Pursuing Common Ground: Nondisaffiliative Rhetorical Questions in Mandarin Conversations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Wei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

scholarly journals Rhetorical questions as aggressive, friendly or sarcastic/ironical questions with imposed answers

ExELL ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-82
Author(s):  
Džemal Špago
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
The Other ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

AbstractRhetorical questions (RQs), as a cross-breed of questions and statements, represent an effective tool in putting forward the Speaker’s ideas, as well as influencing the ideas and opinions of other people. Because of their communicative effectiveness and multifunctionality, they are frequently used in different contexts and for different purposes, and, as such, they represent an interesting topic for further research. The aim of this paper is threefold: (i) to explore the nature of the implied answer to RQs, (ii) to offer a classification of RQs based on the Speaker’s communication style, and (iii) to examine whether (or to what extent) the Speaker-Addressee relationship (peer-to-peer, superior-to-inferior, inferior-to-superior) influences the selection and frequency of use of different types of RQs. Using Stalnaker’s (2002) model of Common Ground and Caponigro and Sprouse’s (2007) concepts of Speaker’s and Addressee’s Beliefs, the author redefines the nature of the answers implied by RQs, claiming that they are imposed on the Addressee rather than mutually recognized as obvious. Based on the model of communication styles as defined by Yuan et al. (2018), RQs are classified into aggressive, friendly and sarcastic/ironical questions with imposed answers. The analysis of the corpus, which consisted of 275 RQs taken from ten American movie scripts, showed that friendly RQs are more common than the other two types, and that, in instances where one of the interlocutors is in a superior position, superior-to-inferior RQs are by far more common than vice versa. The finding that RQs asked by inferiors make up less than a third of RQs occurring between interlocutors with different social standing is in line with the view that answers to RQs are imposed on Addressees.

Form and Function of Negative, Tag, and Rhetorical Questions

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-254
Author(s):  
Maribel Romero
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Question Types ◽  
Epistemic States ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
Interrogative Clauses ◽  
And Function ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

While interrogative clauses often function as neutral requests for information, they do not always do so. We will concentrate on three question types which, besides raising an issue, convey speaker bias and in which negation and negation-dependent items play an important role: (i) biased information-seeking polar questions, (ii) tag questions, and (iii) rhetorical questions. To model the pragmatic use-conditions of these question types, a more articulated representation of discourse has been developed, encompassing different epistemic states, Common ground managing operators, complex speech acts, and/or the scoreboard discourse model.

Proverbial rhetorical questions in colloquial Jordanian Arabic

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Badarneh
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Special Variety ◽  
Common Thread ◽  
Opposite Point ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

AbstractThis study investigates a special variety of rhetorical questions in colloquial Jordanian Arabic, namely proverbial rhetorical questions: these are rhetorical questions used as proverbs with metaphorical content. Eighty-one instances of PRQs, ethnographically observed in everyday, naturally occurring conversations, were analyzed and their discursive role examined. It was found that PRQs are exploited by the interactants to serve a variety of pragmatic functions, namely invoking common ground in order to convey an opposite point of view, performing ritual impoliteness, performing face-enhancing and face-aggravating acts, evoking humor, and communicating irony. A common thread of these functions is the socioculturally shared presuppositions that underlie these formulaic PRQs and the role that metaphor plays in shaping and communicating messages in social interaction.

Talking Across Cultures in Early Intervention: Finding Common Ground to Meet Children's Communication Needs

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth D. Peña ◽  
Christine Fiestas
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Cultural Orientation ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Provider Perspectives ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
Caregiver Role

Abstract In this paper, we explore cultural values and expectations that might vary among different groups. Using the collectivist-individualist framework, we discuss differences in beliefs about the caregiver role in teaching and interacting with young children. Differences in these beliefs can lead to dissatisfaction with services on the part of caregivers and with frustration in service delivery on the part of service providers. We propose that variation in caregiver and service provider perspectives arise from cultural values, some of which are instilled through our own training as speech-language pathologists. Understanding where these differences in cultural orientation originate can help to bridge these differences. These can lead to positive adaptations in the ways that speech-language pathology services are provided within an early intervention setting that will contribute to effective intervention.

Spatial Representations as an Emergent Feature of Perceptual Processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Wascher ◽  
C. Beste
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Integrated Network ◽  
Perceptual Maps ◽  
Emergent Feature ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Selection Of

Spatial selection of relevant information has been proposed to reflect an emergent feature of stimulus processing within an integrated network of perceptual areas. Stimulus-based and intention-based sources of information might converge in a common stage when spatial maps are generated. This approach appears to be inconsistent with the assumption of distinct mechanisms for stimulus-driven and top-down controlled attention. In two experiments, the common ground of stimulus-driven and intention-based attention was tested by means of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the human EEG. In both experiments, the processing of a single transient was compared to the selection of a physically comparable stimulus among distractors. While single transients evoked a spatially sensitive N1, the extraction of relevant information out of a more complex display was reflected in an N2pc. The high similarity of the spatial portion of these two components (Experiment 1), and the replication of this finding for the vertical axis (Experiment 2) indicate that these two ERP components might both reflect the spatial representation of relevant information as derived from the organization of perceptual maps, just at different points in time.

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