Realization Of Speech Research Articles

Acoustic Characteristics of Cantonese Speech Through Protective Facial Coverings

ObjectivesProtective facial coverings (PFCs) such as surgical masks attenuate speech transmission and affect speech intelligibility, which is reported in languages such as English and German. The present study intended to verify the detrimental impacts on production of tonal languages such as Cantonese, by examining realization of speech correlates in Cantonese under PFCs including facial masks and shields. MethodsWe recorded scripted speech in Hong Kong Cantonese produced by three adult speakers who wore various PFCs, including surgical masks, KF94 masks, and face shields (with and without surgical masks). Spectral and temporal parameters were measured, including mean intensity, speaking rate, long-term amplitude spectrum, formant frequencies of vowels, and duration and fundamental frequency (F0) of tone-bearing parts. ResultsSignificant changes were observed in all acoustic correlates of Cantonese speech under PFCs. Sound pressure levels were attenuated more intensely at ranges of higher frequencies in speech through face masks, whereas sound transmission was affected more at ranges of lower frequencies in speech under face shields. Vowel spaces derived from formant frequencies shrank under all PFCs, with the vowel /aa/ demonstrating largest changes in the first two formants. All tone-bearing parts were shortened and showed increments of F0 means in speech through PFCs. The decrease of tone duration was statistically significant in High-level and Low-level tones, while the increment of F0 means was significant in High-level tone only. ConclusionsGeneral filtering effect of PFCs is observed in Cantonese speech data, confirming language-universal patterns in acoustic attenuation by PFCs. The various coverings lower overall intensity levels of speech and degrade speech signal in higher frequency regions. Modification patterns specific to Hong Kong Cantonese are also identified. Vowel space area is reduced and found associated with increased speaking rates. Tones are produced with higher F0s under PFCs, which may be attributed to vocal tension caused by tightened vocal tract during speaking through facial coverings.

Clefts in context: A QUD-perspective on c’est / il y a utterances in spoken French

In this paper we present the results of a pragmatic analysis of French full clefts and monoclausal c’est/il y a utterances (e.g. c’est la femme qui l’a tué ‘it’s the wife who killed him’ vs. c’est la femme ‘it’s the wife’ respectively in answer to the question ‘who killed him?’), when these structures are used as pragmatic strategies to focalize the subject in spoken French. Unlike full cleft sentences, monoclausal c’est and il y a utterances have received less attention in the literature, especially with regard to focus and its realization in spontaneous speech. Investigating the opposition between full clefts and monoclausal forms as well as the questions that these clefts answer allows us to arrive at a more precise understanding of the discourse functions of these structures and the pragmatic contexts in which they are felicitous. The corpus that is used (sgs, spontaneous spoken French) contains many question-answer pairs due to its interactive setup, thus enabling a clear analysis of the types of Question Under Discussion that the clefts answer. The data show that monoclausal utterances are more likely to answer highly active QUDs, whereas full clefts are more likely to answer less active QUDs. The level of activation is determined in terms of proximity and implicitness of the QUD (immediately-preceding the cleft, further away or implicit), and - when the question is uttered explicitly - modality (wh or yes/no) also plays a role.

Cognitive-Pagmatic Characteristics of Fiction Text on the Material of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s Short Story “Emelya the Hunter”

The researcher attempts to give the cognitive and pragmatic characteristics of fiction text (based on D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s short story “Emelya the Hunter”). The aim of the work was to build the model of the cognitive type on D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s short story and analyze speech realizations in the text. The novelty of this article is a detailed cognitive and pragmatic study of the constituent elements, a description of the mental and linguistic structure (cogniotype) and the interpretation of the received results in the studying process of the structural and content side of the text of the short story “Emelya the Hunter”. The material for the study and analysis in this research was not only the theoretical and practical positions of the scientific works of a number of Russian linguists studying the understanding of any text of various genres of fiction works, but also the linguistic material itself: the short story of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak “Emelya the Hunter” in Russian. To achieve the aim of the research the following tasks were solved: 1) to build the structure of the cognitive type of the short story “Emelya the Hunter”; 2) to find the terms related to various scientific disciplines; 3) to find phraseological units; 4) to systematize adjectives; 5) to give a cognitive and pragmatic description of the studied text. The author of the present article used such methods as: 1) continuous sampling of vocabulary; 2) classification; 3) quantitative calculation; 4) interpretive. D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s short story “Emelya the Hunter” was studied from various positions. A model of the cognitive type of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s short story “Emelya the Hunter” was shown in the form of a structure with main topics and their interrelationships. As a result, scientific terms in Geography and Biology were identified and systematized; phraseological units were found and comments were given to them; adjectives were found and classified by types and systematized in the table; the quantitative and percentage ratios of adjectives were calculated and presented in the table and diagrams. The results of the study showed that phraseological units reflected the people’s value priorities in a certain metaphorical form. The relevance of the research was determined by the importance of the chosen topic and its theoretical and practical significance for the cognitive direction in scientific research.

MELODIC ORGANIZATION OF THE PREACHER'S SPEECH IN FILM DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the melodic organization of monological expressions of preachers of different ranks - the characters of English-language feature films. Based on the fact that the preacher's speech functions are not limited to preaching from the pulpit, but include speeches outside the temple and private conversations with parishioners on spiritual topics, these three types of speech activities were studied. The research material, which consisted of oral English sermons, speeches and conversations taken from five modern films, was subjected to auditive, auditory and electroacoustic analysis. Auditive analysis involved the selection from the general text of those phrasal units that most clearly demonstrate the prosodic characteristics in all parts of the studied sermons, speeches and conversations. Auditory analysis was aimed at determining the type of spiritual speech and identifying the degree of participation of certain prosodic parameters (melodic contour, phrasal stress, volume, tempo, rhythm, pause) in the realization of the intention of speech and expression of emotions in different parts of the text. Based on the auditive analysis, firstly, the prosodic differences between the three speech realizations at the level of perception were confirmed, and secondly, it was found that the melodic component of intonation is the second most informative component involved in speech differentiation and enhancing its influential effect.The complex auditory and instrumental analysis of the melodic characteristics of the preachers’ speech allows to conclude that there are integral and distinctive melodic parameters inherent in the three types of speech behaviour of the speakers during the sermon, speeches outside the church and conversations with parishioners in private. The private priests’ conversation with parishioners is characterized by the lowest melodic indicators, where facial expressions and kinetic means of expressiveness and emotionality come to the fore.

Tindak Tutur Direktif dalam Kumpulan Cerpen Pandawa Kurawa Karya Agus Hiplunudin

A language is a communication tool used by humans to exchange information between individuals, both in the form of ideas, feelings, and emotions. Every communication process carried out by humans produces speech acts. This study aimed to describe the communication function and strategy for realizing directive speech acts in the collection of short stories Pandawa Kurawa by Agus Hiplunudin. The method used was descriptive qualitative with a pragmatic theory approach. The data source was a collection of Pandawa Kurawa short stories by Agus Hiplunudin. The data was collected through a reading-note technique which was then analyzed descriptively. The research data analysis was carried out by identifying the data, reducing the data, presenting the data, interpreting the data, and concluding the interpretation results. The results showed that the collection of Pandawa Kurawa short stories by Agus Hiplunudin contains a variety of communication functions and strategies for the realization of directive speech acts. The directive speech act was found in communication functions including advising, asking, demanding, ordering, forcing, suggesting, challenging, complaining, encouraging, and asking. Further, the strategies used to realize directive speech acts include a speech strategy without small talk, a speech strategy with positive politeness, and a speech strategy with negative politeness.

Етикетні мовленнєві акти в аспекті лінгводидактики

Abstract. The works of M. Kurushina, I. Linchak, I. Lysenko, M. Shevchenko, H. Sokolova, T. Plotnikovа, D. Polyakov, I. Valchenko and І. Zozula are devoted to the issue of teaching methods in a foreign language audience at the beginner level in Ukrainian linguistics. They study special features of the formation of reading and speaking skills in the Ukrainian language. They examine the types of lexical units, grammatical categories, multi-genre texts that are appropriate for studying at the initial stage. Modern methods of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language are based on the communicative approach, which resulted in a paradigm shift from the study of vocabulary and grammar to language acquisition through speech acts as ways of communicative interaction in specific communication situations. At the beginner level of learning the Ukrainian as a foreign language, speakers (foreigners studying in Ukraine, students of Ukrainian Studies in the world, the Ukrainian diaspora, children of migrant workers studying at Saturday and Sunday schools abroad) should master the skills of realizing the following etiquette speech acts: apologies, greetings, wishes, thanks, congratulations and farewells. In this regard, the present paper considers features of realization of etiquette speech acts to successfully introduce them into the educational process of Ukrainian as a foreign language at the beginner level (A1). The paper outlines a set of etiquette speech acts, which are studied in a foreign language audience at the beginner level and describes the socio-cultural context of their realization, communicative situation, an addresser / addressee status, communicative goal. It also identifies lexical and grammatical means for the verbalization of etiquette speech acts, which will be studied by foreign language speakers at the beginner level. These are utterances and lexemes that form the content of the relevant speech acts to meet the communicative needs at the beginner level (phrases of greetings and farewells, names of the holidays, names of abstract concepts, etc.). A set of grammatical categories is specified for making correct utterances: indirect cases of nouns and personal pronouns, exclamatory case of nouns; for correct naming of the addressee: conjugation of verbs (to greet / to wish) in the present tense, noun-adjective agreement, examples of verb government, etc. The object of the analysis is also language means of forms of address to the interlocutor, which belong to the global rules of communication, determine its tone, and the violation of which often causes communicative deviations in the Ukrainian language. A system of exercises and tasks for reading, listening, developing monologue and dialogic speech provides effective learning of the etiquette speech acts.

SCHIZOPHRENIA SPEECH MARKERS PSYCHOLINGUISTIC IDENTIFICATION ALGORITHM

In the article, the authors highlight the peculiarities of schizophrenia speech manifestations and presents an algorithm for its identification. The algorithm consists of four stages, which include the respondents’ oral and written speech analysis which considers the specifics of systemic speech indicators, associative reactions and grapheme features. The first stage features oral communication with patients, during which they are asked to answer questions about their past, general orientation in space and time, etc., which is generally consistent with the tactics of questioning, but in the projection not only on psychomental peculiarities, but on the linguistic indicators as well. This way we get an idea of the level of the patient’s general communicative competence. The results of the study are recorded in the according table. During the second stage, the authors utilize an associative experiment, the results of which are compared with the results of mentally healthy respondents and are also recorded in the table. Such comparative analysis reveals the conceptual differences between the respondents’ associative background and makes it possible to identify informative semantic segments. During the third stage, patients are asked to write a short essay about their daily routine, the most memorable day in life, which helps to determine their personal view of events, perceptions of such events, and illustrates the grapheme features of speech realizations. The results are also recorded in the table. The fourth stage involves the analysis and generalization of the results. The scientific novelty of article is that it is the first one to present a comprehensive algorithm for examining the speech of patients with schizophrenia, in particular at the level of their oral and written speech. The theoretical significance of the study is determined by the possibility of utilizing the findings in an in-depth study of speech features of patients with schizophrenia at different stages, considering the most informative language indicators, as well as in further development of pathopsycholinguistics general theory, altered consciousness states studies and other related studies. The practical value of the obtained results is determined by the possibility of utilizing them in developing methods for speech correction of mentally ill people and in the recognition of such diseases at the initial stage.

A systematic literature review: Apology and request strategies in English by Libyan university students

Much research has been done in the realization of apology and request speech act but very few have explored this in the context of Arabic language. We perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process in this paper to gather and analyze studies to identify the diverse apology and request strategies preferred by Arabic learners of English and the influence of culture and social distance on them. The strategies employed and the speech acts along with the native and foreign dialects and pragmatism involved are researched. Following a predefined review procedure, we identified 15 literature papers within the years 2016-2020 Â Â presenting research on apology and request strategies preferred by Arabic learners of English. The studies are gathered from various resources and illuminate the apology and request strategies in different contexts. We analyzed the papers to understand the preferred strategy method chosen and the logic behind it. Moreover, this study presents a related discussion and conclusions.

The Relation Between Flor’s Taxonomy and Trosborg’s Modification in Giving Suggestions in Students’ Spoken Presentation

Considering the intense presentation activity in the graduate classroom, the use of suggestion turns to be primary in delivering points. This triggered the researchers to study the issue. The primary objective of this study is to explain the relation between Flor’s (2005) suggestion taxonomy and Trosborg’s (1995) suggestion modification through the realization of speech acts of suggestion. The study applied a descriptive qualitative research method in which the data were gathered by using Oral Discourse Completion Task (ODCT). The participants of the study were 15 EFL students of a graduate program of a university in Semarang. The responses then were analyzed based on Flor’s (2005) suggestion taxonomy and Trosborg’s (1995) suggestion modification coding scheme. The results revealed that there were 146 suggestions produced. Conventionalized forms were realized more frequently than other Flor’s taxonomies. Furthermore, negative imperative was the most used indirect strategy. The subjects realized more specific formulae of the most in conventionalized forms. The indirect strategy was realized equally. Politeness marker was used more frequently while grounder claimed the highest findings in external modification. The relation between the taxonomy and modification showed that direct taxonomy and external modification was the highest relation found in the suggestion realization. It is expected that this research can give profound contributions to university students, English teachers, and other fellow researchers to develop further research related to suggestion speech acts. At last, it is suggested that English teachers particularly are to raise EFL learners’ pragmatic awareness by implementing appropriate teaching approach and method.

Realization of Speech Act of Permission by Kurdish EFL University Students

This study aims to examine Kurdish EFL university students’ development of L2 pragmatic competence by investigating their performance of the speech acts of permission. The methodology of this study was a combined research method, which comprises a quantitative and a qualitative method (mixed method). Total of 97 participants were involved in this research study. 83 (33 males and 50 females) were from four state universities and one private university in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and 14 were native speakers of English. A discourse completion test (DCT) was used to elicit the required data from participants. The study used convenience sampling for the participants because both native and non-native participants were selected on the basis of their availability. The data were coded and analysed quantitatively in terms of overall strategy use and strategy patterns. The findings revealed that there were differences in the frequency and percentages of strategies and semantic formulae in performing the speech act. KEFLUS tended to use more direct and explicit. There were more politeness and implicitness in NSE' behaviours in performing the speech act, which might have resulted from the lack of pragmatic competence of KEFLUS.

Cooperation as a harmonious scenario for the realization of provocative speech

Cooperation as a harmonious scenario for the realization of provocative speech

ЯЗЫК ВРАЖДЫ В ПУБЛИЧНОМ ДИСКУРСЕ ИНТЕРНЕТА

The paper provides an overview of foreign studies on the implementation of hate speech in the public discourse of institutional and non-institutional media and social media based on the material of Indo-European, Fino-Ugric and Sino-Tibetan language families. The content of the concept «hate speech» is analyzed in the broad sense of this word. The findings reveal thematic, discursive, and cognitive features of hate speech realization, the behavioral characteristics of haters, as well as the groups of people towards whom hate speech is most often targeted.

SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF ENGLISH CLOTHES IN SCRIPTIONS

Summary. The object of the article is the problem of the linguistic study of English clothes inscriptions. The subject of this study is the specificity of parts of speech realization in dialects. The purpose of the paper is linguistic analysis of English-language clothing inscriptions semantic load. In order to achieve this goal in the course of our study, the following tasks are foreseen: collecting, systematizing and analyzing the inscriptions on clothes and performing their translation into the Ukrainian language, identifying the existing unsolved questions when translating the inscriptions on clothes. The object of the research is English-language slogans, which are placed on the clothes of adults and children in Ukraine and abroad. The purpose of the paper and its tasks determine the choice of research methods: the method of comparison, which allows establishing the adequacy of translation of the inscriptions on clothes; descriptive method used to describe successful translations and failures of translators. The inscriptions on clothes as a text representant convey certain information about a person: about events that occur in a person’s life, about events, about tastes, interests and hobbies of a person. We have collected and analyzed about 200 clothing slogans. The inscription on the clothes is a communicative tool with a variety of semantic content. It is possible to classify the inscriptions on clothes according to the semantic principle and divide them into several semantic groups. The latter are finding of research. According to thouris classification, the semantic load of the inscriptions on clothes is quite diverse and dynamic. This means that they are in a state of constant change, as well as the fashion in general and often reflect some short-term problems and soon become irrelevant. The practical value of the investigation is to use the suggested classifications to the translation of clothes inscriptions.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AS A VALUE OF DEMOCRATIC STATE- BUILDING: SECURITY FORMAT

Human rights and freedoms are an essential part of building a democratic state. In turn, freedom of speech is a basic value of a democratic state. At the same time, modern democratic countries, facing terrorist and information threats, becoming information war objects, are forced to adjust the realization legal parameters of the freedom of speech, especially in the media. Variety of law, philosophical and political science publications are devoted to problems of the freedom of speech ensuring in conditions of hybrid and information wars, the permanent terrorist threat, and armed conflicts. This research aims on highlighting the freedom of speech realization problem in current information and hybrid wars, as well as on revealing the features of the relationship between freedom of speech and security measures in democratic states. Nowadays, informational confrontation, information attacks and wars have become the dominant component in the struggle for global leadership. World democracies face the problem of comprehensive freedom of speech implementation on the one hand, and on the other hand - maintaining the safe state existence in conditions of hybrid wars, negative informational effects on public consciousness and spiritual-cultural area of the country. In different countries of the world, the beginning of the XXI century events have clearly shown that by means of social networks, it is possible to carry out information attacks against entire nations in order to destabilize the situation, create an auspicious spiritual and psychological climate for the further manipulative actions, destructive influence on existing political and economic systems, legal, spiritual, cultural and other relations, which ultimately leads to the destabilizing of state, information, political and economic sovereignty of the country. To date, in scientific and expert circles, the main criteria have been developed, whereby it is determined whether a country has become the object of information war and information expansion, which accordingly requires the state to take countermeasures to strengthen national security (informational in particular), freedom of speech regulation. Thus, in all of its aspects, the freedom of speech must be ensured by a democratic state, but at the same time it is necessary to clearly define the boundaries of openness in certain areas (military, national security) for the stable country existence.

ДО ПИТАННЯ ІСТОРІЇ РОЗВИТКУ МЕТОДИКИ НАВЧАННЯ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МОВИ В ПОЧАТКОВИХ КЛАСАХ

The development of methods of teaching the Ukrainian language in primary school is investigated in this scientific work. There is also finds out the reasons that slowed down the process of its improvement. But nowadays thanks to the constant scientist`s and teacher`s work there are lots of new technologies and methods of education which before were impossible. Modern society needs citizens with a broad worldview, always ready for the challenges of today, and not with limited knowledge on a particular issue. So that the aim «to form a successful personality» should be achieve in each subject. Methodology of Ukrainian language teaching has its own history of development which should know every future teacher. It is a big pity that the ways of it`s were really difficult as it often was forbidden, suffer from political pressure and lack of methodological and technical support. Due to work with various achievements of world pedagogical science and scientists, we can discover more and more about history of different educational methods, means and forms in Ukrainian language lessons. It is considered that language is the product of historical development of society, which use the property of the previous stages of its life. It is the similar for all native speaker but its realization in speech has features. Pedagogical deal with speech as the means of education and knowledge of the environment. Some pedagogues grant great importance to native language as the means of influence on the spiritual development of the child. As a science methodology of Ukrainian language teaching consist of theoretical and practical components, provides preparation of teachers for effective organization of the educational process. Its aim is to find only that educational means which are able to provide the best result in learning the subject. Around the most popular education methods which are used in Ukrainian language lessons in the past and present mark out: narration, conversation, work with books, written exercises. Teaching of native language should accord to all modern demands as personal needs of young pupils in communicative and social development are also always changing.

THE PROSODIC PARAMETERS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPERATIVES IN THE INSTITUTIONAL DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to highlighting the results of the study of prosodic parameters in the implementation of the imperatives in the texts of two types of institutional discourse, namely, lecture and preaching. Proceeding from the presence of common intentional criteria of lecture and preaching discourse (transfer of knowledge and formation of point of view / belief), these discourses are considered in the article as a special type of institutional teaching discourse with a similar compositional structure. In the implementation of the operational strategies of the lecturer and the preacher, an important role is played by the methods of stimulating the audience to communicative actions, which are carried out, in particular, by imperative utterances. The work contains a description of the results of a phonetic study of imperative utterances and their linguistic interpretation, as a result of which a systematic description of the prosodic organization of various types of imperatives used in lecture and preaching discourses is presented, the characteristic patterns of the intonation structure of the studied speech realizations are highlighted. On the basis of the conducted research, it was stated that loudness, tempo, phrasal stress and melodic contour are the main prosodic means of realizing motivation in any part of the text of a lecture or a sermon. Depending on the degree of participation of prosodic parameters in the implementation of imperatives, three main prosodic components were identified that participate in the differentiation of the type of lecture or sermon. In lecture discourse, the prosodic parameters that differentiate the classroom / online lecture are melody, stress and tempo. In preaching discourse, the main prosodic markers of the differentiation of temple / distant preaching are melody, rhythm and loudness. The audit analysis made a statement of the existence of a certain pattern in the use of imperatives, depending on the type of lecture and preaching discourses and their compositional part, and demonstrated the concentration of the largest number of differential intonation features in the introduction and the smallest - in the general main part of the texts. The main result of the audit analysis was the advancement of certain intonational parameters as informative for the implementation and differentiation of imperatives in various types of discourse.

ENGLISH SPEECH ACTS OF DIRECTIVES IN CLASS INTERACTION

This research was highly concerned on the study ethnography of communication, i.e. in the way of speaking a language. The objective was on learn realization of English speech acts in the class interaction between students and lecturer(s). The study conducted in the English Education Study Program of Palangka Raya University. The method applied was a communication ethnography based on the social phenomena of empirical facts in terms of illocutionary speech acts of directives. It is a qualitative research focusing on the speakers’ utterances. Data collected using the Spradley’s ethnography method. Data analysis using the model of Hymes’ communication analysis, including: analysis of communication situation, communication events, communication acts, and Spradley’s analysis of cultural theme. The first finding and the novelty showed that the realization of directive speech act had been the most dominant one. This finding proved that the illocutionary speech act of directives has a higher social status in an interaction. The use of speech acts of directives proved that it was closely related with the context of situation and culture of the speaker(s) whereas the higher(s) had dominated the lower(s). Finally, directive speech act was used to control the class to be interactive by the lecturer(s).

PERCEPTED INTONATION FEATURES OF ENGLISH PUBLIC SPEECHES (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF PREACHING AND TRIAL DISCOURSES)

The article is dedicated to the results of the audit analysis of the texts of oral discourses (preaching and trial). The purpose of this article is to identify the features of the intonation organization of the texts of oral English sermons and court speeches. The object of study is preaching and trial discourses as a special kind of institutional discourse of persuasive type. The subject of the research is the peculiarities of the intonation organization of oral English sermons and court speeches. To achieve this goal, a phonetic study of the perceived prosodic characteristics of speech realizations of sermons and court speeches was conducted, in the process of which the method of scientific observation (subjective) was used, which contains audit and audit analysis of selected objects and identification of the phonological status of the studied units; quantitative analysis made it possible to interpret the data obtained empirically during the audit analysis. On the basis of the conducted audit analysis it is possible to draw certain conclusions concerning the intonation organization common for the researched discourses. The auditors' identification of parts of the researched sermons and court speeches proved the validity of their division into the compositional parts mentioned above and made it possible to conclude that there are certain linguistic factors that allow to identify parts of the text with high probability. The leading intonation parameter to enhance the persuasive effect of speeches was the tempo. The melodic component of intonation, namely the melodic contour, has also proved to be a powerful intonation tool for influencing and achieving a persuasive effect, while volume is not an important intonation parameter involved in persuasion. The perspective of the research is seen in conducting a comprehensive instrumentalphonetic study to verify the data obtained on the prosodic organization of persuasive statements in preaching and trial discourses.

The Relations between Male and Female Participants in Using Assertive Speech Acts for Interactions in The Ellen DeGeneres Show

As an act of communication, people tend to speak with what comes to their minds and beliefs which are called assertive or representative speech acts concerning what the speaker believes to be the case or not. In this regard, this study aimed to explain the realization of assertive speech acts of male and female interactions in The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the relationship between male and female participants in realizing the assertive speech acts in terms of power, social distance, and rank of imposition. To expound this research more detail, a qualitative method was applied through direct observation of the videos and transcripts downloaded. Those data were supported by the theory of Searle and Vanderveken (1985) and Brown and Levinson (1987). From the data collected, there were 22 out of 32 types of assertive speech acts employed by male and female participants. There were no disclaim, notify, retrodict, insist, hypothesize, swear, testify, admit, accuse, and blame in their interactions. Mostly, males used affirm, inform, and state during their shows representing that they acted to exert dominance and achieve obvious outcomes. Whereas, female ones used state, affirm, and followed by inform acts to deliver their thoughts indicating that they used communication as a tool to enhance social connection and create relationships. It is in line that men are goal-oriented, while women are relationship-oriented. Moreover, adult participants had the same level in the matter of power and social distance which affected how they interacted through more multifarious assertive speech acts than the young ones. Besides, there were a few impositions between male and female as the topic given had already talked before, hence the possibility of threatening the speaker’s face is not very highly occurred. Based on this study, hopefully, people will know how to make words fit the world appropriately.

Sociopragmatic competence in American and Chinese children’s realization of apology and refusal

This study explores the cross-cultural difference in the change of sociopragmatic competence by collecting perception and production data from native English-speaking children and native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children. The study focused on the development of interlocutor sensitivity in the realization of speech acts of apology and refusal. The participants consisted of four groups: American 1st-grade, American 8th-grade, Chinese 1st-grade and Chinese 8th-grade students. The children’s interlocutor sensitivity was examined through the following aspects: (1) their perception of severity of the offense, (2) their perception of the “need to be more polite” when apologizing to or refusing a familiar interlocutor or an interlocutor with higher social status, and (3) the use of apology and refusal strategies. The results showed that cross-cultural differences exist in the change pattern of interlocutor variation.