This paper is a research study of an interdisciplinary and exploratory kind drawing on a case study undertaken in elementary classrooms in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of Santiago de Chile. Having combined Linguistics for Education Studies and Corpus Linguistics approaches, the analysis of pragmalinguistic choices (i.e. personal pronouns, other lexical choices marking in-group relations) used in the introductory parts in a corpus of 50 lessons recorded in an elementary school setting there comes to be a key strategy for teachers' and (...) learners' involvement in classroom interaction The pragmalinguistic strategies evidenced in teachers' and learners' output have come to confirm the role of communicative strategies to promote participants' engagement in the teaching/learning process. In other words, teachers create an in-group relation, a solid sense of belonging and empathy among the participants in the teaching-learning context from the opening communicative stances in use to overcome less advantaged home and community cultural settings. The research findings also point to further studies to devise pedagogic tools addressing the specific contexts under scrutiny. Thus, a Teacher-Learner rapport is conveyed primarily through teachers' language choice, which is seen as the main force for learners' engagement in disadvantaged settings. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the review and analysis of journalistic discourse from the perspective of its pragmatic characteristics. It has been suggested that any written text published on the pages of periodicals is a dialectical unity of language and media features, formed by three levels of mediaspeech: verbal text, the level of funds and the level of iconic graphic image is a part of a journalistic discourse. This type of discourse is related to the institutional discourse. In order to (...) identify characteristic features of journalistic discourse in the selected angle of study its definition is discussed, the notions of journalistic discourse and media text are divided, and on a material of modern German language the characteristics of the language code in the texts of journalistic discourse are identified. It is found that with the development of the theory of discourse, including journalistic discourse, the text is moving to the center of linguistic studies and it is analyzed in its interaction with the pragmatic factors. That linguistic pragmatics provides the basis for theoretical studies of the text as an appropriate discourse component and treats it as intentional communicative action, which is realized by means of appropriate lexical and morphological tools, terminology and grammar structures. The peculiar language of the text code is predetermined, first of all, communicative-pragmatic function performed by the analyzed text. (shrink)

The author of the article discusses a political discourse of the US president Donald Trump. The political discourse is considered to be a type of discourse based on views and beliefs, the purpose of which is to manipulate the consciousness of the addressee using strategies in order to form certain beliefs. The strategy in this case means the plan of implementation of the communicative task, necessary for effective achievement of the addressee’s goal, realized with the help of certain tactics. The (...) choice of the subject matter is determined by the interest to political communication. The author analyses discourse strategies and markers, stylistic and lexico-grammatical means used as manipulative means in Donald Trump’s Acceptance Speech, Victory Speech, and Inaugural Address. Special attention is given to the strategy of improvement, strategy of enhancement, and strategy for evaluation of alternatives. It is known that presidential public addresses are of great importance, therefore communicative skills of politicians and ability to speak in public play a great role in their political career. The analysis of D. Trump’s presidential discourse has revealed the use of discursive manipulative strategies and manipulative markers, numerous repetitions, calls for joint action, the use of ‘unifying vocabulary‘, slogans, inversion. It is noted that the presidential political discourse is an effective means of manipulating the consciousness of the nation and the formation of its outlook. The author concludes that speech manipulation is a complex phenomenon, the effectiveness of which depends on linguistic, psychological, extralinguistic, and social factors. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore a new type of semiotic translation in the context of Audiovisual Translation Studies (AVTS). To that end, a set of formulaic sequencesbestowed of pragmalinguistic value (hedging strings) is analysed. It is argued that the semiotic analysis of conversational features in English may contribute to facilitate their pedagogical exploitation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This analysis builds theoretically on a semiotic translational framework termed Semiosic Translation (and its subset, Semiosic Subtitling) predicated upon (...) three types of translation: (i) Metaleptic translation; (ii) indexical translation; and (iii) translation as dynamic discontinuity. Th e translational rationale thus arrived at is deemed to account for what it is that binds together linguistic signs with other sign systems. (shrink)

In ‘The making of argumentation theory’ van Eemeren and van Haaften describe the contributions made to the five components of a full-fledged research program of argumentation theory by four prominent approaches to the discipline: formal dialectics, rhetoric/pragmalinguistics, informal logic, and pragma-dialectics. Most of these approaches do not contribute to all components, but to some in particular. Starting from the pragma-dialectical view of the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness – the crucial issue in argumentation theory – van Eemeren and (...) van Haaften explain the positions taken by representatives from the approaches discussed and indicate where they differ from the pragma-dialectical approach. It transpires that approaches focusing on dialectical reasonableness are, next to pragma-dialectics, formal dialectics and informal logic; approaches focusing on rhetorical effectiveness are, next to pragma-dialectics, rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, and the informal logician Tindale. When it comes to the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness, some interest in it is shown in rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, but only in pragma-dialectics and in Tindale’s work is it a real focus. The main difference between Tindale’s view and the pragma-dialectical view is that in pragma-dialectics the decisive role in deciding about reasonableness is assigned to a code of conduct for reasonable argumentative discourse and in Tindale’s approach this role is assigned to Tindale’s interpretation of the Perelmanian universal audience. (shrink)

The paper focuses on a specific type of referring legal provisions, in which the referring phrase contains a component that indicates the position of a certain fragment of the same text of a normative act by determining the position of that fragment in relation to the fragment in which the given referring phrase is located. Despite the fact that these referrals, called deictic, may be perceived as uncomplicated in structure and as functioning correctly in legal texts, many theoretical as well (...) as practical problems arise during their drafting and legal interpretation. The article attempts to reveal, organize and name these problems basing on the conceptual grid formulated by Studnicki, Łachwa, Fall and Stabrawa as a universal, although not widely known outside Polish jurisprudence, tool for analysing and solving referring provisions as elements of various legal systems, especially continental ones. Texts of selected Polish Codes have been chosen as an illustrative material of deictic referrals which have been incorrectly formulated as leaving space for interpretative doubts in terms of place of indication and place of reference, which also causes a potential problem of the deferred ostension phenomenon noticed by Quine. The author argues that proper drafting of referring legal provisions with deictic indication requires that the legislator should have extensive pragmalinguistic knowledge and is an essential part of law-making oriented towards achieving comprehensibility of texts of normative acts, especially as important as Codes. (shrink)

This qualitative classroom study investigated the development of pragmatic competence in academic discussions through content analysis of student reflective writing. The aims of the study were: to understand the greatest challenges that students faced during the learning process, the causes of those challenges, and the most successful strategies that students employed to overcome the challenges. In addition, the analysis investigated other significant themes in the reflective writing that related to the students’ experiences in developing their pragmatic competence in discussions. Five (...) advanced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students at a Sino-US institution in China participated over the course of a semester. Results showed that common challenges included: hesitation resulting in missed opportunities to speak, lack of clarity when speaking, inability to repair communication breakdowns, and difficulty with listening comprehension. Self-reflection allowed the learners to understand the various reasons for the challenges they faced and to develop appropriate pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic strategies for coping with them. It also enabled the instructor to make suggestions suited to learners’ specific needs. In addition to revealing specific challenges, causes, and strategies that students employed, themes that emerged through content analysis included the impact of students’ emotional lives on their learning and performance, as well as the value of authentic communication in the development of pragmatic competence for academic discussions. This exploratory classroom investigation provides suggestions for teaching pragmatic competence in academic discussions and for additional classroom explorations that empower learners to develop autonomy. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza la ironía en el Viaje del Parnaso desde la perspectiva pragmalingüística. Tras una exposición resumida de los problemas literarios que ha generado la obra en cuestión, incluida casi unánimemente entre la poesía burlesca, se aplica la concepción lingüística a la estrategia empleada por Cervantes, haciendo hincapié en la ironía como elemento de la parodia y de la sátira y como procedimiento ecoico o polifónico. Se concluye la caracterización de la obra como ironía continuada inestable o (...) heurística, en la que se aprecian ciertos indicadores o marcas que permiten una adecuada interpretación de los tercetos cervantinos. Destacan entre estos indicadores o marcas las palabras de alerta, el eufemismo, los juegos de palabras y la modalización epistémica. This article analyzes the irony present in Viaje del Parnaso from a pragmalinguistic perspective. After a summarized explanation of the literary problems that the piece of work under consideration -which has almost unanimously been classified as burlesque poetry- has caused, linguistic conception has been applied to the strategy used by Cervantes, emphasizing the irony as an element of parody and satire as well as a polyphonic or echoic technique. Thus, this piece of work is classified as a continuous unstable or heuristic irony, in which some indicators or marks that enable an accurate interpretation of the Cervantine tercets are visible. Among these indicators or marks, alarm words, euphemisms, word plays and epistemic modalization stand out. (shrink)

The subject of interest of this article is procedural acts considered as double-conventionalized acts. It is assumed in this article that in the case of procedural acts, one can distinguish two levels of conventionalization: the level of a speech act and the level of a procedural act. Both above-mentioned levels affect each other in various ways, what is discussed in the article. As assumed in the article, the analysis of acts characterized by this particular trait and with due account of (...) this trait allows one to observe phenomena that can be hard or even impossible to notice in the process of analyzing acts that are deprived of this trait. Furthermore, it seems that the description of this type of acts may particularly enrich the current discussion on some properties of speech acts held on the grounds of philosophy of language or pragmalinguistics. The research material used in this article as an illustration consists of actual utterances of participants of Polish court proceedings used by them at a hearing. (shrink)

This paper describes the evolution of the family role face – specifically, the roles of father, mother and child – in a concrete period of the Spanish social history -from the end of 19th century to the 1960s. To achieve this goal, a corpus of theater plays is analyzed from a functional and pragmalinguistic perspective in a socio-historical context. The focus is on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the projection of role face in the expression of directive speech (...) acts and their possible modulation through two pragmatic strategies: mitigation and intensification. Based on the results of the analysis, a sociopragmatic interpretation is carried out by identifying the connection between the choice of pragmalinguistic strategies and the need of the speakers’ autonomy face and affiliation face in different roles as family member in the given period. The results point to a progressive solidarity in father-child relationships during this period. On the one hand, that is based on the erosion of the authoritarian component of parental roles. On the other hand, it is anchored in the consolidation of proximity, closeness (‘confianza’) and affectivity. From a methodological point of view, the present study confirms the possibility of characterizing a sociopragmatic aspect (role face) on the basis of pragmalinguistic elements, i.e. the linguistic expression of directive speech acts, and its modulation through mitigation and intensification. (shrink)

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo avanzar en el análisis de la argumentación religiosa, en concreto en la persuasión en la prédica actual, mediante el reconocimiento y cuantificación de los mecanismos pragmalingüísticos que favorecen la integración del oyente en el discurso del orador religioso. El corpus examinado consta de 50 homilías orales grabadas en la primera década del siglo XXI. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el empleo de la mayoría de dichos mecanismos tiene una incidencia semejante tanto en las homilías (...) para adultos como para las de niños, a excepción de las fórmulas interactivas y la recurrencia al saber popular en los que se evidencia con notoriedad la diferencia. Por tanto, estas conclusiones aportan luz a lo dictado en la teoría homilética de la actualidad que apunta que “hay que acercarse al feligrés”, pero no dice cómo. (shrink)

This paper highlights areas of concern in the assessment of pragmatics, with the intent of stimulating fresh thinking about the assessment of pragmatics both for research purposes and as a part of classroom instruction. It starts by considering what aspects of ability in pragmatics to assess, and then contrasts the trade-off between the feasibility of obtaining data and the ultimate importance of the data. Next, the conspicuous lack of assessment of ability in L2 pragmatics in language classes is noted. Then (...) follow sections on topics all relating primarily to the assessment of pragmatics for research purposes – the use of mixed methods, data elicitation procedures, and norms used in determining the appropriateness of any given performance in pragmatics. The last two topics deal, respectively, with the perceived relevance of the given assessment by the learners and with the value of collecting verbal report data from the respondents as a means for validating the assessment measures. Finally, considerations regarding the most prominent of these issues are provided. (shrink)

A new philosophical analysis is provided of the notorious Sleeping Beauty Problem. It is argued that the correct solution is one-third, but not in the way previous philosophers have typically meant this. A modified version of the Problem demonstrates that neither self-locating information nor amnesia is relevant to the core Problem, which is simply to evaluate the conditional chance of heads given an undated Monday-or-Tuesday awakening. Previous commentators have failed to appreciate the significance of the information that Beauty gains upon (...) waking, and which is relevant to the conditional chance of heads: de re acquaintance with the awakening itself and the non-locating knowledge that it is an experimental awakening. David Lewis and company are committed to several unjustifiable and unacceptable probability assessments. Previous commentators have in effect confused the information that Beauty undergoes this particular experimental awakening for the information that she undergoes some experimental awakening or other. Lewis in particular thereby illegitimately tips the scales both in favor of heads and in favor of Monday. The Sleeping Beauty Problem is equivalent to a ball-in-urn word problem in elementary probability theory. (shrink)

Alonzo Church provided three criteria for “strict synonymy”, i.e., sameness of semantic content: Alternatives (0), (1), and (2)--in order of increasing course-grainedness of content. On (2) expressions are strictly synonymous iff they are logically equivalent. (1) is a significant improvement over (2). On (1) expressions are synonymous iff they are lambda-convertible. Even on (1), assuming the Millian account of proper names, ‘Tully admires Cicero’ is deemed synonymous with ‘Cicero is self-admiring’. On (0) expressions are strictly synonymous iff they are “synonymously (...) isomorphic” in Church’s sense. A fourth alternative, here called ‘(3)’, has been maintained by several philosophers. On (3) expressions are strictly synonymous iff they are co-intensional. In particular, sentences are strictly synonymous iff they are true with resect to the same possible worlds. This criterion’s notion of content is even more course grained than that of (2). Several objections to (3) are considered. (shrink)