The Pragmatics of Evidence Discourse

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Giovanni Tuzet
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Judicial Control ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects

This chapter explores a number of pragmatic aspects of the evidentiary discourse. By calling them “pragmatic” the author refers to the aspects that are typically the province of “pragmatics” and can be generically defined as the study of the use of language in context; and by “evidence discourse” he refers to the discourse that is carried out about juridical evidence. This discussion restates the basic distinction between semantics and pragmatics and then addresses the nature of the speech acts in evidence discourse, the role of implicatures and presuppositions, and the place of deixis, i.e., the use of indexicals and demonstratives. The author claims that evidence discourse is predominantly assertive; that problems associated with implicatures are abated as questioners are skilled and questions are specific; that exploitation of presuppositions is avoided by attorneys’ vigilance and judicial control; and, finally, that deixis reveals the discourse’s ostensive dimension.

scholarly journals The Semantics and Pragmatics Analysis of Javanese and English Apologetic Speech Acts

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Betari Irma Ghasani
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
English Expression ◽  
Collaboration Model ◽  
Illocutionary Acts ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics

Reconsidering the role of apologizing as one of fundamental aspects in speech act learner has become important nowadays. It is argued that acquiring apologizing speech act can build their attitude. The purpose of this study is analyzing semantic and pragmatic of Javanese apologetic speech act, especially with respect how Javanese apologetic speech act expression differ conceptuallyfrom English expression. In order to fi nd out the differences between Javanese apologetic speech act nuwun sewu”and English speech act sorry, I used the natural semantic metalanguage proposed by Wierzbicka (1987). Furthermore, I described some distinguishable features of Javanese culture as well. By using Blum-Kulka (1989) and her collaboration model, I analyzed Javanese apologyspeech act strategies found in several conversations and situations. The fi ndings of my study are the attitudinal meanings of nuwun sewu and sorry, as well as the illocutionary acts associated with the two expressions are different. My study further suggests that conceptualizing speech act expressions, using semantically simple words, may help second learners acquire the proper ways of using speechacts in the target language and culture.

Means of Realization of the Speech Act of Disagreement on the Material of the Russian and Persian Languages

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Hosein Gholami ◽  
Azade Vafai
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
The Russian Language

This article is devoted to the analysis of the speech act of disagreement and the ways of its expression in the Russian language. The relevance of this study is due to the increasing role of the study of speech acts of disagreement in the communication process and the necessity and importance of the study of means of implementation. Students studying a foreign language acquire a broad theoretical knowledge of the foreign language, but in practice they face many difficulties. In communication interference occurs. Interference inhibits the assimilation of a foreign language. In order to overcome the interference in learning a second language, it is necessary to pay attention to the pragmatic aspects of the language. This study shows that there are different direct and indirect ways of expressing disagreement.

scholarly journals The Possibility of Universal Semiotics of Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-331
Author(s):  
Miklós Szabó
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Latin Language ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Semiotics Of Law ◽  
Language And Law ◽  
Pragmatic Dimension

The universality of human language above the diversity of vernaculars as theorized by Noam Chomsky creates the temptation to adapt the same idea to law. There are parallels between language and law, e.g., Latin language and Roman law, the universality, formality, and generativity of the two and the embeddedness of law in language. Chomsky’s universal generative grammar is applicable to law in a direct way but the theory is still extendable to semantics and pragmatics of law. The claim is that generating constructions of elemental constituents is an approved technique of law and jurisprudence as much as of linguistics. The pragmatic dimension of semiotics of law shows the significant contribution of law to consolidating social role of speech acts.

scholarly journals Semantics and Pragmatics in Jacinda Ardern’s Speech

DEIKSIS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Jaja Fatmaja ◽  
Gustaman Saragih
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Terror Attack ◽  
Illocutionary Act ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Primary Meaning ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
Descriptive Method

<p>The objective of this research is to find out: semantic (denotation and connotation), pragmatic (illocutionary act: assertive/representative, directive, commisive, expressive, and declarative), and frequency of occurrence of the semantic and pragmatic aspects. The research object of this study is utterances containing semantic and pragmatic aspects. The data were collected from Jacinda Ardern’s speech on Tuesday, 19 March 2019. The speech was delivered in front of the Parliament after the Christchurch mosque terror attack. The technique used is the noting technique, separating technique, and transferring technique in collecting the data. This research is aimed to analyze the semantic and pragmatic aspects of Jacinda Ardern’s speech. The method used in this research is the qualitative descriptive method that aims to analyze the semantic and pragmatic aspects of Jacinda Ardern’s speech. The research findings as follows: the writer focuses on two aspects of semantic, namely denotation and connotation, and in pragmatic aspects, the writer focuses on the illocutionary act, which is assertive/representative, directive, commisive, expressive, and declarative.  After the writer analyzed the data, the result is 1. Semantic aspects: a. denotation (76%), b. connotation (24%). The bigger presentations are denotation because each sentence mostly has literal or primary meaning. 2. Pragmatic aspects (illocutionary): a. assertive (46%), b. directive (12%), c. commisive (17%), d. expressive (8%) and e. declarative (17%). The bigger presentations are assertive speech acts because the speaker is representing reality.</p>

Speech Acts in Discourse Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craige Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Consensus View ◽  
Grammatical Mood ◽  
The Relationship

This essay sketches an approach to speech acts in which mood does not semantically determine illocutionary force. The conventional content of mood determines the semantic type of the clause in which it occurs, and, given the nature of discourse, that type most naturally lends itself to a particular type of speech act, i.e. one of the three basic types of language game moves—making an assertion (declarative), posing a question (interrogative), or proposing to one’s addressee(s) the adoption of a goal (imperative). There is relative consensus about the semantics of two of these, the declarative and interrogative; and this consensus view is entirely compatible with the present proposal about the relationship between the semantics and pragmatics of grammatical mood. Hence, the proposal is illustrated with the more controversial imperative.

New Work on Speech Acts

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
New Work ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship

The essays collected in this book represent recent advances in our understanding of speech acts-actions like asserting, asking, and commanding that speakers perform when producing an utterance. The study of speech acts spans disciplines, and embraces both the theoretical and scientific concerns proper to linguistics and philosophy as well as the normative questions that speech acts raise for our politics, our societies, and our ethical lives generally. It is the goal of this book to reflect the diversity of current thinking on speech acts as well as to bring these conversations together, so that they may better inform one another. Topics explored in this book include the relationship between sentence grammar and speech act potential; the fate of traditional frameworks in speech act theory, such as the content-force distinction and the taxonomy of speech acts; and the ways in which speech act theory can illuminate the dynamics of hostile and harmful speech. The book takes stock of well over a half century of thinking about speech acts, bringing this classicwork in linewith recent developments in semantics and pragmatics, and pointing the way forward to further debate and research.

Prosody in Automatic Speech Processing

2020 ◽  
pp. 632-645
Author(s):  
Anton Batliner ◽  
Bernd Möbius
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Short History ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Dialogue Acts ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of

Automatic speech processing (ASP) is understood as covering word recognition, the processing of higher linguistic components (syntax, semantics, and pragmatics), and the processing of computational paralinguistics (CP), which deals with speaker states and traits. This chapter attempts to track the role of prosody in ASP from the word level up to CP. A short history of the field from 1980 to 2020 distinguishes the early years (until 2000)—when the prosodic contribution to the modelling of linguistic phenomena, such as accents, boundaries, syntax, semantics, and dialogue acts, was the focus—from the later years, when the focus shifted to paralinguistics; prosody ceased to be visible. Different types of predictor variables are addressed, among them high-performance power features as well as leverage features, which can also be employed in teaching and therapy.

scholarly journals The Effect of Instruction on Learners' Pragmatic Awareness: a Focus on Refusals

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Alcón Soler ◽  
Josep Guzmán Pitarch
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Pragmatic Awareness ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Instructional Contexts

The benefits of instruction on learners’ production and awareness of speech acts is well documented (see Alcón and Martínez-Flor, 2008, for a review of pragmatics in instructional contexts). However, few studies examine the influence that instruction may have on the cognitive processes involved in speech act production (Félix- Brasdefer, 2008). In order to address this research gap, and taking into account the discussion in research on the concept of attention and related terms such as awareness (see Al-Hejin, 2004, for a review of the role of attention and awareness in second language acquisition research) this paper reports on the benefits of instruction on learners’ attention and awareness during the performance of refusals. Thus, based on a pedagogical proposal for teaching refusals at the discourse level, we focus on the benefits that this pedagogical proposal can have on the information attended to during the planning and execution of refusals. Secondly, we explore whether instruction makes a difference in learners’ awareness of refusals.

scholarly journals Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
The Status ◽  
Language Competency ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Remedial Strategies

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>

scholarly journals ‘You dribble faster than Messi and jump higher than Jordan’: The art of complimenting and praising in political discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohar Kampf ◽  
Roni Danziger
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Communities

Abstract Communicating admiration and appreciation in public discourse are two important tasks for political actors who wish to secure relationships and advance models for civic behavior. Our goal in this study is to understand how political actors signal their desire to please addressees and advance political sociability by way of manifesting positive judgment towards others. On the basis of 241 utterances praising and complimenting others’ words and deeds, we identify the topics, patterns, and functions of these speech acts and the processes and struggles they evoke in Israeli public discourse. We conclude by discussing the role of positive evaluations in demarcating the boundaries of proper conduct in political communities and the ways the distinctive logic of politics is integrated with specific cultural speaking styles in influencing how members of the Israeli political community signal their appreciation and affect for other members’ skills, performances, and personalities.

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