Pragmatics and Society - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2017

Abstract

This paper consists of a detailed analysis of how the participants in a debate build their emotional position during the interaction and how such a position is strongly related to the conclusion they defend. In this case study, teenage Mexican, students, arguing about access to drinking water, display extensive discursive work on the emotional tonality given to the issue. Plantin’s (2011) methodological tools are adopted to follow two alternative emotional framings produced by disagreeing students, starting from a common, highly negative, thymic tonality. Through the analysis of four parameters (distance to the problem; causality/agentivity; possibility of control and conformity to the norms) we describe how the emotional dimension of schematization (Grize 1997) is argumentatively relevant. In authentic discourse, it is impossible to separate emotion from reason. The conclusion section discusses the implications for the design of argumentation-based pedagogical activities.

Abstract

This conversation analytic paper investigates how speakers self-position or are other-positioned as members of a certain social group (e.g., competent speakers of a language) through other-initiated repair. Findings illustrate the complexity of linguistic membership categories by demonstrating that they continually shift depending on local interactional goals and documenting how shifts are accomplished. The different levels and types of linguistic and cultural knowledge that are invoked in instances of repair on specific lexical items demonstrate the complexity of linguistic membership categorization, and this indicates a need to problematize the use of a priori and overly-vague labels like ‘non-native speaker’. Findings contribute to our understanding of the functions of other-initiated repair and the mechanisms of co-constructing membership (categorization) and thus social identity in interaction. They also raise questions about the relationship between amounts and types of knowledge and further our understanding of the construction of expert/novice categories via knowledge displays and negotiation.

Abstract

This article discusses the conceptual difficulties that are involved in the understanding of several basic linguistic notions: namely language, dialect, sociolect, register, style, genre, and in particular, variety. Using the definitions provided in various sources, particularly introductory textbooks and dictionaries of linguistics, I examine the ways in which these terms are explained, and discuss how there is actually no consensus on how they are understood and conceptualised. This is particularly true for the term variety, which is regarded by many linguists as a neutral and ideology-free unit for research. In this article, I show that whether a set of linguistic features is regarded as a variety depends on three main factors; there is no absolute – and thus, ideologically neutral – way that linguists can refer to this concept when considering what is or is not a linguistic variety.

Abstract

This study examines the kinds of stance that but as a contrastive marker signals in Nigerian investigative public hearings, with a view to exploring the contexts in which the stances are made. The study examines forty purposively selected investigative public hearing sessions which involve interactions between complainants, defendants and a hearing panel. The data are analysed qualitatively utilising Du Bois’ (2007) interactional view of stance and Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal system. Results indicate that but signals epistemic, evidential, emotive and evaluative stances within the narrative, interrogative and closing contexts. These stances and their contextual patterns depend heavily on the roles, goals and knowledge of the participants as stancetakers who position themselves, and align with other participants and the wider discourse community in order to express evaluation and intersubjective positioning.

Abstract

The majority of studies on compliment response (CR) have investigated CR patterns and norms among different cultural groups and communities. The present study investigated the shifting of CR patterns across generations within the same speech community. To this end, 272 Persian speakers were chosen from among high school students and teachers. A discourse completion task (DCT) with four complimenting situations was administered. The findings revealed that the new generation of Persian speakers, regardless of their gender, had shifted their CR patterns and overwhelmingly accepted compliments. This change is attributed to the changing interpretations and conceptions of politeness and to the influx of English culture, through exposure to English media, internet, TV series, films, etc., among the new generation of Persian speakers.

Abstract

Since MacKinnon’s (1979) ground-breaking work in which she coined the term sexual harassment, there has been very little consensus as to what it actually is. Using callers’ stories of male sexual harassment taken from Kenyan talk radio, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the in situ production of an emic definition of (male) sexual harassment. Further, using positioning theory as a methodology, this paper aims (1) to make visible the gendered identity work that defining, or not defining, an event as male sexual harassment occasions and (2) to show how hegemonic masculinity is achieved through stories and their evaluation by the radio host and other callers who talk certain masculinities into being as normative and others as deviant.

This article reviews Discursive Self in Microblogging: Speech acts, stories and self-praise by Daria Dayter978-90-272-5665-2