Speech Behavior Research Articles

A STRATEGY OF POSITIVE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE IN THE SPEECH OF A POLICE DETECTIVE

The present article reports on the analysis of the communicative strategy of positive emotional influence in the speech of the detective — the hero of English language detective discourse. The object of the paper is the speech episodes, in which the detective interrogates witnesses and suspects. The purpose of the paper is cognitive pragmatic analysis of the contexts in which the communicative strategy of positive emotional influence is actualized, as well as the communicative tactics that manifest it in the speech of the detective. The investigation is based on the general and special linguistic methods: synthesis and analysis, method of observation, descriptive method, pragmatic and linguistic method, cognitive method, analysis of contextual interpretation. The cognitive-pragmatic analysis of the strategic speech behavior of the police detective — the protagonist of the detective discourse — has shown that the strategy of positive emotional impact is realized in the detective’s speech by the following communicative tactics: promise, request, reassurance, forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, reproach and mitigation. These tactics have been singled out and interpreted. These communicative tactics enable the detective to create favorable and friendly atmosphere and achieve the desired result: sincerity of the witnesses, especially those who used to conceal the information, lied, or refused to cooperate. As a result, a witness or a suspect tells the information necessary for the investigation and the culprit is found. The perspective for further research is seen in the analysis of the detective’s inner speech that unveils his communicative intentions.

Философская проблема языка в романах Уокера Перси

The aim of the research is to identify the role of language and speech behavior of characters in revealing the author’s philosophical intent in the novels by Walker Percy, namely “Lancelot”, “The Second Coming” and “The Thanatos Syndrome”. The paper is original in that it is the first to substantiate the connection between Percy’s theoretical inquiries in the philosophy of language and the principles of construction of plots and characters’ images in his later novels. Percy finds that the main function of language is not in naming facts of reality or establishing abstract connections between them, but in a person’s realization of the ontological meaning of what is happening through an awareness of the social and vital significance of what is being uttered. Mechanical manipulation of clichéd expressions and the dominance of form over content in speech become indicators of the characters’ internal emptiness and their loss of human essence. The return of individual meaning to spoken words is closely linked to the internal spiritual transformation of the characters. As a result, the research demonstrates that the characters’ speech in Percy’s novels serves an important function in characterizing their existential status: changes in speech signify essential changes in the characters’ nature, their proximity or distance from the understanding of the meaning of life.

Predicting user engagement with anti-gender, homophobic and sexist social media posts – a choice-based conjoint study in Hungary and Germany

ABSTRACT Social media are used by populist radical right parties for anti-gender campaigns to mobilize against the ‘gender ideology’. Anti-gender hate speech targets women, sexual minorities, and feminist activists and therefore poses a threat to their participation in society. In this study, we examine the engagement with anti-gender hate speech on social media in Germany and Hungary, using anti-gender, homophobic, and sexist Facebook posts as examples. These countries were chosen because of the cultural differences in the way gender issues and discrimination are dealt with, as well as the position of populist radical right parties. Employing a choice-based conjoint design, we analyze which content and source characteristics as well as cultural and individual factors influence users’ engagement with such postings. Findings show country differences in the acceptance (likes, shares) and disapproval (flagging behavior) of anti-gender hate speech but also with respect to relevance of the three main topics of hate speech (anti-gender, homophobia, sexism).

The Functions of Prosody in Action Formation in Australian Greek Talk-in-Interaction

This study takes us to the Greek diasporic community in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia. The data analyzed derive from audio-recorded conversations with first-generation Greek immigrants collected during fieldwork in 2013. Drawing on interactional linguistics and contact linguistics, this paper analyzes the prosody of bilingual discourse markers and bilingual repetition in Australian Greek talk-in-interaction. It is shown that the prosodic features of code switches, namely pitch, intensity and duration, shape action formation and ascription. In the case of bilingual discourse markers, pitch serves as a contextualization cue that conveys the speaker’s stance and frames the different functions of the code-switched items. In bilingual repetition, speakers mobilize duration and intensity to prosodically differentiate the first iteration delivered in English from the second iteration delivered in Greek and, thus, frame the interpretation of the code switch as participant-related. This study sheds light on the pragmatic aspects of the phonetics of the Greek variety spoken in Cairns, and demonstrates that prosody shapes the functions of language contact-induced speech behavior in specific interactional contexts.

Russian, American and French police officers professional vocabulary features: speech culture ethic

The article deals with the professional vocabulary of American, French and Russian police officers from the ethical side of professional communication, i.e. socially oriented and nationally determined rules of speech behavior, including set expressions accepted in a professional society and used in situations of “polite” contact with an interlocutor. Etiquette greeting formulas, communication with partners, boss and colleagues from an informal point of view are compared. Similar features in the use of jargon, slang and professionalism in the speech of police officers in French, English and Russian are analyzed. Examples of dialogues, statements are taken from dictionaries, police speech researches and studies, live speech, as well as modern films that currently show the life and work of the police in the most realistic and close to life. The specify of police work contributes to rudeness, obscene vocabulary, sarcasm and self-irony, a large amount of professional jargon in speech, which makes the speech of a policeman bright, emotionally and expressively colored.

Intentionality and Its Representation in Monologue Campaign Speeches within the Framework of the US 2020 Election Discourse

Modern linguistics pays more and more attention to the issues of political discourse as a communicative activity that attracts a large amount of public attention. Politicians’ campaign speeches, widely studied by public relations specialists, are an effective tool for promoting certain ideas during election campaigns and events. This approach is especially common in the United States of America where political figures running for a particular post often make monologue campaign speeches on the national television and/or directly in front of the voters. From a linguistic point of view, the question how various linguistic means of expressing an intentional orientation are implemented in pre-election campaign speeches of prominent US politicians seems to be a most interesting one. The purpose of this article is to consider the phenomenon of speech intention in the context of monological campaign speeches in the discourse of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as well as to identify intentional patterns in their public speech construction. The object of the study is the intentionality of the political figures’ speech behavior as the most important factor in their speech interaction with the audience. A selection of monologue speeches by politicians during the 2020 election campaigns were used as material for the study. One of our objectives is to identify the specificity of the use of intentional vocabulary, grammatical and stylistic means that contribute to the expression of the intentional component by the chosen US politicians in their campaign monologues. The author of the article believes that the intentionality of the American politicians’ speech behavior presupposes a pragmatic effect on the mass recipient. At the same time, the addressee, whether s/he is an ordinary voter or a linguist, must be able to decode the intentions of the addressor, realized by him/her through the intentional speech behavior.

REGULATORY COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY IN THE UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARY DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Ukrainian parliamentary discourse in terms of the communicative behavior of its participants, in particular, the implementation of communicative strategies of its participants. The concepts of political discourse and parliamentary discourse as a manifestation of the latter are defined; genre features of Ukrainian parliamentary discourse are revealed and to characterize parliamentary debates as the main speech genre. The main communicative strategies of politicians - participants in the Ukrainian parliamentary discourse are outlined and the linguistic means of implementing communicative strategies are analyzed. The study is focused on the communicative behavior of the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada meetings, who performs the communicative role of the moderator and chooses regulatory as the main strategy of communicative behavior in the parliamentary discourse. The purpose of the article is to determine the role of the regulatory strategy in the Ukrainian parliamentary discourse. The object of the study is the Ukrainian parliamentary discourse, the subject of the study is the speech behavior of the “moderator” of the parliamentary debates in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The transcripts of the meetings of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for 2022-2023 served as the research material. The speech behavior of the speaker is considered - the chairman of the meetings is the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada or his deputy, who acts as a moderator at the parliamentary debates: announces the agenda, gives the floor, sums up what was said, etc. Participants in parliamentary debates take turns speaking in the discussion: in most cases, the topic of discussion is set by one politician who presents the draft law, and the deputies criticize or support his speech. The regulatory strategy is subordinated to the observance of procedural norms and rules during parliamentary debates, the information strategy provides for the notification of new and operational information to the participants of the parliamentary discourse. The study deepens the theoretical foundations of political linguistics, discourse studies and linguistic pragmatics; theories of speech genres and communicative strategies.

The efficacy of remote video-based behavioral skills training and awareness training on public speaking performance.

This study evaluated the efficacy of (a) remote video-based behavioral skills training (BST) with added speech outlines on teaching public speaking behaviors and (b) remote video-based awareness training (AT) on speech-disfluency rates. A multiple-baseline design across speech behaviors was used to evaluate the training. Remote video-based BST and AT were effective at teaching public speaking behaviors and reducing speech disfluencies, respectively, for both participants. In addition, performance generalized to increased audience size. Although expert ratings of perceived public speaking effectiveness improved following BST, the ratings did not improve and some worsened following AT. Both participants reported satisfaction with video-based BST and AT. One participant reported greater comfort, confidence, overall ability, and less anxiety as a public speaker following BST. Both participants reported greater improvements in those categories following AT. Our results suggest that public speaking behaviors can be taught using remote video-based BST and speech disfluencies can be reduced using remote video-based AT.

Указательные местоимения this/these, that/those в диалогической речи киногероев

The aim of the study is to determine the functional-semantic features of demonstrative pronouns ‘this/these’ and ‘that/those’ as integral elements of an English-language film dialogue. The work analysed dialogue fragments from modern English-language feature films, in which the ability of demonstrative pronouns to perform the deictic, anaphoric, cataphoric and identifying functions was established. The content of the nominative component of multifunctional demonstrative pronouns and their stylistic marking were determined. The study is novel in that it is the first to analyse speech behaviour and the role of demonstrative pronouns in conveying pragmatically and stylistically important information in the context of a feature film plot. The results of the study showed that demonstrative pronouns have their own nominative meanings, which are realised through the speech senses of ‘close/distant’, ‘here, now / then in the past / in the future’, ‘one’s own / someone else’s’, ‘known personally by the subject / generally known’, ‘subjectively important / objectively important’, ‘unique/similar’, ‘special/typical’, etc. Demonstrative pronouns are capable of participating in the creation of the ‘intimacy’ and ‘alienation’ stylistic devices and conveying the evaluative-emotive shades of irritation, contempt, hostility, regret and disapproval. Due to the presence of the nominative component in demonstrative pronouns and their emotiveness, the realisation of the communicative-pragmatic setting of the participant in the film dialogue aimed at expressing their attitude towards what is happening and influencing the addressee becomes possible.

Language Means of Expressing Politeness in the Context of Russian Business Communication

The subject of the study is the concept of “politeness” in business communication, its lexical and grammatical ways//means of expression in Russian. Particular attention is paid to the social relationship between interlocutors in a communicative situation. The purpose of the study is to describe the concept of “politeness” and identify its linguocultural features. In accordance with the purpose and objectives of the study, the paper analyzes the features of the implementation of the concept of “politeness” in the system of language functions and considers the strategies of positive and negative politeness in speech behavior in the field of business communication. Based on the analysis of the content of the main functions of language, it was concluded that the category of politeness is realized within the framework of the communicative function of language; The study analyzed the strategies of positive and negative politeness and the peculiarities of its implementation within the framework of private//specific individual communicative functions that correspond to various areas of communication. As a result of the analysis of speech behavior strategies in accordance with the rules of politeness, it was concluded that politeness is an important component of business communication, and speech behavior strategies are based on the difference in the cultural values of a particular society and depend on the models of social behavior adopted in it. If the lines of behavior underlying the first of them are associated with the involvement of the interlocutor in the conversation, paying attention to him, then the second strategy contains lines of behavior associated with the provision of freedom to the interlocutor.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TEMPO AND PAUSES OF ENGLISH SERMON IN FILM DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the temporal (tempo and pause) organization of monologue-type utterances of preaching character in English-language feature films. Since the rhetorical actions of the preacher are realized not only during the ritual church sermon from the pulpit, but also involve situational speeches outside the temple and private conversations with parishioners on spiritual topics, the article examines the temporal organization of these three types of speech activity of the preacher, since they are a component of priest’s speech behaviour in various communicative situations. Examining the peculiarities of religious discourse from the point of view of pragmasemantics made it possible to focus on the basic concept of this special discourse — the concept of “faith”, since it is not only a unit of the mental lexicon, but also that spiritual support that reflects the peculiarities of the spiritual mentality of a religious person. The research material, consisting of oral English-language sermons, speeches, and conversations extracted from five contemporary English-language feature films, was subjected to perceptual, auditory, and instrumental analysis. A complex auditory and instrumental analysis of the temporal characteristics of preachers’ speech allows us to conclude that there is a correlation between changes in the rate of the preacher’s speech and his assessment of the communicative and pragmatic value of his speech. A separate study of the functioning of pauses of various types (structural, rhetorical, and hesitation pauses) in the studied speech material proved the great pragmatic potential of this intonation parameter in fulfilling the communicative task of oral religious discourse.

SHAP-based Prediction of Mother's History of Depression to Understand the Influence on Child Behavior.

Depression strongly impacts parents' behavior. Does parents' depression strongly afect the behavior of their children as well? To investigate this question, we compared dyadic interactions between 73 depressed and 75 non-depressed mothers and their adolescent child. Families were of low income and 84% were white. Child behavior was measured from audio-video recordings using manual annotation of verbal and nonverbal behavior by expert coders and by multimodal computational measures of facial expression, face and head dynamics, prosody, speech behavior, and linguistics. For both sets of measures, we used Support Vector Machines. For computational measures, we investigated the relative contribution of single versus multiple modalities using a novel approach to SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Computational measures outperformed manual ratings by human experts. Among individual computational measures, prosody was the most informative. SHAP reduction resulted in a four-fold decrease in the number of features and highest performance (77% accuracy; positive and negative agreements at 75% and 76%, respectively). These fndings suggest that maternal depression strongly impacts the behavior of adolescent children; diferences are most revealed in prosody; multimodal features together with SHAP reduction are most powerful.

The Invisible Multilingualism of Post-Soviet Migration as a Challenge to the Theory of Translanguaging

This article proposes to look at the theory of translanguaging from the angle of its universality/non-universality, bringing into discussion a new empirical case - speech strategies and practices of highly educated multilingual migrants from the former USSR and multilingual residents of modern Russia. The authors conclude that people whose socialization took place in this region are characterized by rigid ideas about the language norm and authenticity, about the “purity” of languages and high standards of speaking them. These concepts apply to all languages, both native and foreign. Traditional and conservative language ideologies are widespread in the Soviet and post-Soviet area, which is the reason why translanguaging is often perceived as careless speech, incomplete language competence. In this sense, this regional case demonstrates the non-universality of translanguaging theory and the importance of contexts in which attitudes towards multilingualism, linguistic norm and related linguistic phenomena are formed. It is primarily the western democratic, postcolonial context of translanguaging practice and theory that explains why the language attitudes and speech behavior of residents of (post)Soviet region do not fit into it.

Отражение профессиональных установок языковой личности в образе пожарного в сказке И. В. Зартайской «Весёлый пожарный»

The paper considers the professional attitudes of a firefighter’s linguistic personality using the example of the image of a firefighter in the children’s tale “The Cheerful Firefighter” by I. V. Zartayskaya. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that professional attitudes in the structure of a firefighter’s linguistic personality have not been examined before: the paper is the first to discover that the linguistic model of a firefighter realises itself in stereotypes associated with the notions of “seriousness” and “bravery” and to outline the features of a professional’s speech activity corresponding to these categories. At the same time, a literary text was used for the study, while the linguistic personality of a firefighter was investigated previously only within the framework of business communication. Hence, the paper aims to identify the professional attitudes of a firefighter in speech interaction. As a result, the examination of a firefighter’s image in I. V. Zartayskaya’s children’s tale “The Cheerful Firefighter” led to the discovery of professional attitudes associated with the notions of “seriousness” and “bravery”, which exclude speech behaviour in the form of teasing, performing humourous songs, joking, smiling, etc., as well as imply the use of speech means and techniques that determine the successful resolution of an extreme situation, e.g., empathic listening, contact-establishing dialogue, calm tone of voice, etc. Thus, the speech characteristics of the protagonist presented in the work reflect the professional attitudes of a firefighter’s linguistic personality correlating with the categories of “seriousness” (the speech behaviour of a “person in uniform” does not allow for the expression of entertainment, comedy and demonstration of wit, since the SERIOUSNESS concept denotes a moral criterion the measure of which is a sense of proportion and the absence of any playful forms of speech behaviour) and “bravery” (the speech activity of a firefighter is determined by the ability to correctly interpret information and resolve conflicts in an emergency situation, use speech support tactics, as well as voice skills and clear sound pronunciation).

Cognitive Shifts in Bilingual Speakers Affect Speech Interactions with Artificial Agents

A major research question in psycholinguistics relates to the phenomenon of linguistic relativity, which contends that the language one speaks influences how one thinks. Of particular interest is whether bilingual speakers shift cognitive paradigms when speaking different languages. Here, we conducted a human-agent interaction (HAI) study using a bilingual virtual avatar capable of autonomous speech during cooperative gameplay in two languages (Korean and English). We ran 40 participants, including 20 monolingual speakers (10 Korean, 10 English) and 20 Korean/English bilingual speakers, engaging the avatar during 30-minute game sessions. Comparison of speech patterns showed that bilingual speakers exhibited notable “cognitive shifts” in both languages while interacting with the avatar, which were markedly different from their monolingual counterparts. Interestingly, the virtual avatar’s own speech behavior also significantly changed during interaction with bilingual speakers, despite identical programming. As evidenced here, such cognitive shifts appear to impact the way humans interact with artificial agents.

Проблема выразимости невыразимого: слово-звук, сознание и реальность в индийской мысли

For traditional Indian philosophy, which tends to establish its identity on the basis of the rationally incognizable Absolute (Ātman, Brahman), the verbal expressibility of the latter is one of the central issues. In fact, what is at stake here, is an attitude to language, trust or distrust in its capacity to be a tool for transmitting the experience of reality, which for the Indian tradition is of the highest soteriological and metaphysical value. Namely, it is the experience characteristic of the culminating transpersonal states of meditation and yogic practices, as well as at the moment of unio mystica (between a believer and the personal God). The best way to point to such states is to demonstrate their radical otherness in comparison with everyday speech behaviour (vyavahāra) and discursive ways of reporting it. That is why, the apophatic approach is used, meanwhile, that does not exclude the applicability of its cataphatic opposite. In the first part of the paper, the author emphasizes a tendency to privilege the apophatic approach (‘not that, not that’) to the definition of Brahman on the example of some mahāvākya (‘great sayings’) from the Upaniṣhads. In the second part, the author elucidates a phenomenon of phonocentrism, characteristic of traditional Indian culture, taking as example an incarnation of the goddess Vāk (Speech) in Vedic literature and in Tantrism. The third part is devoted to Bhartṛihari’s (ca.V century A.D.) concepts of ‘linguistic monism’ (śabda-advaita), and of the three-part speech, and their culmination in Kashmiri Shaivism. The author shows that in Bharitṛhari and Kashmiri’ s expressibility and inexpressibility of vocalized speech does not presuppose the recognition of a separate reality of object referred to by it (correspondence principle), but varied within the boundaries of the word (śabda) itself as identical to the dynamic nature of Brahman constituted by potencies (śakti).

Конгруэнтная и неконгруэнтная Я-концепция студентов при разных типах коммуникации

The purpose of the article is to identify the influence of the stability of the self-concept and different types of communication on the communicative tactics of interpersonal interaction, represented in the speech act. The hypothesis states that incongruence/congruence of self-concept determines the choice of speech act of the person in the process of cognition; the type of self-concept system that affects relationships with people is reflected in the speech act. Speech act, according to the concept of contextual education, is a unit of communication, the basis of activity and social interaction. The article presents the results of empirical research, in which 333 first-year students of two universities of Yekaterinburg participated. J. Kelly's repertory grid technique was used in the study. Personality constructs, which are obtained in the study, are constructed on the basis of bipolar differences. Personal constructs allowed us to identify the type of communication that affects the relationship with people; they allow us to evaluate the self-concept of first-year university students; self-esteem, assessment of significant others, real self and ideal self-presented in the constructs give an idea of the stability of the self-concept and the presence of cognitive conflicts caused by personal characteristics. Based on the analysis of role preferences in repertoire lattices and the distribution of the real self and the ideal self by type of communication, the levels of stability of the self-concept and the basic characteristics of a speech act are described, such as the nature of one’s own message, the correspondence of what is communicated and what is experienced, one’s position and role in communication, type of speech behavior, giving another person a role in communication. Theoretical significance – a tool is proposed for determining the level of stability of the self-concept, which, in unity with the type of communication, influences the nature of the speech act of a first-year student. Practical significance – determining the individual characteristics of a speech act will allow us to identify the level of formation of self-awareness of the subject of cognition, which will contribute to the creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions aimed at identifying the adaptive potential of first-year students at the initial stage of professionalization (initiation).

Impolite Communication Practices as a Community-Building Tool in Sports News Comments

Conflict discourse studies provide a valuable insight into linguistic and sociocultural ideologies of online communities. They also may offer effective approaches to linguistic detoxification. This research featured online communication of sport fans. Their discourse is interdiscursive, possesses a certain netiquette, and reflects the social and ideological diversity within the community. The authors explored common speech strategies aimed at threatening the social identity of outsiders or at the acquisition of power. The material involved an array of comments posted on Sports.ru: each example was tested for speech aggression, and the conflict-marked comments were described from the strategy perspective. The sampling relied on the general intention and expressive vocabulary aimed at the addressee. The frequency distribution of impoliteness strategies revealed that users often tended to assert power through personal characterization of their opponents, e.g., agism, sarcasm, hypercorrect speech behavior, identity attacks via derogatory team nominations, etc. The analysis identified various conflict strategies employed to form derogatory nominations, as well as defined the socio-cultural characteristics that marked the addressee as a target of conflictladen speech behavior.

Bloggers’ Speech Behavior: Analysis and Diagnosis of Personal Traits from the Perspective of Implicit and Functional Pragmalinguistics

The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive methodology for conducting both traditional and modified content analysis using transcripts of spoken language from video bloggers as source material. The specific focus of this research centers around video content dedicated to reviewing retro automotive vehicles. The authors delve into two fundamental branches of pragmalinguistics, namely the implicit and functional aspects, while also detailing the analytical techniques employed within these paradigms. The practical application of these methods is illustrated using the oral speeches of the blogger Alexander Chikunov as a case study, providing a clear and tangible demonstration of the process for diagnosing individual personality traits. The initial phase involves an analysis of the material through the lens of implicit pragmalinguistics, encompassing the frequency analysis of speech patterns within the context of selected linguistic strategies, coupled with rigorous statistical data processing. The outcomes pertaining to a specific blogger are subsequently juxtaposed against data from other bloggers within the same genre, thereby facilitating the identification of shared, stereotypical, and unique personality characteristics attributed to the blogger. Moving forward, this article highlights individual traits of the blogger, which were discerned through traditional content analysis techniques. Finally, the study involves an insightful interpretation of the acquired data, culminating in the development of a nuanced portrait of Alexander Chikunov’s speech behavior. A notable aspect of this research lies in its pioneering effort to discern and systematize linguistic features exclusively found within the domain of video blogs. This is achieved by utilizing unscripted spoken language from bloggers as empirical evidence, adding a distinctive dimension to the study’s scientific novelty.

“Newspeak” in Contemporary German Political Discourse

This article examines the concept of “newspeak,” created by J. Orwell in his novel “1984,” which functions as one of the means of manipulating the political consciousness of people. The article focuses on the linguistic manifestation of newspeak in the speech behavior of modern German politicians. It reveals two main functions of newspeak in the speech of modern German politicians: confusion and reinterpretation of established concepts. The article explores the corpus of lexical means of German political newspeak, which are realized in the form of framing, empty phrases, paradoxical word constructions, borrowings, neologisms, clericalisms, lexemes with ambiguous meaning, and words with multiple meanings. Among the grammatical means peculiar to newspeak in German political discourse, the article describes the inclusive pronoun “wir,” passive voice, and the conjunctive irrealis in combination with the adverbial modifier of manner. The pragmatic means of realizing newspeak in German political discourse include the imposition of presuppositions, weak efforts to fulfill the intentions, and hyperbolization. The conclusion is drawn that, unlike in totalitarian societies, politicians in democratic countries use newspeak to compensate for the failures of their party, which turns out to be unable to fully implement its declared intentions, mainly through linguistic manipulations.