The Prosody of Wh-exclamatives and Wh-questions in German: Speech Act Differences, Information Structure, and Sex of Speaker

The prosody of non-assertive speech acts other than questions is rather underexplored. Very little is known about the role of information structure in non-assertive speech acts in general. The present study presents two production experiments examining the prosody of string-identical verb-second (experiment 1) and verb-final (experiment 2) wh-exclamatives and wh-questions in German in relation to their status as different speech acts, in relation to their sensitivity to information structure, and in relation to speaker sex. The study shows that the two speech acts are differentiated by many prosodic means, both globally (duration, intonation contour) and locally (accent distribution in the clause-initial and clause-final regions; pitch, duration, intensity on various elements in the clause, especially the subject pronoun and the direct object, which are more prominent in exclamatives, and the verb-second auxiliary, which is more prominent in questions). Exclamatives overall show a very rigid prosodic contour; they typically are realized with an accent on the subject pronoun and on the object and end in a fall. Questions are much more flexible; they are realized as rises or falls, and show a more varied accent structure in the clause-initial and clause-final regions. Both speech acts show information-structural effects of givenness marking, but the effects in exclamatives are remarkably weak. It is proposed that the speech-act marking prosody overrides information-structural effects to some extent. Male and female speakers show differences in their preferred accent patterns for the two speech acts. Some acoustic differences are only reliable for female speakers.

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VALENCY STRUCTURE OF CERTAIN PREDICATES OF SPEECH: NEW FINDINGS

Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies ◽

10.28995/2075-7182-2020-19-400-415 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

B. L. Iomdin ◽

◽

L. L. Iomdin ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Speech Acts ◽

Speech Act ◽

The State ◽

Semantic Role ◽

Birthday Party ◽

New Findings ◽

The Subject

The paper discusses valency frames of a number of Russian verbal predicates whose semantics includes speech acts and, at a cetrain step of semantic decomposition, the negation, like vozražat’ ‘object, retort’, vozmuščat’sja ‘resent, be indignant’ or izvinjat’sja ‘apologize’. It is hypothesized that the frames of such predicates include a pair of propositional valencies distinctly opposed to each other: (1) the valency of stimulus that expresses the state of events and (2) the valency of response that introduces a speech act performed by the subject as a reaction to this state of event and offering an explanation. For example, in the sentence Ivan izvinilsja, čto ne prišel na moj den’ rożdenija ‘Ivan apologized that he did not come to my birthday party’ the clause starting with čto ‘that’ represents the state of events, whilst in the sentence Ivan izvinilsja, čto ploxo sebja čuvstvoval ‘Ivan apologized that he was not feeling well’ the čto-clause introduces Ivan’s response to the stimulus (e.g. of not coming to the birthday party). It is shown that these valencies cannot be adequately described with a single semantic role of content. The authors also give a generalization of this phenomenon, comparing it to other instances of valency pairs, and suggest the existence of predicates having two valency centers.

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

International Journal of English Studies ◽

10.6018/ijes/2010/1/113981 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 65 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

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.

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Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian

International Journal of English Linguistics ◽

10.5539/ijel.v6n1p73 ◽

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 & Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain & 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>

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Invectives as a linguistic manipulation in the song discourse (on the example of compositions from “Eurovision” song contest)

Litera ◽

10.25136/2409-8698.2020.8.33536 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 98-105

Author(s):

Dmitry Aleksandrovich Knyazkov

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Speech Act ◽

Italian Language ◽

Multimodal Discourse ◽

Eurovision Song Contest ◽

Verbal Component ◽

Song Lyrics ◽

The Subject ◽

Poetic Composition

The subject of this research is the abusive language (invectives) prohibited by the rules of the International Song Contest “Eurovision”. The goal consists in substantiating the role of obscene language as a linguistic manipulation in song discourse of “Eurovision” contest. The tabooed words and expressions represent a wide array of lexical units for research by modern linguistic science based on the materials of various voice compositions. Using the lyrics of songs that participated in “Eurovision” and made top 10 chart, the author determined those that contain invectives. The scientific novelty consists in the first ever analysis of song lyrics that contained the lexical units of abusive language prohibited by the rules of “Eurovision”. It was determined that the compositions of multimodal discourse contain various invectives in verbal component. The authors of songs for “Eurovision” apply different linguistic manipulations to influence the live voting and ensure a spot in the finals for their composition. This is directly related to increase in the number of participating countries; therefore, the structure and content of verbal component of a musical-poetic composition of Eurovision plays an important role. Despite the prohibition by rules of the context to use tabooed lexicon in song lyrics, the author was able to identify certain violations in the English-language and Italian-language compositions. The conclusion is made that invectives in the song discourse are effective linguistic manipulations that enhance suggestive semantics of speech act, since all compositions made it to the top 10.

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An Analysis of Commissive Speech Act Used by The Shopping Hosts of MNC Shop

JURNAL ARBITRER ◽

10.25077/ar.6.1.28-34.2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 28

Author(s):

Widdya Syafitri

Keyword(s):

Speech Acts ◽

Speech Act ◽

Observational Method ◽

Normal Pattern ◽

Vacuum Cleaner ◽

Distributional Method ◽

Normal Sentence ◽

The Subject ◽

Permutation Technique ◽

Sentence Subject

This research focuses on the use of commissive speech act used by the shopping hosts of MNC Shop. The source of data is taken from the advertisements of household appliances, such as frying pan, rice cooker, vacuum cleaner, etc which are broadcasted in December 2018. The purposes of the research are to identify and to explain the form and the pattern as well as the function of the commissive speech acts used by the shopping hosts. This research uses qualitative approach. The data are collected by using observational method followed by recording and note-taking technique. Then, the data are analyzed by using pragmatic identity method and distributional method with deletion and permutation technique. The theory of form and pattern of the commissive speech act are based on Alwi’s and Putrayasa’s theory. Meanwhile the theory of its function is taken from Yule’s and Ibrahim’s theory. From the analysis, it is found that the commissive speech acts in the advertisement can be uttered in the form of declarative, interrogative and exclamative. The pattern can be in the form of normal sentence (subject preceding the predicate then followed by the object) or in the form of inverted sentence (the inversion of normal pattern) which the predicate preceding the subject, etc. In terms of its functions, the commissive speech acts can be used to promise, to guarantee and to convince.

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The Pragmatic Study of Speech Act Analysis in Discussion Activities on Speaking Learning

EDUVELOP (Journal of English Education and Development) ◽

10.31605/eduvelop.v3i2.616 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 64-72

Author(s):

Widiastuti Muchsin

Keyword(s):

Speech Acts ◽

Qualitative Method ◽

Speech Act ◽

Class Discussion ◽

Research Problems ◽

The Subject ◽

Speech Act Analysis ◽

Perlocutionary Act ◽

Pragmatic Study ◽

Descriptive Qualitative

The research problems of this research is what are the types and functions of speech acts that appear in discussion activities on speaking learning of 3rd semester students of Polytechnic ATI Makassar. The methods in this research is a descriptive qualitative method. The subject of this research is the 3rd semester Politechnic ATI Makassar students in class discussion activities. The results of the study can be described as follows. There are several types of speech acts found. Based on the action objectives of the speaker's perspective, Locutionary act, Illocution act, and perlocutionary act are found. Locutionary speech acts include news, questions and orders. Illocutionary speech acts include assertive, directive, expressive, commissive and declarative illocution

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On the Acquisition of Word Order in WH-Questions in theTromsø Dialect

Nordlyd ◽

10.7557/12.48 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Marit Richardsen Westergaard

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Information Structure ◽

Verb Second ◽

Verb Movement ◽

Syntactic Form ◽

Wh Questions

This article reports on a study of three children acquiring a dialect of Norwegian which allows two different word orders in certain types of WH-questions, verb second (V2) and and verb third (V3). The latter is only allowed after monosyllabic WH-words, while the former, which is the result of verb movement, is the word order found in all other main clauses in the language. It is shown that both V2 and V3 are acquired extremely early by the children in the study (before the age of two), and that subtle distinctions between the two orders with respect to information structure are attested from the beginning. However, it is argued that V3 word order, which should be ìsimplerî than the V2 structure as it does not involve verb movement, is nevertheless acquired slightly later in its full syntactic form. This is taken as an indication that the V3 structure is syntactically more complex, and possibly also more marked.

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Speech Acts

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697960.013.22 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Stephen C. Levinson

Keyword(s):

Conversation Analysis ◽

Speech Acts ◽

Language Use ◽

Speech Act ◽

Linguistic Pragmatics ◽

Recursive Structures ◽

Core Language ◽

Core Issues ◽

Essential Insight

The essential insight of speech act theory was that when we use language, we perform actions—in a more modern parlance, core language use in interaction is a form of joint action. Over the last thirty years, speech acts have been relatively neglected in linguistic pragmatics, although important work has been done especially in conversation analysis. Here we review the core issues—the identifying characteristics, the degree of universality, the problem of multiple functions, and the puzzle of speech act recognition. Special attention is drawn to the role of conversation structure, probabilistic linguistic cues, and plan or sequence inference in speech act recognition, and to the centrality of deep recursive structures in sequences of speech acts in conversation.

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Asymmetrical Conversations

Grazer Philosophische Studien ◽

10.1163/18756735-09603010 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 96 (3) ◽

pp. 401-418

Author(s):

Claudia Bianchi

Keyword(s):

Speech Acts ◽

Hate Speech ◽

Speech Act ◽

Social Role ◽

Social Position ◽

Speech Act Theory ◽

The Social ◽

Object Of Study ◽

Mitchell Green

According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects of conversational contexts, including those in which the speaker’s social position affects the possibility of her performing certain speech acts. In recent times, asymmetries in communicative situations have become a lively object of study for linguists, philosophers of language and moral philosophers: several scholars view hate speech itself in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (acts establishing or reinforcing unfair hierarchies). The aim of this paper is to address one of the main objections to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, that is the Authority Problem. While the social role of the speaker is the focus of several approaches (Langton 2018a, 2018b; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014; Green 2014, 2017a, 2017b), the social role of the audience has too often been neglected. The author will show that not only must the speaker have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to perform speech acts of subordination, but also the audience must typically have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to either license or object to the speaker’s authority, and her acts of subordination.

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The Interaction of Functional Predictors and the Mechanical Predictor Perseveration in a Variationist Analysis of Caribbean Spanish Heritage Speaker Subject Pronoun Expression

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages5040036 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 36

Author(s):

Ana de Prada Pérez

Keyword(s):

Mixed Effects ◽

Reference Tracking ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

Functional Predictors ◽

Caribbean Spanish ◽

Third Person ◽

Subject Pronoun ◽

The Subject ◽

Rule Analysis

Subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Spanish has been widely studied across monolingual and bilingual varieties, showing a consistent effect of functional predictors. In recent papers, the role of the mechanical predictor priming, or perseveration, has been the source of debate. Additionally, little is known about the interaction of perseveration and significant functional predictors (e.g., grammatical person). In this paper, we expand on previous research by examining first-person singular (1sg) and third-person singular (3sg) data from sociolinguistic interviews with Spanish–English bilinguals from Florida to explore the possible difference in priming in deictic vs. referential subjects. The results from a mixed-effects variable rule analysis only offered clear evidence of priming in 1sg. We hypothesize that this result could be due to either surprisal (1sg overt pronominal subjects are rarer in the corpus that 3sg overt pronominal subjects) or to 3sg involving reference-tracking and perseveration only being evident in contexts where the subject form does not signal for pragmatic content.

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