Larssyn Staley, Socioeconomic Pragmatic Variation: Speech acts and address forms in context

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-653
Author(s):  
Victor Ho
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Pragmatic Variation

Invitation refusals in Cameroon French and Hexagonal French

Multilingua ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Mulo Farenkia
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Questionnaire Data ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Birthday Party ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Pragmatic Variation ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
Refusal Strategies

AbstractDescriptions of regional pragmatic variation in French are lacking to date the focus has been on a limited range of speech acts, including apologies, requests, compliments and responses to compliments. The present paper, a systematic analysis of invitation refusals across regional varieties of French, is designed to add to the research on intralingual regional pragmatic variation in French. Using questionnaire data collected in France and Cameroon, this paper examines the strategies employed by French speakers in Cameroon and in France to decline an invitation to a friend’s birthday party, an invitation by a classmate to have a drink and an invitation to attend a talk given by a professor’s colleague. The findings reveal some parallels in both varieties of French with respect to the preference for face-saving refusal strategies (indirect refusal and adjuncts to refusals and internal modification devices). However, many differences emerged with respect to the choices of indirect refusals. Also, the Cameroonian participants tend to produce more complex utterances and to use more relational address forms than the French.

scholarly journals Pronouns, Address Forms and Politeness Strategies in Odia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Kalyanamalini SAHOO
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Linguistic Usage

This study discusses how various politeness strategies are implemented linguistically and how linguistic usage is related to social and contextual factors in the Indic language Odia. The study extends the validity of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1978) with reference to Odia speech-patterns and shows that Odia usage of politeness would be more differentiated according to the social relationship and gender than the content of the message.  In Brown and Levinson’s model, individual speech acts are considered to be inherently polite or impolite.  However, in Odia, it is found that communities of practice, rather than individuals, determine whether speech acts are considered polite or impolite. Thus, politeness should be considered as a set of strategies or practices set by particular groups or communities of practice as a socially constructed norm for themselves.

scholarly journals Compliment strategies and regional variation in French

Pragmatics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Mulo Farenkia
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Double Head ◽  
Positive Evaluation

The present study examines differences and similarities in the realization of compliments (on skills) in Cameroon and Canadian French. The data were collected by means of discourse completion tasks (DCT) administered to 55 participants in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and 39 respondents in Montréal (Canada). The 277 compliments obtained were analyzed according to the following three aspects: a) head act strategies (direct and indirect compliments), b) lexico-semantic and syntactic features of complimentary utterances, and c) external modification. With regard to head act strategies, the results show a preference for double head acts by the Cameroonian participants, while the Canadians more frequently employed single head acts. It was also found that indirect realizations of head acts occurred only in the Cameroonian data. Positive evaluation markers (e.g. adjectives, adverbs, verbs) and syntactic devices appearing in the compliments varied in type and frequency in the two varieties of French under investigation. The analysis of external modifications reveals that participants of both groups used many speech acts to externally modify their compliments. Overall, interjections, address forms, greetings, self-introductions and apologies were used as pre-compliments, with some speech acts, namely greetings and self-introductions, occurring only in the Cameroonian data.

Linguistic politeness and pragmatic variation in request production in Dakar French

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Johns ◽  
J. César Félix-Brasdefer
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Linguistic Politeness ◽  
Pragmatic Variation ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Informal Settings ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis article examines linguistic politeness and pragmatic variation in the production of requests among Senegalese speakers of French in Dakar. Drawing on a framework of pragmatic variation (Schneider and Barron 2008; Barron and Schneider 2009) and a model of intercultural communication and politeness systems (Scollon and Scollon 2001), we analyze variation of request variants, internal modification, and variation in the selection of the T/V forms in formal and informal contexts, including solidarity politeness (−P, −D), deference politeness (−P, +D), and hierarchical politeness (+P, +D). The Senegalese French requests were compared to requests from French speakers from France in comparable situations. The realization of politeness and request performance in Senegalese French is influenced by the fact that use of French is normally limited to formal contexts, such as schools and government establishments, with Wolof serving as a lingua franca in informal settings for speakers of many national languages. The results are discussed in light of pragmalinguistic variation, including variation of address forms, request variants, and internal modification.

scholarly journals Evaluating EFL University Learners’ Pragmatic Competence: Brown and Levinson’s Negative Politeness Strategies as a Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-381
Author(s):  
Ali Yousif Mohammad ◽  
Hussein Ali Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
University Life ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Negative Face

ABSRACT          Pragmatic competence forms a basic pillar in learning and teaching   the communicative use of a foreign language (FL). Evaluating the FL pragmatic knowledge is a challenging and complex area of language testing. Far from the grammatical content of language, the current study aims to evaluate EFL learners' pragmatic competence in terms of communicating the linguistic expressions of negative politeness. Accordingly, it investigates EFL university learners’ ability to show social distance and realize power relations towards addressees. The study also presents the negative politeness strategies on the basis of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory.             It is hypothesized that learners are pragmatically unaware of showing negative face towards addressees. It is further assumed that learners show tendency to go on record without redressive action, which often threatens addressees’ negative face. Added to that, learners are not aware of the appropriate use of politeness strategies followed according to the English culture. To investigate this, a Discourse Completion Test consisting of hypothetical situations that are familiar to learners' university life has been formulated.          The study concludes that learners experience pragmatic failures while engaging in situations where there is a need to show negative face, and utter direct speech acts frequently. In addition, learners do not distinguish between the appropriate politeness strategies (positive, negative and off record) as far as the cultural orientation of the English language is concerned. They further disregard the appropriate use of address forms that constitute a paramount aspect of negative politeness.

scholarly journals The Pragmatics of Hoax Email Business Proposals

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Innocent Chiluwa
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Next Of Kin ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Money Transfers ◽  
Near Future

This study applies the speech acts theory to the study of discourse strategies and functions of hoax email business proposals otherwise known as "419 emails" – '419' being the Nigerian term for all forms of online/financial fraud. The hoax mails are in form of email 'business proposals' involving money transfers/claims of dormant bank accounts overseas. Five types are identified namely: (i) money transfers, (ii) next-of-kin claims, (iii) fortune bequeathing, (iv) charity donations and (v) investment opportunities. Data comprises 52 email samples collected from the researcher's inboxes, colleagues and students' email inboxes between January, 2008 and March, 2009 in Ota, Nigeria. The study reveals that the business proposals perform speech acts such as expressive, representative, commissive and directive acts; the most frequently used being representative as the proposals are structured as narratives. The expressive act is used in form of greetings and polite address forms in order to win the interest of the receiver. The commissive act is used as a persuasive strategy while making unrealistic and suspicious promises to the receiver, while the directive act is used to urge the receiver to act promptly. The study also shows that this genre of Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a regular part of our internet social life, and is not likely to be extinct in the near future as previous studies of email hoaxes have predicted, since economic hardship being witnessed by the world today can force people to criminal activities.

"Let's do lunch sometime": An analysis of ostensible speech acts

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen E. Link ◽  
Roger J. Kreuz ◽  
Jackie Soto
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts

Orientalist Speech-acts and Israeli Middle East Studies: Cautions and Criticisms of Edward Said Beyond the Battle of Ideas

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Eyal Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Middle East Studies

Drawing on speech acts theory, this article discusses the illocutionary and perlocutionary forces of discursive practices with which certain academic circles seek to discredit the Saidian ‘Orientalism’ framework. Identifying the unusual value attached to Said as object of attachment or detachment, desirability and exceptionality, this analysis turns away from deliberations about ‘orientalism’ as a party in a battle of ideas, and studies common cautionary statements and other responses by peers as actions in the social (academic) world, that enculture and police expectations. Cautioning subjects about this framework, or conditioning its employment to preceding extensive pre-emptive complicating mitigations, in effect constructs this framework as undesirable and ‘risky’. While strong discursive reactions are not uncommon in academia, comparing them to treatments of less-controversial social theories reveals formulations, meanings and attentions which are arguably reserved for this ‘theory’. Conclusively, common dismissals, warnings and criticisms of Said and ‘Orientalism’ often exemplify Saidian claims, as they deploy the powerful advantage of enforcing hegemonic, and indeed Orientalist, views.

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