How dialogue creates opposite characters: An analysis of Arthur & George

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Deborah F. Rossen-Knill
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Secondary Effect ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Social Disaster

This article offers an analysis of the dialogue in Julian Barnes’s Arthur & George, drawing on relevance theory (Grice, 1989; Sperber and Wilson, 1995) and politeness theory (Brown and Levinson, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Lakoff, 1973; Leech, 1983; Spencer-Oatey, 2002). The analysis demonstrates how Arthur’s and George’s particular ability to use language shapes their social situations. George’s inability to make sense of implicature and recover interpersonal messages leads to social disaster; whereas, Arthur’s heightened sensitivity to language’s creative possibilities leads to exceptional social success. The analysis has the secondary effect of revealing the intimate and indivisible relationship among natural language ability, language use, and social identity.

Entrepreneurial Social Identity Management Through Language Use

2021 ◽  
pp. 0261927X2110190
Author(s):  
Christopher Hajek
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
New Model ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Axial Coding

This study draws upon interview data and a grounded theoretical methodology to explore entrepreneurial social identity management. Interviews were conducted with forty-three entrepreneurs in several U.S. cities. The women and men discussed past conversations with (non)entrepreneurs, with foci on self- and other stereotyping, associated language use, prototypicality, and motivation. Open and axial coding of the interview content revealed a new model of entrepreneurial social identity management. The model’s implications for understanding entrepreneurs’ social identity and motivation were discussed.

scholarly journals Negation of Conditionals in Natural Language and Thought

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Gilberto Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Pragmatic Truth ◽  
Natural Language Pragmatics ◽  
Excluded Middle

External negation of conditionals occurs in sentences beginning with ‘It is not true that if’ or similar phrases, and it is not rare in natural language. A conditional may also be denied by another with the same antecedent and opposite consequent. Most often, when the denied conditional is implicative, the denying one is concessive, and vice versa. Here I argue that, in natural language pragmatics, ‘If $A$, $\sim B$’ entails ‘$\sim$(if $A, B$)’, but ‘$\sim$(if $A, B$)’ does not entail ‘If $A$, $\sim B$’. ‘If $A, B$’ and ‘If $A$, $\sim B$’ deny each other, but are contraries, not contradictories. Truth conditions that are relevant in human reasoning and discourse often depend not only on semantic but also on pragmatic factors. Examples are provided showing that sentences having the forms ‘$\sim$(if $A, B$)’ and ‘If $A$, $\sim B$’ may have different pragmatic truth conditions. The principle of Conditional Excluded Middle, therefore, does not apply to natural language use of conditionals. Three squares of opposition provide a representation the aforementioned relations.

scholarly journals Beyond the Words in Print: Identity Construction in Messages of Condolence

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-192
Author(s):  
Rita Akele Twumasi
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Theoretical Physics ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
The Social

Death is part of human existence. When a person hears the news of someone’s death, it is very common for that person to express their feelings about it. This feeling is in the form of condolences which express the speaker’s sorrow, and condolences fall into the category of speech act. Semantically, condolences have a social meaning which refers to language use. Identities are created in relationships with others, and condolences are major platforms for the construction of identities, in that, existing relationships are, clearly, manifested in the messages that sympathizers expressed. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzed twenty condolence messages which were purposely sampled from condolence messages posted in the portals of International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), when one of its members passed away. The analysis of the data revealed two main identity types enacted for the deceased: role identity and Social Identity. The major Role identity enacted, metaphorically, was Father while the least role was Achiever. Second, identity as an International Figure was dominant with the Social roles, but Good Personality was used less frequently. The present study adds to studies in identity construction, in general, and studies in condolence messages, in specific.

Register and the redemption of relevance theory

Pragmatics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Goatly
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cross Fertilization

The argument I wish to advance in this paper is that Gricean theory (Grice 1968, 1969, 1975, 1978, 1981) and, in particular, the potentially useful relevance theory which developed from it (Sperber & Wilson 1986), are flawed through their failure to consider cultural and social context; but that attempts to relate linguistic pragmatics to more socially-conscious models of language use, such as register/genre theory (Ure and Ellis 1977; Halliday 1978; Gregory and Carroll 1978; Ghadessy 1988, 1993; Swales 1988; Martin 1985, 1992 etc.) may produce interesting cross-fertilization and be beneficial to both. This essay falls into three sections. The first is a brief introductory critique of Grice's theory as an asocial idealized construct. The second section brings relevance theory and genre/register theory face to face and under the spotlight, hoping to reveal the weaknesses of each and show how, theoretically, they could compensate for and complement each other. In the third section I consider the case of metaphor, arguing that and demonstrating how the account of metaphor provided in Relevance: Communication and Cognition can be supplemented in practice by considering the kinds of register/genre in which metaphors find expression.

Researching Language and Gender: A Critical Review

2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87
Author(s):  
D. Vasanta
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language And Gender ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
And Gender ◽  
English Speaking World

This article provides a review of some of the major language and gender studies reported pri marily in the English-speaking world during the past three decades. After pointing to the inade quacies of formal linguistic and sociocultural approaches in examining the complex ways in which gender interacts with language use, an alternative theoretical paradigm that gives impor tance to the sociohistorical and political forces residing in the meanings of the resources as well as social identity of the speaker who aims to use those meanings is described. The implications of this shiff from sociocultural to sociohistorical approaches in researching language and gender in the Indian context are discussed in this article.

Negotiating Boundaries or Drawing the Line? Transcending ‘Insider/Outsider’ Distinctions in Connemara

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Moran
Keyword(s):  
Rural Community ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Regular Boundary ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Knowledge Cultures ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
Behavioural Strategies

This paper examines insider/outsider distinctions in a rural community in Connemara and argues that they are rooted in locality and are based upon conflicting knowledge cultures. Such distinctions are both contextual and fluid as they encompass a range of cultural factors and find expression through particular conventions on language use and everyday behavioural strategies. The insider/outsider nexus is continually negotiated in this community, and individuals are recognised as possessing degrees of insider and/or outsider status depending upon which particular modes of behaviour or linguistic practices may be seen as acceptable by the wider community in particular social situations. Qualitative data presented in this paper reveals that while some incomers to the region are viewed as ‘outsiders’ by more established members of the community, the degree to which this is the case frequently depends on whether they are perceived as sharing local people's ‘habitus’ prior to their entering the community. Instead of drawing strict lines of distinction between locals and incomers, both groups engage in regular ‘boundary-making’ by perpetuating locally-based practices and discourse structures, a process which verifies their sense of belonging and continually (re)defines and (re)constitutes the structures of discourse and action entered into in everyday life.

Accounting for ELF

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-395
Author(s):  
Ruth Osimk-Teasdale ◽  
Nora Dorn
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Pos Tagging ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Different Types

This paper reports on some issues encountered when using various ‘external points of reference’ in the development of POS-tagging guidelines for the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE). VOICE is a corpus of spoken English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) containing naturally occurring, plurilingual data. As in all kinds of natural language use, speakers recorded in VOICE exploit available linguistic resources, often resulting in non-codified language use and language which is difficult to classify unambiguously. However, detailed tagging solutions for such phenomena are rarely reported. We discuss usefulness and limitations of external points of reference with regard to their suitability for POS-tagging VOICE and address methodological as well as practical issues, especially the handling of non-codified language use and different types of ambiguities. We suggest that the solutions found, and the theoretical approach adopted, could be relevant for the tagging of other spoken corpora.

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