Pragmatics and Society - Volume 16, Issue 6, 2025

Abstract

Drawing on video-recorded data from an educational institution called Tokyo Global Gateway, we investigate how visiting students use English for sequence-initiating actions addressed either to a teacher (called an agent) or other students. As the students usually use Japanese to address another student, we analyze how they accomplish targeting the agent when they use English to address another student. By doing this, the students position the agent as a legitimate overhearer. We also investigate the resources students use to construct sequence-initiating actions and how they recycle resources from the substrate (i.e., local environment of talk, embodied conduct, and other semiotic resources). Students’ sophisticated use of resources, including those recycled from the substrate, demonstrates that their often simple language belies a high degree of displayed interactional competence. This study contributes to research on participation and language choice in educational institutions and the use of recycled resources in the construction of actions-in-interaction.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to lay the theoretical foundation of the metapragmatic act of debating, and to present evidence that it provides a better approach to mediated debate than existing theoretical notions of metapragmatic acts and intertextuality in the media. To achieve this goal, it contrasts its notion with Bublitz’ (2015) metapragmatic act of quoting, and analyses a simple and a complex exchange from the First 2004 US presidential debate. The theory proposed and data analyzed suggest two things: (1) that the metapragmatic act of debating is best conceived of as a combination of Caffi’s (2006) third sense of metapragmatics and Mey’s (2001) notion of pragmatic act, (2) operationalizing the theoretical notion of a metapragmatic act means adapting it to a specific context, for example, there is no such thing as a general metapragmatic act.

Abstract

Research on Influencer Marketing has flourished in recent years and has also encompassed the audience’s perspective. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies that specifically focus on the reception of IM as revealed by the YouTube comments. This study examines comments on 12 product-promoting videos of Spanish YouTubers. The purpose is to provide insight into the communicative behavior exhibited by social media users in comment sections and to reveal what these communicative acts reveal of the bond between content creators and their followers in terms of parasocial relationship and emotional attachment. These two phenomena are observed in the light of involvement strategies. The analysis emphasizes the high diversity of comment contents, communicative acts and involvement practices involved. Results shed light on the diverse means that users employ to establish and strengthen parasocial relationships on YouTube. The praising comments appear to symbolize an emotional attachment that bears importance for the users.

Abstract

This research examines variations of subject expression in spoken Korean. While much focus has been put on the omission of subjects in Korean as a pro-drop language, what is less explored is under what conditions choices are made into different forms when subjects are expressed, which in Korean includes not only pronouns but also kinship terms, professional titles, personal names and other lexical forms. In this paper, I test the distribution of subject expression in spoken Korean corpora for first and second person subjects and analyse the discursive aspects of the referential choices for the expressed subjects. The results confirm that first and second person subjects are expressed with varied referential forms and that relative age between discourse participants becomes a significant factor in the referential choice. This study also remarks on the importance of socio-cultural and pragmatic interpretation in the discussion of subject expression in Korean.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a conflict between a group of Barcelona residents and the then mayor, Ada Colau, concerning the transformation of an area of the city into a green zone, which would involve the loss of public parking spaces. For data-gathering and analysis we have used ethnographic research and Critical Discourse Analysis. Our analysis reveals that the majority of citizens involved, by means of the different resources (ontological metaphors and various types of arguments), activate different frames with the aim of disputing the mayor’s standpoint. Our interpretation demonstrates that, from a position of climate change denial, these citizens do not explicitly deny scientific evidence, but do oppose radical changes to their own neighbourhood and lifestyle. Finally, we conclude with a brief reflection on the methodology used and on the need for a greater interconnection between discourse analysis and other social disciplines related to this topic.

Abstract

This paper aims to explore and compare how entrepreneurs in different cultures mobilize evaluative linguistic resources to perform self-promotion in entrepreneurial pitches. Through corpus-based quantitative and qualitative analyses of 160 pitches from two venture capital reality TV shows, the UK’s Dragons’ Den and its Chinese version He Huo Zhong Guo Ren, this study scrutinizes the functions and features of Attitude and Graduation resources in entrepreneurial pitches and conducts further cross-culture comparisons. It is found that all entrepreneurs frequently use positive Attitude resources and upscaled Graduation resources to align investors with the value position being promoted and generate emotional appeal, so as to achieve their pragmatic intent of self-promotion. As for cross-cultural differences within the different social contexts of business culture, Chinese entrepreneurs use Judgment and Intensification resources more frequently and resort more to authoritative institutions, highlighting entrepreneurial commitment and achievements in the pitch process, while British entrepreneurs place more emphasis on the product, including its innovativeness, markets, and usability. With these findings, this study contributes to the literature on self-promotion discourse and cross-cultural pragmatics by exploring and comparing the evaluative resources and linguistic features of entrepreneurial pitches in different cultures.

Abstract

Based on a corpus of execution news articles from Thailand, this study takes a discourse analytic approach to scrutinize what news values are construed as dominant and the way in which ideologically significant lexico-grammatical choices are orchestrated to frame public perceptions of the death penalty. The findings indicate that the news values of Negativity and Eliteness predominate, serving to exaggerate the violence of the executed individuals. At the same time, the reports neutralize the inherently violent executions by the state. Other news values, some of which exhibit local socio-cultural values to the extent of encoding moral lessons and warnings, mediate the reader’s perception of death as a routine, carefully weighed, and effective procedure. The news values not only appear to reinforce an exaggerated representation of crime and offenders, but also work in concert with general crime reports to retain this form of punishment, despite international pressure to abolish it.

This article reviews The Pragmatics of Internet Memes978 90 272 1136 1