scholarly journals Justification

Pragmatics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Macário Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Text Representation ◽  
Inference Process ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Coherence Relations ◽  
On Line ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Made In

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse formal and functional aspects of constructions based on a Justification (or Claim-Argument) coherence relation, explicitly marked by a connective. The prototype of this construction is an utterance like Está gente em casa, porquer as luzes estão acesas [“ There is somebody at home, because the lights are on”]. The empirical data are collected from an on-line corpus of contemporary written Portuguese (CETEMPúblico). Following Sanders et al.(2001), I assume the distinction between semantic and pragmatic coherence relations in text representation: Semantic relations connect the situations of the sociophysical world described by the propositional content of the related textual segments; pragmatic relations involve the illocutionary domain, i.e., the relation concerns the speech act status of the segments. Justification relation is a pragmatic relation and I argue that it requires simultaneously a sequence of speech acts and an inference process. In fact, Justification relations occur typically in argumentative contexts, and argumentation, according to van Eemeren & Grotendorst (1984), is a compound illocution, consisting of at least two functionally distinct statements: A main assertion corresponding to the claim being made and a subordinate assertion, which counts as an attempt by the speaker to justify his claim, convincing the listner of its acceptability. The claim being made in prototypical Justification constructions (p, because q) is an assumption, not a fact; it corresponds to a conclusion drawn by the speaker, supported by the premise expressed in the second clause and warranted by a generic implicit premise. The account presented in this paper contests Sweetser’s (1990) distinction between epistemic causal conjunctions and speech act causal conjunctions: The act of concluding may be speaker-internal, but since it is asserted and then justified, it is not possible to dissociate the epistemic and the illocutionary domains within the field of argumentative texts.

scholarly journals Speech Acts in the Facebook Status Updates Posted by an Apostate

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azweed Mohamad ◽  
Radzuwan Ab Rashid ◽  
Kamariah Yunus ◽  
Shireena Basree Abdul Rahman ◽  
Saadiyah Darus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Expressive Speech ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Data Collection Period ◽  
Collection Period ◽  
Made In

This paper discusses the speech acts in Facebook Status Updates posted by an apostate of Islam. The Facebook Timeline was observed for a duration of two years (January 2015 to December 2016). More than 4000 postings were made in the data collection period. However, only 648 postings are related to apostasy. The data were classified according to the types of speech acts. Expressive speech act is the most frequent speech act (33%, n=215), followed by the directive (27%, n=177), assertive (22%, n=141), and commissive (18%, n=115), respectively. Based on the speech acts used, it is discernible that the apostate attempts to engage other Facebook users and persuade them into accepting her ideology while gaining their support. This paper is novel in the sense that it puts forth the social actions of an apostate which is very scarce in literature. It is also methodologically innovative as it uses social media postings as a tool to explore the apostate’s social actions in an online space.

Speech Acts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Green
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Grammatical Mood ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Made In

Speech acts are acts that can, but need not, be carried out by saying and meaning that one is doing so. Many view speech acts as the central units of communication, with phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties of an utterance serving as ways of identifying whether the speaker is making a promise, a prediction, a statement, or a threat. Some speech acts are momentous, since an appropriate authority can, for instance, declare war or sentence a defendant to prison, by saying that he or she is doing so. Speech acts are typically analyzed into two distinct components: a content dimension (corresponding to what is being said), and a force dimension (corresponding to how what is being said is being expressed). The grammatical mood of the sentence used in a speech act signals, but does not uniquely determine, the force of the speech act being performed. A special type of speech act is the performative, which makes explicit the force of the utterance. Although it has been famously claimed that performatives such as “I promise to be there on time” are neither true nor false, current scholarly consensus rejects this view. The study of so-called infelicities concerns the ways in which speech acts might either be defective (say by being insincere) or fail completely. Recent theorizing about speech acts tends to fall either into conventionalist or intentionalist traditions: the former sees speech acts as analogous to moves in a game, with such acts being governed by rules of the form “doing A counts as doing B”; the latter eschews game-like rules and instead sees speech acts as governed by communicative intentions only. Debate also arises over the extent to which speakers can perform one speech act indirectly by performing another. Skeptics about the frequency of such events contend that many alleged indirect speech acts should be seen instead as expressions of attitudes. New developments in speech act theory also situate them in larger conversational frameworks, such as inquiries, debates, or deliberations made in the course of planning. In addition, recent scholarship has identified a type of oppression against under-represented groups as occurring through “silencing”: a speaker attempts to use a speech act to protect her autonomy, but the putative act fails due to her unjust milieu.

Developing the Ability to Perform Speech Acts

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew D. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Verbal Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Oral Speech ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
Made In

This paper calls attention to an increasingly prominent field of interest within second language acquisition research and pedagogy, namely, that of pragmatic ability. It focuses on an area within pragmatics, that of speech acts, considers the processes underlying the performance of such speech acts, and looks at the effects of explicit instruction in this area. The paper starts by asking what speech act ability entails. Several basic distinctions are made in the description of speech acts, such as that betweensocioculturalandsociolinguisticability. Second, directions of previous research describing speech acts are indicated and directions yet to be taken are pointed out. Difficulties in researching oral speech act performance are noted, and verbal report is recognized as one of a limited number of research tools available for investigating cognitive processes involved in speech act production. The paper then reviews four studies that utilize verbal report to gain at least some access to the underlying processes. Finally, the paper looks at previous research on the tutored and untutored acquisition of speech acts and provides suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals Investigation the Effect of Colloconstructural Corpus-based Instruction on Pragmalinquistic Knowledge of Request Speech Act: Evidence from Iranian EFL Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Batoul Sabzalipour ◽  
Mansour Koosha ◽  
Akbar Afghari
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Mazandaran Province ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
On Line ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Methods Of Learning ◽  
Experimental Group

The current study investigated the effect of using colloconstructional corpus-based instruction on enhancing the pragmalinguistic knowledge of speech acts of request among intermediate EFL learners. The fundamental idea was that whether providing students with on-line corpora through using colloconstruction had any effects on enhancing their pragmalinguistic knowledge of request speech act. In such doing, 60 intermediate-level subjects from several institutions in Mazandaran province, in Iran, participated in the study. Then, the subjects took a standard Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to demonstrate their English proficiency. Based on the obtained scores, they were randomly administered as two equal groups (N=30). A WDCT pre- test was conducted in each group to examine their ability and knowledge in using speech acts of request.  After 15 sessions of treatment, a WDCT posttest was conducted. The experimental group received corpus-based instruction through colloconstructional practices. In contrast, the control group only practiced learning the same speech act through traditional and old methods of learning speech acts like textbooks, audios and videos. The data were analyzed using paired and independent sample t- test. To boost the results validity, the researcher used observation and interview, too. The results revealed that speech act learning was enhanced by corpus-based instruction. Some theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study were then presented. 

scholarly journals An Investigation of the Use of politeness strategies in refusal among Characters with different power relations in English and Farsi Novels

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Farahman Farrokhi ◽  
Mina Arghami
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Made In

One of the important concerns of communicative way of learning is to be able to convey meaning and not just physical words in a language. The study of speech acts could possibly help achieve this. When using speech acts, one should take into consideration the conversational rules of the language and in order to establish a safe and harmonious conversation, it is better to use certain strategies to eliminate their possible threatening effects. Attempt is made in the present study using a mixed-method design, to investigate the employment of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987), among the interlocutors with different power relations in English and Farsi novels, when using the speech act of refusal. The speech act of refusal addressed in this study is a face threatening act (FTA) (Brown & Levinson, 1987), which may be used differently by speakers of different languages, with different power relations, in different situations. The materials used are five English and five Farsi novels written by native speakers of English and Farsi. The taxonomy of Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990) were employed in order to categories different types of refusal. The frequency of their use and their percentages were calculated manually. The results indicated that even though reflecting two different cultures, the similarities among the English and Farsi novels regarding the use of both speech acts, were more than the differences. The differences were more obvious in the employment of politeness strategies. The findings of this study will probably give insights into the pragmatic and conversational rules of both languages.

Cognitive grammar, speech acts, and interpersonal dynamics: A study of two directive constructions in Polish

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Kochańska
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Interpersonal Dynamics ◽  
Interpersonal Information ◽  
Interpersonal Effects ◽  
Made In

AbstractThe present study offers an analysis of two directive constructions in Polish: the V2sg.imp.imperf + midat ‘me’ construction and the (Proszę ‘I request’) + Vinf construction. The two constructions are problematic for speech act theory in that they may be used in a range of different contexts, where they convey different illocutionary forces and produce different interpersonal effects. Hence, it remains unclear how, or indeed whether at all, the illocutionary force and the interpersonal effects of utterances employing the two constructions may be tied to their respective grammatical make-ups. This, in turn, raises two related questions: (i) what motivates the use of each construction in specific contexts? and (ii) how can hearers interpret the construction's specific import in specific interactive circumstances?The claim made in this study is that each construction imposes a particular schematic construal upon the conceived scene, including also ground elements, such as the speaker, the hearer, and their interactive circumstances. The conventional schematic meaning of each construction is motivated by the meanings of its components. Being schematic, the construal conventionally associated with each construction is compatible with a whole range of specific actual interactive circumstances. However, in each specific usage event the intended specific import of the construction may easily be interpreted, given the interactive and interpersonal information saliently present in the context.

THEORY OF SPEECH ACTS AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES: PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE ILLOCUTIVE ACT “EXPRESSION OF REFUSALS”

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Pragmatic Interpretation

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act “expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages

THEORY OF SPEECH ACTS AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES: PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE ILLOCUTIVE ACT “EXPRESSION OF REFUSALS”

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-231
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Pragmatic Interpretation

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act“expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages

Directive Speech Act Seen on Family 2.0 Drama Script Written by Walter Wykes

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evi Jovita Putri
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Declarative Sentence ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Directive Speech Acts ◽  
Directive Speech

<p>The research entitled Directive Speech Act Seen on Family 2.0 Drama Script Written by Walter Wykes purposes to describe and uncover the types of form and intended meaning of directive speech act on that drama script. This descriptive research uses pragmatic approach and theory. The collecting and analysing data are focused on the using of declarative, imperative, and interrogative sentences in the text of drama. The forms of those sentences will be analysed to find out the types of form of directive speech act, while the context of those sentences will be used to analyze the intended meaning of directive speech act uttered by speakers. The results of the research are found that, first, there are two types of the form of directive speech acts, direct directive speech acts and indirect directive speech acts. Direct directive speech acts are represented by imperative sentence without subject; imperative sentence with let; and negative imperative sentence. Meanwhile the indirect directive speech acts are represented by declarative sentence statement; declarative sentence if clause; negative declarative sentences; and interrogative sentences. Second, the intended meanings seen on drama script of Family 2.0 are command, prohibition, request, treat, and persuasion. It can be concluded that, the most frequent intended meaning appeared in directive speech acts on this script is command by the use of imperative forms. Then, the declarative and interrogative forms are used to request something by adults charaters; in contrast the kids characters use them to command and prohibit the hearer.<strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong> family 2.0, pragmatic, speech act, directive, form and intended meaning

Validation of On-line Respiration Meter and its Applications by Computer Simulation

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1355-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
C-W. Kim ◽  
H. Spanjers ◽  
A. Klapwijk
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Respiration Rate ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Mass Balances ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Respiration Rates ◽  
On Line ◽  
Made In

An on-line respiration meter is presented to monitor three types of respiration rates of activated sludge and to calculate effluent and influent short term biochemical oxygen demand (BODst) in the continuous activated sludge process. This work is to verify if the calculated BODst is reliable and the assumptions made in the course of developing the proposed procedure were acceptable. A mathematical model and a dynamic simulation program are written for an activated sludge model plant along with the respiration meter based on mass balances of BODst and DO. The simulation results show that the three types of respiration rate reach steady state within 15 minutes under reasonable operating conditions. As long as the respiration rate reaches steady state the proposed procedure calculates the respiration rate that is equal to the simulated. Under constant and dynamic BODst loading, the proposed procedure is capable of calculating the effluent and influent BODst with reasonable accuracy.

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