Terms Of Communicative Functions Research Articles

초등영어 6학년 교사용 지도서 듣기, 말하기 활동 분석: 의사소통기능과 언어형식 관점에서

초등영어 6학년 교사용 지도서 듣기, 말하기 활동 분석: 의사소통기능과 언어형식 관점에서

Inappropriate Presentation of Communicative Functions in Middle School English Textbooks*

This study investigates whether model dialogues in currently available middle school English textbooks present appropriate pragmatic input in the realization of speech acts or communicative functions with a focus on the authenticity of the textbook dialogues. To attain this purpose, a total of 18 textbooks were scrutinized in terms of communicative functions. The results showed that many of the textbook dialogues are devoid of adequate treatment of speech acts or communicative functions. The poor representation was evident in a wide array of communicative functions such as requesting/favor-asking, thanking, inviting, encouraging, complaining, responding to complaints, expressing sympathy, expressing surprise, refusing and responding to refusals. The misrepresented functions were largely due to the lack of sensitivity to situational constraints, interlocutor variables, and/or formality. Some cases were ascribed to pragmatic transfer from the native language. This study will contribute to the improvement of the currently available textbooks so that they can provide authentic speech act input.

How Chinese Netizens Discuss Environmental Conflicts? Framing and Functions on Sina Weibo

This study explores how China’s indigenous social media weibo was used in the discussion of seven major cases of environmental pollution and related unrest between 2010 and 2012 in China. We found that the majority of Chinese netizens frame these incidents as conflicts between “the state and the people”, and economic development and citizen’s well-being, and attribute responsibility for the wrongdoing to the government. In terms of communicative functions, weibo creates a public sphere for articulating critical opinions as well as requesting and sharing information about the cases, but also expressing strong emotions. We developed a specific research design that helps conduct empirical research (select cases, accumulate data, analyze content, and interpret results) in a censored media environment. In this sense, we present an exercise in de-Westernization (specifically, Sinification) of the methodology of social media research.

The communicative function of English verb number

This paper offers an account of English verb number solely in terms of communicative function. In this account, verb number is a full-fledged expressive device comparable to the number system for English nouns; all instances of verb number are accounted for in terms of meaning, with the caveat that meaning pertains to conceptualization, not reference. Two points emerge from this line of analysis. First, verb number is not controlled by subject number; each is a separate communicative choice governed by discourse-based principles of semantic coherence. Second, even though the subject usually precedes the verb, speakers can nevertheless think ahead and choose subject number so as to accommodate an anticipated choice of verb number just as well as the reverse, and appear to do both on different occasions. Thus, both choices are best understood in terms of symmetrical relations of textual cohesion, usually with each other but sometimes with other features of the context.

Communicative acts of a child with Rubinstein—Taybi syndrome during early communicative development

Rubinstein—Taybi syndrome (RTS) is a rare genetic developmental disorder that often shows associated language delay. However, literature on language development in RTS is very limited, particularly for the period of early communicative development, when standardized testing can be minimally informative. The purpose of the current study was to present a descriptive profile of the intentional communicative acts of a 4-year-old child with RTS, both to add to the literature on the syndrome, and as an example of non-standard profiling of early communication. The child was video-recorded in a natural context with familiar conversational partners. Analyses of the videotaped interactions included rate of communication, communicative functions and modes, and discourse patterns in terms of initiation and response. The child's mean rate of communication was 6 communicative acts per minute. In terms of communicative function, assertive (commenting) communicative acts were most common, followed by directive (requests) and expressive (affective) acts. Mode of communication was less advanced than communicative function; vocalizations were the most frequent mode, although linguistic skills were emerging (signs, single words). Implications for treatment are suggested for children with development delays on the threshold between prelinguistic and one-word phases of development.

When nouns and verbs degrade: Facilitating communication in semantic dementia

Background: Little is known about how to maintain communicative effectiveness in semantic dementia as the disease progresses from impairment in word retrieval to a loss of conceptual knowledge. Aim: The purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to characterise communicative effectiveness using a modified framework derived from Chapman and Ulatowska (1997) that integrates two components: codification of ideas (falling on a continuum from verbal to nonverbal and generative to automatic forms) and functions of communication (imaginative, heuristic, informative, personal, interactional, regulatory, and instrumental). The second objective is to outline principles of a discourse intervention that focuses on communicative effectiveness. Method & Procedures: The participant was Mr Bobby V, a man with semantic dementia. His communication abilities were characterised at diagnosis and 24 months later using the framework of communicative effectiveness, based on discourse samples, clinical observation, and caregiver report. From the time of diagnosis, Bobby V received discourse intervention, which focused on maintaining his communication abilities using all available communication resources. We outline principles of discourse intervention in semantic dementia based on our experience of delivering individual and group intervention to Bobby V. Outcomes and Results: The communicative effectiveness framework described here could be used to characterise communication skills, set therapy goals, and monitor progress in semantic dementia. Discourse intervention likely facilitated Bobby V's continued success in maintaining communication despite progressive loss of nouns and verbs. Conclusions: Targeting conversational effectiveness in terms of communicative functions offers a promising and ecologically valuable intervention for people with semantic dementia, as it allows individuals with this form of dementia to connect meaningfully with people in their immediate surroundings well into the later stages of the disease. We deeply appreciate support from the Frank Garrott Fund, Temple Stark Fund, and other private donors to the Center for BrainHealth, as well as professional support from Anne M. Lipton, Katy Milton, and Garen Sparks. We are profoundly grateful for Bobby V and his wife, who have taught us much about optimism and adaptation in the face of difficulty.

Identical Constituent Compounding – a Corpus-based Study

Even though the phenomenon of repetition in language has attracted a fair amount of attention in English linguistics, the area of one of its most specific incarnations is still more or less uncharted. Examples are: job-job or jealous-jealous. These forms are used to single out or emphasize a prototype reading of job and jealous, respectively. This phenomenon, referred to here as 'identical constituent compounding', has never before been properly researched in any depth. In doing so for the first time, especially by corpus linguistics means, this can be regarded as a pilot study - as well as a continuation of research into the broader area of 'nonce' word-formation (which forms the theoretical framework and starting-point). This is, however, primarily an empirical study. Its base ranges from the renowned British National Corpus and some smaller, more specialized, established corpora to newly compiled corpora especially tailored to this end. Through the latter, more emphasis was placed on contexts of informal dialogue situations, which are the principal domain for identical constituent compounds to occur in (and at the same time one notoriously underrepresented in most standard corpora). The search results delivered by custom-made software allow some generalizations about this compounding type and also about its standing in relation to some other forms of repeated strings. Identical constituent compounding may be a relatively low-frequency phenomenon, but at the same time it is one of the most specifically defined ones amongst any repetition phenomena, especially in terms of communicative function. A brief look at other languages, especially German and Italian, complements the study.

Iconic hand gestures and the predictability of words in context in spontaneous speech.

This study presents a series of empirical investigations to test a theory of speech production proposed by Butterworth and Hadar (1989; revised in Hadar & Butterworth, 1997) that iconic gestures have a functional role in lexical retrieval in spontaneous speech. Analysis 1 demonstrated that words which were totally unpredictable (as measured by the Shannon guessing technique) were more likely to occur after pauses than after fluent speech, in line with earlier findings. Analysis 2 demonstrated that iconic gestures were associated with words of lower transitional probability than words not associated with gesture, even when grammatical category was controlled. This therefore provided new supporting evidence for Butterworth and Hadar's claims that gestures' lexical affiliates are indeed unpredictable lexical items. However, Analysis 3 found that iconic gestures were not occasioned by lexical accessing difficulties because although gestures tended to occur with words of significantly lower transitional probability, these lower transitional probability words tended to be uttered quite fluently. Overall, therefore, this study provided little evidence for Butterworth and Hadar's theoretical claim that the main function of the iconic hand gestures that accompany spontaneous speech is to assist in the process of lexical access. Instead, such gestures are reconceptualized in terms of communicative function.

Types of oral communication activities and the language they generate: A comparison

The study aims to compare the language generated by different kinds of oral communication activities. In the experiment reported on, three different kinds of oral communication activities were performed by each of the six pairs of students working simultaneously; the language produced by them was tape-recorded and transcribed. The language generated was first compared in terms of speed of speaking, frequency of turns taken and frequency of self-correction. Looking more closely, it appears that when engaged in the first kind of activity, i.e. a goal-directed, problem-solving oral communication activity, students generated language markedly wider in terms of communicative function but narrower in range of form and lexis. When doing the other two kinds of activity, i.e. role-play and ‘authentic’/‘natural’ interaction on the other hand, students seem to pay more attention to accuracy and range of form and lexis. The relative degree to which a student draws on his communicative and linguistic resources seems to be related to the communication needs of the particular kind of activity engaged in.