Pragmatics - Volume 11, Issue 4, 2001

The paper studies the genre of answering machine messages (AMMs) in English and Greek from a comparative linguistic perspective. The analysis of extensive data in both languages shows that the length of most AMMs is restricted (25 to 30 words) and related to the gender of the caller rather than the language used. It is also found that Greek and English AMMs follow the same generic pattern, consisting of three main phases (opening, main body and closing) and their sub-parts. Messages in the two languages mainly differ with respect to the optional and obligatory parts they allow in the pattern, their respective order within the main phases and the particular signals used. Thus, a generic pattern for AMMs can be established across the two languages as emerges from the use of specific signals of sequential relations. At the same time, AMMs in both languages show a central interpersonal concern for creating a dialogic sphere of communication by incorporating the absent recipient’s participation. Sequential patterns in this genre are thus intimately interrelated with the interpersonal aspects of communication.

This paper reports on patterns of verb choice in identifying relational clauses (e.g. ‘X is Y, Y is X’) in English technical manuals. While it is obvious that specific lexical verbs will feature in identifying clauses of different functions, e.g. mean (defining), call (naming), exemplify (exemplifying), less transparent is the distribution of these more specific verbs and the general or neutral verb be. The findings suggest that verb choice in (technical) identifying clauses is strongly associated with the degree of equivalence constructed between the two central nominal groups in the clause (the Token and Value). Equivalence relations are one-to-one (rather than one-to-many) and exhaustive (rather than semantically open). Major grammatical influences on equivalence include nominal group structure, ergativity of the clause, and the inclusion of features (e.g. interpersonal, logical or textual) that undermine the privileging of an experientially homogeneous world-view. The results challenge the notions that be and specific verbs are interchangeable and that be is an unmarked choice. On the contrary, the data reveal that under certain conditions be is the more marked choice. The results have practical implications for teachers and students of English (in particular, students of English for Academic and/or Specific Purposes) as well as translators.

This paper examines the use of definite and indefinite noun phrases in everyday conversations in Finnish and English to establish meaning and to alter and build context in interaction. The paper shows that participants in conversation use the formal contrast between definite and indefinite NPs not only to express identifiability and non-identifiability of the referent to their addressees, but that they also use it dynamically to make claims about socially shared reality, to create referents in discourse and to build a novel identity for existing referents, to actively construct frames and create roles within them, and to reorganize the participant structure of a speech event.

This paper deals with interaction in Arabic (Syrian dialect). It is based on a corpus of service encounters, more precisely “shop encounters”, which were recorded in small shops in Damascus. The characteristics of this type of interaction will be summarised in the first part of the paper. The analysis will concentrate on the pragmatic level, ie. speech acts and speech activities, the description of which will pay particular attention to interpersonal relationships. The methodological approach adopted in this analysis will describe “from the inside” the way in which each recorded conversation unfolds. Therefore, it does not correspond to a straight-forward cross-cultural approach (even if, from time to time, reference to similar French situations is made). The paper’s main aim is to highlight the double-faceted nature of the recorded conversations, and to examine the overall representation of interaction in relation to its actual temporal unfolding.