Formulas, Routines, and Conventional Expressions in Pragmatics Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 206-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig

This article reviews the recent research on formulaic language in pragmatics from three perspectives: foundational issues, recurrent research questions, and the populations studied. Examination of foundational issues, including definitions and operationalization of the concept of formula in pragmatics, shows the way in which pragmatics understands formulaic language and what it contributes to the study of formulaic language, namely, a strong sense of social contract. Recurrent themes in contemporary investigations include how formulas are used in general and in specific contexts, determining how extensive the use of formulas is, attitudes toward formulas, acquisition of formulas in second language (L2) pragmatics, and formulas in pragmatics pedagogy. The third section reviews pragmatic research according to language community, defined for the purposes of this review as first language (L1; native-speaker communities), L2, cross-cultural comparisons, indigenized varieties, and lingua franca communities. The investigation of formula use by different communities addresses questions of the particular and the universal in formula use and the importance of community and community membership.

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110231
Author(s):  
Nina Dobrushina ◽  
George Moroz

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The paper tests the hypothesis that the larger the population of language speakers, the smaller the number of second languages mastered by these speakers. Design/methodology/approach: We match the size of the population of 29 Dagestanian languages and the number of second languages spoken by the speakers of these languages from 54 villages, and run a Poisson mixed effects regression model that predicts the average number of second languages spoken by speakers from first-language communities of different size. Data and analysis: Data for this study comes from two sources. The information on the population of Dagestanian languages is based on the digitalized census of 1926. The information on the number of second languages in which the residents of Dagestan are proficient is taken from the database on multilingualism in Dagestan (4032 people). Findings/conclusions: The study supports the hypothesis that the size of language population is negatively correlated with the multilingualism of the language community. Originality: The paper is the first to test the correlation between the size of language population and the level of multilingualism of its speakers using statistical methods and a large body of empirical data. Significance and implications: Population size is a factor that could have influenced patterns of language evolution. The population is interrelated with other factors, one of which is long-standing multilingualism. The methodological lesson of this research is that there is a difference in the level of multilingualism within a range of populations where the largest was about 120,000 people. Limitations: The data is limited to one multilingual region. The revealed correlation probably does not hold for areas where language communities do not interact with their neighbors and even speakers of minority languages can be monolingual, or for the territories where many people migrated and the area where a language is spoken was discontinuous.


Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Faith Mkwesha

This interview was conducted on 16 May 2009 at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa. Petina Gappah is the third generation of Zimbabwean writers writing from the diaspora. She was born in 1971 in Zambia, and grew up in Zimbabwe during the transitional moment from colonial Rhodesia to independence. She has law degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Graz. She writes in English and also draws on Shona, her first language. She has published a short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), first novel The Book of Memory (2015), and another collection of short stories, Rotten Row (2016).  Gappah’s collection of short stories An Elegy for Easterly (2009) was awarded The Guardian First Book Award in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story form. Gappah was working on her novel The Book of Memory at the time of this interview.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2319-2324
Author(s):  
Rina Muka ◽  
Irida Hoti

The language acquired from the childhood is the language spoken in the family and in the place of living. This language is different from one pupil to another, because of their social, economical conditions. By starting the school the pupil faces first the ABC book and then in the second grade Albanian language learning through the Albanian language textbook. By learning Albanian language step by step focused on Reading, Writing, Speaking and Grammar the pupil is able to start learning the second language on the next years of schooling. So, the second language learning in Albanian schools is related to the first language learning (mother tongue), since the early years in primary school. In our schools, the second language (English, Italian) starts in the third grade of the elementary class. On the third grade isn’t taught grammar but the pupil is directed toward the correct usage of the language. The textbooks are structured in developing the pupil’s critical thinking. The textbooks are fully illustrated and with attractive and educative lessons adequate to the age of the pupils. This comparative study will reflect some important aspects of language learning in Albanian schools (focused on Albanian language - first language and English language - second language), grade 3-6. Our point of view in this paper will show not only the diversity of the themes, the lines and the sub-lines but also the level of language knowledge acquired at each level of education. First, the study will focus on some important issues in comparing Albanian and English language texts as well as those which make them different: chronology and topics retaken from one level of education to another, so by conception of linear and chronological order will be shown comparatively two learned languages (mother tongue and second language). By knowing and learning well mother tongue will be easier for the pupil the foreign language learning. The foreign language (as a learning curriculum) aims to provide students with the skills of using foreign language written and spoken to enable the literature to recognize the achievements of advanced world science and technology that are in the interest of developing our technique. Secondly, the study will be based on the extent of grammatical knowledge, their integration with 'Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing' as well as the inclusion of language games and their role in language learning. The first and second language learning in Albanian schools (grade III-VI) is based on similar principles for the linearity and chronology of grammatical knowledge integrated with listening, reading, writing and speaking. The different structure of both books help the pupils integrate and use correctly both languages. In the end of the sixth grade, the pupils have good knowledge of mother tongue and the second language and are able to write and speak well both languages.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Matsumoto ◽  
Hyisung C. Hwang

We discuss four methodological issues regarding cross-cultural judgment studies of facial expressions of emotion involving design, sampling, stimuli, and dependent variables. We use examples of relatively recent studies in this area to highlight and discuss these issues. We contend that careful consideration of these, and other, cross-cultural methodological issues can help researchers minimize methodological errors, and can guide the field to address new and different research questions that can continue to facilitate an evolution in the field’s thinking about the nature of culture, emotion, and facial expressions.


The first section of this chapter contains information related the structure of the introduction of the qualitative projects' reports. Readers should be able to compile appropriate background to the study, statement of the problem, research objective, research questions, significance of the study, and other requirements for qualitative projects. The second section contains details related to the review of literature. The readers should be able to understand and apply empirical and theoretical literature in qualitative projects. The third section discusses the structure of methodology of qualitative projects and the strategies of executing it. The analysis and discussion of qualitative data is discussed in Section 4. The final section contains the concluding structure of qualitative research reports.


2021 ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Sarah Kabay

Between 1990 and 2007, sixteen different countries in sub-Saharan Africa used national education policy to formally abolish school fees. Implementing its Universal Primary Education Policy in 1997, Uganda was the third country in sub-Saharan Africa to do so. School fee abolition is typically understood along a single dimension: access. Any cost associated with attending school is seen as discouraging access; conversely, efforts to reduce costs are seen as improving access. Little to no research has investigated the connection to quality. In this chapter, analyzing a school savings program presents the opportunity to investigate how an intervention that encouraged the payment of school fees relates to both access and quality. Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial and research questions on mediation and moderation are used to explore this issue.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026765831990091
Author(s):  
Yuxiao Yang ◽  
Xiaoxiang Chen ◽  
Qi Xiao

This study investigated the role of cross-linguistic similarity in the acquisition of Russian initial stop contrasts by Chinese learners, addressing two specific research questions: (1) How similar are Russian voiced stops to Mandarin stops for Chinese learners? (2) How can the speech learning model (SLM) be applied to account for the acquisition of Russian initial stop contrasts by Chinese learners? Regarding the first question, a hypothesis was proposed that Russian voiced stops could be regarded as dissimilar ‘new’ sounds by Chinese learners, as judged by three commonly adopted methods: IPA comparison, acoustic difference, and feature redeployment. The results of the perceptual assimilation task, however, disconfirmed this hypothesis, as Russian voiced stops were perceived as being highly similar to the sounds of Mandarin voiceless unaspirated stops. According to SLM, perceptually similar second language (L2) sounds are difficult to acquire; hence, a corresponding hypothesis was advanced in relation to the second question; namely, that the acquisition of Russian initial stop contrasts could be challenging for Chinese learners. This hypothesis was supported by the results of the perceptual discrimination and the production tests. These findings corroborated SLM regarding the difficulty in acquiring L2 sounds that are perceptually similar to their first language (L1) counterparts, while posing challenges to the hypothesis that Russian voiced stops could be dissimilar ‘new’ sounds for Chinese learners, as predicted by the three methods. The results indicated that perceived cross-linguistic similarity plays a key role in L2 phonetic acquisition. However, the degree of perceived similarity cannot always be accurately deduced solely through the three methods, at least not in the case of stops.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Nziba Pindi

In this autoethnographic article, I am interested in theorizing about how hybridity illuminates my lived experience of identity performed across cultures, and more specifically in diasporic context, at the intersections of various facets of my selfhood: Black, female, postcolonial, African, bi-tribal, diasporic, immigrant, nonnative English Speaker, “French native speaker,” and so on. I use personal narrative as a locus of subjectivity to recount critical moments of my lived experience as a hybrid subject navigating at the borderlands of two cultural worldviews: Congolese and American. My cross-cultural journey reveals a series of challenging and triumphant episodes from my childhood back home to my life in the United States, a journey during which I have experienced both privilege and oppression. My process of identity construction results in the creation of a third space that celebrates difference through new ways of being, encompassing cultural values from both the United States and the Congo. This process is articulated through different ways of being/not being “American” and/or “African” and just being “different.”


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 80-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Taguchi ◽  
Noriko Ishihara

ABSTRACTIn step with advancing globalization, applied linguists are compelled to reconsider established assumptions about language use and learning (Kramsch, 2014). Focusing on English as a lingua franca (ELF), this article illustrates how realities of globalization have challenged our conventional ways of researching and teaching second language (L2) pragmatics. In the context of ELF where English is used as a medium of communication among nonnative speakers as well as between native and nonnative speakers, researchers need to examine pragmatic competence based on how L2 learners can navigate communicative demands by using communication strategies skillfully while negotiating their identities. At the same time, it is tenable for teachers to move away from the sole dependence on idealized native-speaker models of appropriateness, politeness, and formality in their pedagogical practice and instead incorporate a nonessentialist viewpoint into formal instruction. This article discusses these recent trends in researching and teaching pragmatics under the lingua franca framework.


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