A Pragmatic Analysis of Discourse Marker “Yeah” from the Perspective of Relevance Theory—Take the Drama Goin’a Buffalo—A Tragifantasy as an Example

2020 ◽  
Vol 08 (06) ◽  
pp. 840-846
Author(s):  
红云 高
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis

Neo-Gricean Pragmatics and the Lexicon

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Study ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Pragmatic Theory ◽  
Logical Operators ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Separate Branch ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis

AbstractInterest in the pragmatics of the lexicon is probably as old as that in pragmatics itself, as can be seen in the early work by e.g.the 19 th century British philosophers John Stuart Mill and Augustus De Morgan, and the more recent, seminal work by Grice (1975, 1989) and McCawley (1978). However, a revival of this interest has occurred since the 1990s, and there has since been an acceleration in the development of a separate branch of lexical pragmatics. Currently, lexical pragmatics - the systematic study of aspects of meaning-related properties of lexical items that are dependent on or modifi ed in language in use, i.e.that part of lexical meaning which is parasitic on what is coded but is not part of what is coded (e.g.Huang 1998) – is a hot pursuit within at least three diff erent theoretical frameworks of pragmatics, namely, neo-Gricean pragmatic theory (e.g.Horn 1984, 1989, 2003, 2006a, b, 2007, Huang 1998, 2005, 2008, 2009, Levinson 2000), neo-Gricean oriented bidirectional optimality-theoretic (OT) pragmatics (e.g.Blutner 1998, 2004, forthcoming) and relevance theory (e.g.Carston 1997, Wilson 2003, Wilson and Carston 2007). e aim of this article is to present a neo-Gricean pragmatic analysis of four central topics in lexical pragmatics: lexical narrowing, lexical cloning, lexical blocking, and asymmetry in the lexicalization of certain logical operators.

scholarly journals A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF YEAH AS A DISCOURSE MARKER

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dam Ha Thuy
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Intended Interpretation ◽  
Necessary Constraints

The paper attempts to explain English native speakers’ use of the discourse marker yeah from a relevance-theoretic perspective (Sperber & Wilson, 1995). As a discourse marker, yeah normally functions as a continuer, an agreement marker, a turn-taking marker, or a disfluency marker. However, according to Relevance Theory, yeah can also be considered a procedural expression, and therefore, is expected to help yield necessary constraints on the contexts, which facilitates understanding in human communication by encoding one of the three contextual effects (contextual implication, strengthening, or contradiction) or reorienting the audience to certain assumptions which lead to the intended interpretation. Analyses of examples taken from conversations with a native speaker of English suggest that each use of yeah as a discourse marker is able to put a certain type of constraints on the relevance of the accompanying utterance. These initial analyses serve as a foundation for further research to confirm its multi-functionality as a procedural expression when examined within the framework of Relevance Theory.

scholarly journals The Meaning and Functions of qSdk and yʕny as Discourse Markers in Saudi Arabic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-722
Author(s):  
Maram S. Alshammary
Keyword(s):  
Truth Condition ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Cognitive Effect ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Saudi Arabic

The current study aims at investigating two discourse markers that are used in Saudi Arabic, “qSdk and yʕny”, against Schourup’s characteristics of discourse markers which are connectivity, optionality, and non-truth conditionality. Additionally, this study investigates the pragmatic uses and procedural meanings of those discourse markers using Blakemore’s procedural meaning and relevance theory as a framework. By examining two discourse markers that received less attention in other studies, the current study builds on previous literature in this field. Regarding methodology, the current study is a corpus-based study in which two corpora containing texts written in Saudi Arabic are used to extract data and evidence. The study concludes that “qSdk and yʕny” behave as discourse markers by being optional, connecting two segments together, and having no influence on the truth condition of the sentence in which they are used. The discourse marker “qSdk” serves three procedural meanings: asking for clarification, correction and making irony whereas “yʕny” serves the procedural meanings of clarification and asking for clarification. Furthermore, the use of these discourse markers makes the sentence more relevant to listeners as they need less cognitive effect to derive the pragmatic meaning of the sentence.

scholarly journals The Pragmatic Analysis of the American TV Series’ Humorous Dialogues Based on the Perspective of Relevance Theory—Take the Example of the 2 Broken Girls

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 594
Author(s):  
Xiao Tang ◽  
Xin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis

<p><em>In this paper, we analyze the pragmatic analysis of the humorous dialogues of American TV series.</em><em> </em><em>And </em><em>b</em><em>ased on the theory of relevance theory, this paper analyzes and studies the dialogue in the TV series </em><em>“</em><em>broken sisters</em><em>”</em><em>, which aims to improve the understanding of American TV series.</em></p>

Pragmatic Analysis of the Particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murdhy R. Al-Shamari
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Propositional Content ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Najdi Arabic ◽  
Maxim Of Quality

<p>The ultimate goal of this paper is to investigate the pragmatic use of the particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic. To do just this, both Grice’s Theory of Conversation and the Relevance Theory (RT) are used. In addition to indicating the speaker’s personal certainty of his/her utterance, ʁadɪ is assumed to encode the speaker’s lack of positive evidence to confirm the propositional content of his/her utterance, nonetheless. For Grice, ʁadɪ generates an implicature due to flouting the maxim of Quality ‘Try to make your contribution one that is true’. As a result, the hearer does not repose the speaker’s confidence of his/her utterance. Differently, for RT, ʁadɪ manifests a procedural meaning. This type of meaning guides the hearer not to rely heavily on the speaker’s own certainty which is, in principle, driven by anecdotal (nor conclusive) evidence. Additionally, this paper concludes that ʁadɪ fares better within the general framework of RT which provides a more robust account of its semantic import and pragmatic usage.</p>

Constraining Explicit and Implicit Content by Means of a Norwegian Scalar Particle

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorstein Fretheim
Keyword(s):  
Scalar Particle ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Lexical Entry ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Code ◽  
The One ◽  
Lack Of Commitment ◽  
Inferential Processing

This study is a semantic and pragmatic analysis of the Norwegian right-detached particle så, which occurs exclusively with sentence fragments. The framework of description is relevance theory, a cognitively based theory of communication whose objective is to account for how we are able to understand utterances and to make ourselves understood, in spite of the fact that the linguistic code that we use vastly underdetermines what we mean, and even what we say in the strict sense (truth conditions). It is argued that så encodes a procedure for the addressee to follow in his inferential processing of the linguistic signal. The lexical entry for så contains an instruction to the addressee to contextually activate one or more positive propositions which resemble the one asserted by the utterance of the så-fragment, and to arrange them mentally on a scale whose lower bound is represented by the så-fragment proposition. The speaker implicitly communicates her lack of commitment to the more highly ranked propositions on the scale. The principle behind the scalar ranking is argued to be highly context-dependent.

“Well, that’s why I asked the question sir”: Well as a discourse marker in court

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRONWEN INNES
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
The Past ◽  
Discourse Coherence

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the use of well as a discourse marker in some New Zealand courtrooms. While well has been discussed by many in the past, the data have been selected mainly from small, friendly encounters of various kinds, including sociolinguistic interviews. The study reported on here looks at a very different situation that necessarily involves a range of relationships and includes both cooperative and adversarial activities. It confirms that explanations of well’s use focusing on single strands such as social indicators (e.g. gender) or discourse coherence are simplistic, a more fruitful account being afforded through a multi-pronged functional approach. Finally, the article considers the application of politeness and relevance theory.*

scholarly journals Pemaknaan Semula Sinonim Leksikal “Nepotisme” Berteraskan Data Korpus: Analisis Pragmatik/Synonym Meaning-making of Lexical “Nepotism” Based on Corpus Data: Pragmatic Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Aida Abdullah ◽  
Muhammad Zaid Daud
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Cross Reference

In the field of lexical semantics, synonym is one of the aspect that can classify some words that brings a same meaning. However, as a result of changing times and technology, some lexical generally has specific synonyms meaning-making as classified in lexicography also can have addition or abortion of the lexical equivalent. Therefore, this study, fully in qualitative form, was performed by applying text anylisis based on corpus data such as Pangkalan Data Korpus Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and Facebook. This study has analyzed the meaning-making for the synonym of “nepotism” based on the corpus data. In lexicography terms, lexical “nepotism” has a synonym meaning with lexical “cronyism” as both of these lexicals refer “an act or policy that concern or exaggerate their own relatives and friends” and “a policy that puts priority or concern more to their closed friends in the inauguration of a ministry, giving a project and others.” This synonym meaning-making has been applied into an authoritative theory of Bridging Cross Reference (BCR) by Kempson (1986) and Relevance Theory (RT) by Sperber and Wilson (1986; 1995). This make the meaning-making for the synonym lexical can be answered with high reliability. In conclusion, the findings of this study shows lexical ‘kabel’ or ‘cable’ is an additional synonym lexical with lexical ‘nepotism’ and ‘cronyism.’

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