Discourse Situation Research Articles

Apology and Linguistic Politeness Strategies in English among Igbo Native Speakers in Nigeria: an Inter-language Study

The study sought to explore the conversational English politeness strategies used by Igbo learners of English in Nigeria. Through a purposive sampling process, a total of 3000 copies of questionnaire in the form of Discourse Completion Task (DCT) consisting of 10 different apology discourse situations positing extent of familiarity, hierarchy and degree of infraction were distributed to undergraduates of Igbo extraction at seven universities systematically selected from the South-East and South-South zones in Nigeria. In all, 2748 copies of questionnaire representing 92 percent were duly completed, returned, coded and analysed using the quantitative tool for analysis of production data. Findings demonstrated that the samples used politeness strategies very significantly in apology discourse. Also, the study revealed that apologies are conversational habits of Igbo bilinguals as the offenders willingly made an apology regardless of social differences and context which were also reflected in their choice of strategies as there was obvious transfer of the nuances of the first/native language/mother tongue to their target language production. The study established that apology realisation in an interlanguage context i.e. Igbo speaking learners of English necessarily bears the burden of native language transfer into target language. In conclusion, this study showed that because of the Igbo understanding that in human interactions, there are possibilities of instances of affront or outrage Igbo bilinguals adopted mainly the positive and negative forms of politeness strategies in apology discourse as the case may be to accomplish a conversational demand. The study found evidence to further dispute the universality of politeness and argued that politeness is culture-specific.

Séverine Wozniak, Approche ethnographique des langues spécialisées professionnelles

This book addresses the issues involved in implementing ethnographic methods to study specialized professional discourse, and is specifically oriented to reflect the concerns of the French ESP community, anglais de specialite (ASP). In addition to being thorough and engaging, it is a timely response to disciplinary developments. Overall, the use of ethnographic perspectives in applied linguistics studies to describe situated discourse is on the rise (Swales 1998; Lillis & Curry 2010; Starfiel...

Предвыборные менасивы как особый прагматический тип высказываний со значением угрозы

The aim of this article was to study linguistic manifestations of pre-election threat statements as well as to construct their explicit formula and evaluate their pragmatic effect on the voters. This study used the material of discursive practices with the meaning of threat found in the pre-election programmes of the presidential candidates in Russia in 2018. Based on the performative hypothesis, the authors were able to construct an explicit (basic) formula of threat statements and single out its types. The research showed that statements with the meaning of threat can contain a declaration of threat influence directed at either voters or the opposition. In this regard, the basic formula of pre-election threat statements can be represented by two functional-semantic models: explicit-exponential and prospective-consequent threat statements. The authors come to the conclusion that the basic forms of threat statements found in the programmes of the presidential candidates in Russia in 2018 are capable of producing an intensive pragmatic and emotional effect on the mass addressee, since they contain an explicit declaration of the threat influence. Only a small number of explicit statements with the meaning of threat in Russian preelection discourse point to the politicians’ avoiding frequent use of these forms of threats in order not to intimidate voters by possible consequences. In a situation of pre-election discourse, politicians prefer prospective-consequent statements with the meaning of threat, whose possible effect is addressed to the opposition politicians. The results of this study can be used to predict the pragmatic effect of politicians’ threat statements on voters.

Toward multimodal corpus pragmatics: Rationale, case, and agenda

AbstractHuman interaction is multimodal in nature, and meaning in discourse is created through an interplay of an array of modalities. Inspired by the integration of multimodality and corpus pragmatics, we are concerned with a general multimodal framework that facilitates the exploration on pragmatic questions by using corpus methods. By demonstrating how the study on speech acts in situated discourse is benefited from the multimodal corpus approach, we claim that the scope and methods of pragmatic studies will be enriched and the classic pragmatic theories could be further developed toward multimodal corpus pragmatics. This article, therefore, hopes to inspire further theoretical discussion and case study in this domain.

The emergence of modern emotional power: governing passions in the French Grand Siècle

This article aims to analyse the governmental rationalities that took passions as an object in the French seventeenth century, unleashing the modern transformation in emotional power. The classical question of the intertwining between emotions and rationality is approached through a cultural and historical perspective, analyzing historically situated discourses that define political rationalities that propose to govern, with specific techniques and objectives, certain “emotions”’ that are conceived in a certain way. Passions emerged as an object of government through the statement that passions and not inactive reason were the true drivers of human action. Analyzing the treatises on the government of passions as “arts of government” aimed at the authorities of the period, this article explores initially how Neostoic discourses promoted an exchange between Augustinian government of the will and reason of state’s strategies of manipulation of interests. Subsequently, by scrutinizing the texts of French moralists of the second half of the century, this article shows how, under the influence of Jansenism, they invert Neostoic logic and affirm a new emotional rule for political government: enlightened self-love. The idea that the commerce of selfish passions in the market could promote social peace and material progress cleared the path for the acceptance of a concupiscent order. The article’s contribution resides firstly in the history of the shift in the West’s fundamental emotional rule, love, and secondly in the way in which emotional power could work as a condition of possibility for the emergence of modern economic rationality.

СПЕЦИФІКА СИТУАТИВНИХ МОДЕЛЕЙ ДИСКУРСУ (АНАЛІЗ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ Т. А. ВАН ДЕЙКА)

This paper deals with discourse situation models that are the mental models of episodic memory and the mechanisms of the activation of intertextual and interdiscursive inclusions. The situation model is constructed on the basis of the situation schema that contains a limited number of terminal categories. The situation model is created on the basis of the text and the knowledge of the person rather than on propositions of the textbase. The personality-based knowledge accumulates personal experience, sets, feelings and emotions as well as information that is not available in the text. Discourse understanding is carried out by means of the cognitive representation of text-based situations, actions and people. If events, actions and people are well presented in situation models, the understanding of the text is effective. In the course of nontextual analysis the person makes inferences on the basis of situation models. Discourse processing is performed on a conceptual level rather than a linguistic one. Situation models are the basis for frames and scripts, which represent abstract knowledge. The context model is a link between the situation model and textbase.

THE PROBLEM OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY REALIZATION IN CONFLICT FICTION DISCOURSE

The article focuses on the problem of intersubjectivity realization in different conflict communicative situations in Modern English fictional discourse with regard to specificity of conflict discourse, its nonlinear dynamics and development, the main communicative types of ending the conflict, realized through a definite set of strategies and tactics, communicative styles and climate as necessary condition of intersubjectivity actualization. The paper discusses the phenomenon of intersubjectivity and studies communicative correlation between the intersubjective competence of the communicants and types of ending the conflict via verbal and nonverbal means of communication. The paper aims to determine how the intersubjective competence may influence the development and results of conflict communication in fictional discourse. Also what strategies and tactics it may determine, how the key intersubjective concept of “self and other” may be maintained or violated under the influence of situational and behavioral factors in conflict fiction discourse, what language means are used to realize shared responsibility in conflict communicative situations. To achieve this, a semiological approach to the intersubjective approaches paradigm is applied, together with the conversation analysis elements, discourse analysis, pragmalinguistic analysis, and the verbal and nonverbal module study in conflict fictional discourse. The obtained results indicate that analysis of the nonverbal means in conflict fiction discourse and it focuses on multimodal studies enables to get a true picture of the role of nonverbal conflict-management and mode in the actual and potential intersubjectivity realization which in correlation with its pragmatic impact and some social and psychological features contribute to the influence on the process of conflict development and resolution.

From stance to identity: Stancetaking in contemporary English risk discourse

The study focuses on stancetaking – an intersubjective and context-bound discursive activity that unites micro- and micro-properties of discursive interaction. The purpose of this work consists in discovering discursive ways of situational identities construction in contemporary English risk discourse as a result of stancetaking on risk. The theoretical background for this research comprises post-structuralist and socio-constructionist approaches to discourse analysis, establishing a new, socio-cognitive, direction in discourse studies. Contemporary English risk discourse serves a situational environment for investigating stancetaking in this work. It is approached as a discursive phenomenon of two types – a risk discourse proper (communicative situation of risk) and a discourse about risk (metacommunicative situation of risk). Discursive framework of communicative situation of risk reveals cognitive, pragmatic, and interactional dynamics of stancetaking in the conditions of in situ discussion of eventual stances (decisions) on risks. The inquiry resulted in determining the stance-takers’ situational identities, ranging from risk-averse to risk-taking subjects. Investigation of conversational patterns and discursive dynamism of stance alignment enabled identification and characterization of interactional mechanisms of stancetaking in situations of risk. Explorations of stancetaking in ex situ discursive conditions of metacommunicative situations of risk shed light onto socio-semiotic potential and pragmatic-rhetorical patterns of stancetaking. Complex analysis of the stance-takers’ language output provided a basis for establishing a typology of their situational identities, constructed in mediated discourse situations – layman, expert, mediator whose strategic speech behavior depends upon the balance of epistemic and affective components in their respective stances.

“Pedagogical” Agression in Russian Everyday Communication

The article is devoted to speakers’ responses to inappropriate communicative behavior in Russian everyday communication. The analytic part of the article presents a short review of both classical and modern works on (im)politeness theories, which show that communicative strategies in response to the wrong communicative behavior in a particular context have not been investigated and described sufficiently in modern Politeness theories, investigating face-aggravating communication. The aim of this work is to describe a strategy that we define as “pedagogical aggression”, which manifests itself in a variation of impolite answers whose purpose is to “punish” the interlocutor for a communicative error. This strategy is in contrast to what we call “empathy” strategy since - instead of trying to neutralize the interlocutor’s error - “pedagogical aggression” emphasizes it by “teaching” the addressee to be more considerate in adhering to norms. The material for the research was collected in the Russian National Corpus and analysed by drawing on discourse analysis, pragmatics and (im)politeness theories. The study showed that “pedagogical aggression” is realized in three face-aggravating communicative tactics: (1) a pseudo-question (rhetorical question or a question to the assumptions of an interlocutor), 2) mocking citations from interlocutor’s speech, 3) rhymed pseudo-answers. The last tactic was given special attention in the study. We grouped the pseudo-answers in four types corresponding to typical discourse situation. This tactic is based on an unspoken rule, according to which it is permissible to point out in a playful way a communicative error made by the interlocutor. In response to an inappropriate question with this or that interrogative pronoun (where, who, why, etc.), the speaker can allow himself or herself to “punish” the interlocutor with a pseudo-answer, so that he or she will be more careful, more attentive and will not repeat such mistakes. The considered tactic of rhymed pseudo-response is rooted in language with the help of formulaic phrases. The research contributes to (im)politeness theory and the study of communicative interaction.

“Legitimate but Not Legal”: Learning Power in the Landless Workers Movement (MST), Brazil

AbstractThis chapter engenders activist knowledge production through narratives from Mulher Sem Terra—women in the Landless Workers Movement. It is empirically grounded in a qualitative research study about women educators in the Landless Workers Movement (MST). Participation in the movement enabled these women to continue their own schooling and go on to become MST educators and leaders. Drawing on their stories, I will discuss situated perspectives on learning in the struggle in relation to becoming an educator, engaging the state, and construction of counterhegemonic knowledge. These kinds of learning enabled Landless women to see themselves and others as human beings with rights and dignity. In doing so, these pedagogies counter dominant capitalist discourses of disposability with situated discourses of caring, cooperation, and interdependence.

SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF VERBAL ASPECTUALITY IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN DISCOURSES

The relevance of the proposed article stems from the scientific interest in investigation of different means of conceptual organization of knowledge in the process of production and interpretation of English and Russian utterances. Thus, it aims at establishing the role of aspect in English and Russian discourse through interpreting aspectual situations which are analyzed at the level of sentences and textual fragments borrowed from two translation versions of M. Mitchell’ s novel “Gone with the Wind”.The theoretical framework for the research is provided by Relevance theory as developed in recent works on procedural meaning to handle H. Reichenbach’s symbolic logic for tense and aspect and Relevance theory proposed by D. Sperber and D. Wilson. We suggest that the following means are involved in expressing the type of action: a combination of lexical and grammatical properties of the verb; grammatical forms of the verb; meanings of time adverbs. These means are capable of characterizing R, a conceptual notion, which can be inferred by contextual assumptions.Systematization of referential relations among the above mentioned components taking into account the influence of pragmatic interpretive component and contextual analysis of informational organization of discourse proves the hypothesis that referential characteristics being combined contribute to the description of a discourse situation as stative, habitual, inchoative or punctual.The article will be interesting for researchers in contrastive and cognitive linguistics.

An empirical study of honorific mismatches in Korean

While numerous studies have approached honorification mainly focusing on how honorific forms and features agree with each other in syntactic derivation, the present study focuses on mismatches between a referent and the verb that the referent depends on with respect to honorification. If Korean honorification is a syntactic phenomenon, the mismatches in honorification must be fully accounted for as syntactic agreement cannot be disobeyed in principle. However, either theoretical or empirical inquiry into the mismatches in honorification has not received due attention. Systematic theoretical research on the issue is scant and the empirical endeavors are even rarer. Therefore, the full range of acceptability variance for different honorific expressions remains unknown, which hinders a livelier discussion about honorification. In this context, the present work employs two widely supported methods of linguistic research, viz. acceptability judgment testing and corpus exploration, in order to account for cases of the honorific mismatches. First, the cross-validation reveals that there is no a posteriori evidence for believing that Korean honorification undergoes a syntactic agreement. The experimental results indicate that Korean native speakers largely allow the mismatches involving a referent in an honorific form and a verb in a non-honorific form. Furthermore, they reveal that this type of mismatch forms occurs almost twice as frequently as the forms in perfect agreement in the corpus. These results demonstrate that the syntactic agreement-based approach conflicts with the native speakers' acceptability judgments and the language usage in daily speech. Second, the present study empirically corroborates the evidence that Korean honorification is semantically/pragmatically controlled. On the one hand, it is borne out that the mismatches involving a referent in a non-honorific form and a verb in an honorific form are mostly disallowed. These mismatches are instances of semantic restriction (i.e., anomalies); the head lexically imposes a blocking constraint on its dependent (not vice versa) with respect to the meaning and marking of honorifications. On the other hand, the empirical findings support the validity of the pragmatic conception that speakers manipulate the attitudes toward a given discourse situation and thereby choose the most appropriate honorific form out of the different forms with different degrees of deference. Since the most salient entity to the speaker in discourse (mentally as well as physically) is the hearer, the hearer (if honorable) tends to receive the strongest deference in honorific expressions; it turns out that if the verb is honorifically marked almost two-thirds of the associated referents refer to the honorable hearer. In addition, the mismatches with a referent in a non-honorific form and a verb in an honorific form can appear when the speaker needs to modulate their attitude of deference to an extreme degree or the honorific feature of the referent is semantically underspecified.

DISCOURSE OF EPIDEMICS AS A TRANSLATION PROBLEM

Medical translation and interpreting are often viewed as a field of collision for the discourse expectations, values and stereotypes of source and target culture representatives’ discourse behavior. However, the latter are deeply enmeshed in the discourse situation directly impacting their health and well-being, namely during the epidemic flare-ups, influx of contagious diseases etc. Under these conditions, the medical translator/interpreter is supposed to act as an information-sharing intermediary, a link between the experts (physicians, infectiologists, epidemiologists etc.) and non-experts (patients) whose mastery of an array of specialized information clusters demonstrates a culture-specific, contextual and lexico-semantic variation. Our study is aimed at revealing strategies and tactics of rendering epidemic–related medical texts’ discourse features, taking into account their universal and culture-specific linguosemiotic components, addressee’s pragmatic expectations, as well as domain-specific text-constructing norms and stereotypes of the recipient culture. Our study was performed on the material of 251 contexts of biomedical concepts belonging to the “epidemic” and “contagion” domains, among them 83 being in Ukrainian and 168 in English, along with their translation equivalents. Discourse of epidemics was proved to be a platform for realization of biomedical concepts with a pronounced emotive component. Moreover, comparative translation analysis of epidemic-related texts, oriented towards an unprofessional recipient, proves to be a tool of cross-cultural research as an emotive component has different representations in various cultures and gives rise to a number of texts and discourses marked with a transgeneric interference and adaptation. The adaptation’s final stage is assimilation, i.e. a complete subjugation of the generic and stylistic characteristics to the extant target audience’s expectations, or a generic transplantation, i.e. a transfer of generic norms from a source to a target culture.

Argumentos de professores de química e física sobre modelos de ensino: aspectos estruturais, dialéticos e retóricos

Neste artigo, apresentamos uma discussão sobre a estrutura e a qualidade dos argumentos elaborados por professores de Química e Física sobre temas da Educação em Ciências. O protocolo de obtenção dos dados da pesquisa correspondeu a asserções sobre as quais os sujeitos tiveram que expressar seus pontos de vista, justificando-os. Os dados escritos foram analisados de acordo com o Padrão de Argumento de Toulmin, porém recolocando-o na densidade de um discurso situado. Os argumentos produzidos foram comparados entre si e caracterizados em sua qualidade tendo em vista os aspectos estruturais dialéticos bem como os retóricos. Além de uma estrutura básica de argumento, foram encontrados argumentos com refutadores, os quais originavam outra estrutura argumentativa com apresentações detalhadas de dados e conhecimentos de base. Foram verificados, ainda, elementos que puderam ser percebidos como característicos da dimensão do pathos e do ethos, na perspectiva da argumentação enquanto persuasão.

A’ãma Mrémé: A Playful Window into A'uwẽ‐Xavante Language, Cognition, and Social Organization

A’ãma mrémé, or a’ãma speech, spoken by incumbents of a special ceremonial role within central Brazilian A'uwẽ‐Xavante society, illustrates Joel Sherzer's argument regarding the centrality of speech play to both linguistic and social analysis. A’ãma mrémé is a ludic code variant, a system of lexical substitution primarily at the level of nouns and verbs, spoken exclusively by a’ãma. Morphological analysis of of a’ãma mrémé reveals the existence of conceptual categories and perceptions that are not otherwise linguistically transparent. Further, a’ãma, who indexically make their ceremonial identity and role salient through the everyday practice of ãma speech, add an additional layer of complexity to A'uwẽ‐Xavante's complicated dualistic system of social organization. This complexity, heretofore overlooked by anthropologists of A'uwẽ‐Xavante, becomes apparent through attention to socially situated discourse and verbal arts. A’ãma mrémé enriches and adds complexity to understandings of A'uwẽ‐Xavante language, thought, and social organization. It is, as Sherzer contends, a place where language, cognition, perception, worldview and social structure come together in distilled form.

THE GRAMMATICAL CONCEPT „NOUN“ IN THE PROCESS OF LINGUISTIC CREATION OF FOREIGN STUDENTS TO BULGARIAN LANGUAGE

The interest in the problems of foreign language learning and the process of building linguistic attitudes among foreigners is essential in language learning. The awareness of language as a system with its links and subsystems means understanding the need to also study it in a particular system.The model of communicative competence includes not only linguistic but also psychophysical and social characteristics, i.e. not only knowledge of language but also abilities for the realization of comprehensive discourse in various communicative situations. This model is crafted and enriched over time. In the process of learning a noun, it is very important that students develop competence concerning the parts of speech as well as their proper use in the communication process. One of the essential aspects of the learning process is the development of language competence. We find it very important to be able to adapt the scientific knowledge so that foreigners can understand it and apply it in the communication. The scope of communicative competence concerning the nouns suggests that account must be taken not only of the language code but also of what can be said; to whom; how to build; how to interpret discourse according to social roles and situations, knowledge and value orientations in communication.The concept of the lessons is oriented towards the formation of communicative competence in the Bulgarian language, while at the same time emphasis is also placed on the deepening of the linguistic knowledge of the students studying Bulgarian language. The descriptive approach in the presentation of linguistic information is balanced by the practically oriented selection of topics for dialogic or monologic texts that reinforce the competence of learners to participate in situations of communication reproducing similar scenarios to their professional practice.Graded by complexity and subject matter, the different exercises and tasks for editing, transforming or constructing are consistent with the professional terminology that is necessary for medics, dentists and pharmacists to master to be adequate participants in the learning process concerning relevant professional areas.The established concept of working with foreign students in Bulgarian language education is being tested and improved to establish a reliable and modern socio-cultural context of the formation of grammatical notions and the development of linguistic attitudes among foreigners towards the language.

COGNITIVE DYNAMICS OF STANCETAKING IN RISK DISCOURSE SITUATION

This article studies the cognitive dynamics of stancetaking in the discourse situations associated with risky behaviour and perilous decisions. The objective of this work is to find out what linguistic and cognitive mechanisms are used by speech participants to conceptualise a discourse situation as a situation of risk, and analyse the ways the stances on the discussed problem (here, the risk of addicting to FACEBOOK, as well as other social networks) are taken by discourse partners under different circumstances and varying communicative conditions. The overall theoretical framework for the study synthesises socio-constructionist and socio-cognitive approaches to discourse analysis of risk and stance. In the post-modernist model, speakers use discourse to construct versions of the world which are variable, functional and consequential. Gilles Fauconnier’s mental spaces theory (1994, 1997) served a methodological tool for re-assembling the ways stances on risks are taken in discourse interaction. Risk-taking has always been an integral part of human behaviour. We are constantly forced to make decisions that lead us towards unknown or uncertain consequences that can be potentially hazardous or even life-threatening. The study shows that the field of risk-taking in everyday life is extremely wide, embracing a diverse range of spheres such as household activities, gambling, sports, finance, medicine, technology or politics. Because risk pervades such a substantial part of our lives, it can be claimed as one of the fundamental concepts of the human conceptual system, thus, cognitive mechanisms of risk conceptualisation, as well as the linguistic ways of discursive stancetaking on risk have been determined, analysed and described in the present research.

TURN-TAKING IN CINEMATIC DISCOURSE: LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR ESP TEACHING

The article focuses on the issues of teaching turn-taking for ESP students in blended distance learning courses at B2 level. It lays the rationale for the use of film episodes of business interaction in distance learning highlighting turn-taking as an operational meta-discursive category. In multimodal cinematic discourse, turn-taking is performed by heterogeneous semiotic resources: linguistic, non-linguistic, cinematic codes and underpinned by intersubjectivity. Turn-taking strategies of initiating and responding types are viewed as a system of interactional dialogic communication management which includes discursive means of turn-claiming, attempt-suppressing and turn-yielding where each type is actualised by its own set of tactics and techniques. We claim that ESP learners need to know the main parameters for turn-taking in oral professional communication; such as the participants’ stance, speaker – hearer relations and their intersubjectivity, the transition point in a conversation, discourse situations, and specific semiotic resources. In cooperative discourse situations, turn-claiming and turn-yielding strategies are determined by initiating tactics of statement or interrogation. Unlike this, in conflict situations, turn-taking strategies depend upon initiating tactics of statement, interrogation, order, inducement and predetermine responding tactics. In asynchronous and blended formats of distance learning, the preferable delivery methods for this material include video recordings and digital games which facilitate receiving new information and motivate students to practice new communicative skills.

TRUST Untruthfulness Framework in Forensic Contexts

This article introduces a comprehensive linguistic-ethical framework for analysing untruthfulness in situated discourse, as developed in much more depth in Heffer (in press). The TRUST (Trust-Related Untruthfulness in Situated Text) framework extends the analysis of insincerity beyond lying to misleading and withholding. More radically, it extends our conception of untruthfulness to include not only insincerity but also epistemic irresponsibility, or not taking care in establishing and conveying the evidence. The TRUST heuristic then provides a practical procedure for analysing putative cases of untruthfulness in situated discourse. This heuristic is then applied to two cases of putative untruthfulness in the legal process: the Bronston perjury case in the US and the Iraq Inquiry in the UK.

Discourse situation and the problem of understanding within the aspects of reference and communication

Discourse situation and the problem of understanding within the aspects of reference and communication