work in intercultural interactions? Is pragmatics impoverished if interlocutors can only partly rely on pragmatic enrichment coming from context and the target language? The paper argues that in fact pragmatics is invigorated rather than impoverished in intercultural communication. A new type of synchronic events-based pragmatics is co-constructed by interlocutors. Instead of relying on the existing conventions, norms and frames of the target language interlocutors create their own temporary frames, formulas and norms. There is pragmaticization of semantics which is a synchronic, (usually) one-off phenomenon in which coded meaning, sometimes without any specific pragmatic enrichment coming from the target language, obtains temporary pragmatic status. This pragmatic enrichment happens as a result of interlocutors’ blending their dictionary knowledge of the linguistic code (semantics) with their basic interpersonal communicative skills and sometimes unusual, not necessarily target language-based pragmatic strategies that suit them very well in their attempt to achieve their communicative goals.

Magtens repræsentation af danskhed. Konstitueringen af nationalidentitet i Dronning Margrethes nytårstaler

Carsten Madsen: “The Queen’s Representation of “Danishness”: Constituting National Identity in Queen Margrethe II’s New Year’s Address”This article uses Maurice Charland’s criticism of constitutional rhetoric and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of representational logic to analyse the formal and pragmatic status of Queen Margrethe II’s annual New Year’s Address. The main goal of the article is to show how the rhetoric of the address seeks to constitute national identity in the Danish population by suppressing an irreducible otherness at the judicial and cultural core of the nation’s constitutional monarchy.

On the Frequency of Ocurrence of Cognate Object Constructions in Present-Day British English. A Preliminary Corpus-Based Analysis.

Despite having always being a central subject-matter in linguistics due to their controversial syntactico-semantic and pragmatic status, the pragmatic dimension of English cognate object constructions of the type He died a gruesome death and She smiled an enigmatic smile has almost gone unnoticed in the literature. For this reason, and with the intention of shedding some light on the real frequency of occurrence of cognate object constructions in present-day British English, the present paper reports on a preliminary, but thorough and exhaustive, corpus-based analysis in the British National Corpus of the four verbal classes that, according to Levin (1993), seem to be potentially compatible with cognate objects: namely, (i) verbs of nonverbal expression; (ii)manner of speaking verbs; (iii) waltz verbs; (iv) and a fourth class which, including the semantically diverse verbs dream, fight, live, sing, sleep and think, describe recurrent processes and activities in the behaviour of human beings. I will prove, first, that cognate object constructions are not as recurrent in contemporary British English as could be expected a priori and, second, I will account for the main reasons underlying their scarce production.