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- Volume 23, Issue, 2013
Pragmatics - Volume 23, Issue 4, 2013
Volume 23, Issue 4, 2013
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On the meanings and functions of grammatical choice
Author(s): Miguel A. Aijón Olivapp.: 573–603 (31)More LessGrammatical persons and their variable referential scopes play an important role in the configuration of discourse and in the achievement of communicative goals. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of the Spanish first-person plural from the viewpoint of morphosyntactic choice and style construction. The study focuses on clauses with unexpressed subjects, which in the case of nosotros ‘we’ are by far the more frequent option. A written-press corpus is analyzed whose materials are distributed into five different textual genres, while participants are characterized through two psychosocial features: Socioprofessional identity and gender. The overall frequencies of first-person plural subjects, as well as the rates of audience-exclusive vs. -inclusive uses, are calculated according to each external factor. Subsequent qualitative analysis shows that the choice of the first-person plural situates discourse in an intermediate zone along the continuum from subjectivity to objectivity, helping to shape an intersubjective perspective, most clearly in its inclusive uses. It is also concluded that the qualitative, interactional facet of linguistic choice is by no means independent of statistical variation patterns: Both types of data contribute to the understanding of morphosyntactic choices as creative stylistic resources.
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Emotionalization in new television formats of science popularization
Author(s): M. Margarida Bassols, Anna Cros and Anna M. Torrentpp.: 605–632 (28)More LessThe fierce struggle for television audiences is greatest when the content shown is not strictly entertainment, such as, for example, when specialized knowledge is brought to a wide audience. However, the appearance of new television formats has enabled scientific and technical contents to be brought closer to an unprepared and very diverse audience. What resources do these programs use to achieve this? Is emotionalization, which is increasingly dominant in the media, an important strategy in programs that seek to spread scientific knowledge among the general public? Do they use the pluri-locutionary nature of their discourse to promote understanding of the contents and to capture the viewers’ attention? Our research, which forms part of a broader study of new television formats and the communication of knowledge, is the first study on the discourse of the mediatization of knowledge in Spain. The topic is of particular interest because it coincides with the production of innovative television formats that endeavor to capture the interest of sections of the population that usually do not access this type of content. They have an important social function since, as Semir (2011: 19) points out, the knowledge of the world they promote reduces the fear generated in human beings by that which is opaque or unknown, thereby increasing the ability to make decisions and increasing efficiency. Through the linguistic analysis of the statements uttered by the diverse voices of a popular communication program, Quèquicom (Whatwhohow), we will determine which emotions are more present in the program and, therefore, contribute towards its communicative success, and which speakers (presenters, experts or affected individuals) use them more. Determining the resources leading to the success of this program can provide effective tools for other programs with very diverse aims. Studies of this type in Spain have focused on the press but very little on television. This study forms part of a wider research project on new television formats and the communication of knowledge to different audiences and diverse levels of specialization. It has been proven that emotions join together to provide a dramatic progression, based on the tension-relaxation binomial, a progression that holds the audience’s interest, in a similar manner to dramatic fiction programs. Moreover, the emotions can be examined in three ways: they can be referred to as a fact in the reality being narrated, expressed by the speakers or triggered in the audience. Lastly, it was also observed that the emotional charge that justifies the presence of affected individuals or witnesses in the majority of television programs spreads to the voices of the presenters themselves. The transmission of emotions is almost as important as that of knowledge.
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Framing and manipulation of person deixis in Hosni Mubarak’s last three speeches
Author(s): Zouheir A. Maalejpp.: 633–659 (27)More LessThe “Arab Spring,” as the revolutions in some Arab countries were called by the international media, was triggered by the “Jasmine Revolt” in Tunisia, which provoked a domino effect to some Arab leaders, starting from Tunisia and spreading to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc. Using the insights of cognitive-pragmatics, the current article shows how the last three speeches of Husni Mubarak, the demised president of Egypt (DPE), framed the revolution in Egypt and filled person deixis. In particular, the article argues that, from the antepenultimate to the ultimate speech, the DPE, unlike his Tunisian counterpart, made little change to the initial framing of the revolution in Egypt as a strategy to maintain the sociopolitical situation as it was. As transpires from the lexical items environing person deixis, the DPE filled it with cognitive content which prevented him from coming any closer to a pragmatic rapprochement to the Egyptian people.
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Fabricated ignorance
Author(s): Rosina Márquez Reiterpp.: 661–684 (24)More LessIn this article I examine a negotiating strategy observed in telephone calls made by (prospective) clients to the Latin American call centre operation of a multinational company specialised in holiday time-shares. Through this strategy, which I have termed ‘fabricated ignorance’, the (prospective) clients show an unawareness of how the system works in order to gain access to information, services, or benefits that they are not, in theory, entitled to. They do so, among other things, by formulating pre-sequences designed to address a gap in knowledge as a way of dealing with the possibility of their requests being rejected. Essentially, the callers approach the interactions displaying only partial knowledge of the system and manage the conversations in such a way that the agents will be induced to have a false notion of what is going on. I contend that service operationalization, which positions the (prospective) clients as information-disadvantaged relative to the agents, coupled with unfair commercial practices leads them to pursue ways of counterbalancing such imbalances providing thus fertile ground for the emergence of this strategy. Fabricated ignorance is a (prospective) client’s way of sizing up opportunities. Sizing up entails a participant’s assessment of where the interaction is leading, an estimation of the extent to which is conducive to meeting the participant’s goals and the steps that might be needed to achieve them. One avenue for achieving this aim is judging the moment in the encounter when it might be potentially more convenient to make their move and to act out an uninformed stance.
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Requests and politeness in Vietnamese as a native language
Author(s): Thi Thuy Minh Nguyen and Gia Anh Le Hopp.: 685–714 (30)More LessThis study examines requests in Vietnamese, a much under-researched language, with a view to expanding the range of languages under inquiry. Open role-plays in six scenarios with differing social power and perceived imposition levels were used to elicit requests from nine Vietnamese native speakers. Data were analyzed with reference to the categorization of Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989) for level of directness, choice of request strategy and use of modification. The findings suggested that unlike requests in some European languages reported in the literature, requests in Vietnamese as a native language were realized predominantly by means of imperatives in equal power situations and query preparatories in low-to-high power situations, regardless of imposition levels. Requests were modified preferably by means of supportive moves such as steers and grounders, and lexical means such as address terms, honorifics, modal particles, and appealers. These findings are discussed with implications for cross-cultural communication and the teaching and learning of Vietnamese as a second language.
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The effect of study abroad on the pragmatic development of the internal modification of refusals
Author(s): Wei Renpp.: 715–741 (27)More LessFew studies have investigated the internal modification of refusals. This study investigates the effect of participating in a study abroad programme on the pragmatic development of Chinese students’ employment of internal modifiers in their L2 English refusals. 20 Chinese students studying abroad and 20 Chinese students remaining at home participated in the study, and their L2 refusals were examined over the course of one academic year. Data were collected three times by an 8-situation Multimedia Elicitation Task. The results reveal that the two groups showed similar development with regard to the range of internal modification types in their refusals. Furthermore, with respect to the frequency of internal modifications, the results suggest that the differences between the two groups were not significant. However, analyses of the participants’ use of individual internal modifications revealed different developmental patterns in the utilisation of ‘address term’ and ‘downtoner’. These patterns indicate a unique effect of studying abroad on learners’ pragmatic development, at least with respect to the aforementioned pragmatic aspects.
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Su(m)imasen and gomen nasai
Author(s): Roxana Sandupp.: 743–767 (25)More LessPrevious research on Japanese apologies has presented us with a somewhat static approach, connecting one linguistic form to one aspect of the social context. However, interaction itself is a dynamic and spontaneous process; consequently, apology expressions’ meanings are situated and negotiated in the place of interaction. Therefore, in this study, shifts from gomen to su(m)imasen and gomen nasai, and from su(m)imasen to gomen nasai, were analyzed in order to demonstrate that Japanese apologies function as indexical signs of emotional expression. To this end, data was collected from Japanese television dramas, where the ongoing development of the relationships protagonists were involved in was chronologically observed. Using as analytical concepts, (1) the social context of an interaction, (2) the selves participants impersonate, and (3) the speech styles the interactions occur in, to explain situated variation in the use of apology expressions, the current study revealed new meanings an apology carries in a situated context and also reinforced some of the previous research findings.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 35 (2025)
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Volume 34 (2024)
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Volume 33 (2023)
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Volume 32 (2022)
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Volume 31 (2021)
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Volume 30 (2020)
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Volume 29 (2019)
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Volume 28 (2018)
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Volume 27 (2017)
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Volume 26 (2016)
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Volume 25 (2015)
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Volume 24 (2014)
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Volume 23 (2013)
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Volume 22 (2012)
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Volume 21 (2011)
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Volume 20 (2010)
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Volume 19 (2009)
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Volume 18 (2008)
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Volume 17 (2007)
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Volume 16 (2006)
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Volume 15 (2005)
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Volume 14 (2004)
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Volume 13 (2003)
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Volume 12 (2002)
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Volume 11 (2001)
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Volume 10 (2000)
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Volume 9 (1999)
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Volume 8 (1998)
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Volume 7 (1997)
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Volume 6 (1996)
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Volume 5 (1995)
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Volume 4 (1994)
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Volume 3 (1993)
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Volume 2 (1992)
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Volume 1 (1991)
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