What's in a dialogic construction? A constructional approach to polysemy and the grammar of challenge

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiki Nikiforidou ◽  
Sophia Marmaridou ◽  
George K. Mikros
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Textual Cues ◽  
Lexical Polysemy

AbstractIn this paper we address lexical polysemy in a constructional perspective, arguing that each of the conversational meanings we identify for Modern Greek ela (2nd person singular imperative of the verb erxome ‘come’) is appropriately modeled as a conceptual gestalt of formal (including prosodic) and semantic-pragmatic properties. In turn-initial position, ela is used to challenge a preceding utterance; we show that the variations in the kind of challenge expressed are systematically tied to the word that follows ela, the speech act force and the sentence type of the preceding utterance, and finally prosodic and textual cues. To the extent that these varieties of conversational challenge are conditioned by particular contextual features, we treat them as a family of related constructions whose common features can be captured in the form of a generalized ela construction abstracted from the different sub-patterns. Our analysis thus demonstrates the appropriateness of a constructional framework for dealing with the different kinds of parameters involved in dialogic meaning and strongly suggests that at least some of the variation inherent in discourse is amenable to a grammatical description, so that sentence-level and supra-clause patterns can be analyzed in a uniform way.

Theme in discourse

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Crompton
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Argumentative Text ◽  
Thematic Progression ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Point Of Departure

Fries (1981) hypothesises that the textual phenomena of ‘thematic progression’ (TP) (Danesˇ 1974) and ‘method of development’ (MOD) provide discourse evidence for the function proposed by Halliday (1967) for Theme, in particular that ‘initial position in the sentence, or sentence-level Theme, means “point of departure of the sentence as message”‘. This paper discusses the theoretical basis for this hypothesis, in particular the relation between TP and MOD, and reviews previous empirical research. Further research conducted by the author is described, into global proportions of TP, TP patterning, and the relation between TP and rhematic progression (RP) in a small corpus of 80 short argumentative texts. It was found that only small proportions of either argumentative text, or high-quality argumentative text could be considered as having a MOD. It was also found that texts had comparable levels of TP and RP. It is concluded that MOD is not a universal feature of discourse organisation, and therefore not conclusive evidence for Fries’s original hypothesis.

scholarly journals The Speech Act of Threat in Various Communicative Situations

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
Elena Yurina ◽  
Svetlana Doronina
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Continuous Sampling ◽  
Common Features

The paper attempts to identify common features characteristic of the expression of a threat in different communicative situations, as well as to describe the circumstances affecting the choice of certain language means to express threat. The direct and indirect forms of speech aggression seen as threat are studied in four spheres: political, business, everyday vernacular and mass media. We used data obtained by the method of continuous sampling from the Internet as material for the study: screenshots of personal correspondence, posts on social networks, photographs of paper media. In all these data, the speech act of the threat is recorded in writing and represents a threat-warning.

scholarly journals Utilization Of The Direct And Indirect Speech Act Of Assertion By The Sentence Types

2018 ◽  
Vol 216 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Samir Jamal Ibraheem
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Pragmatic Theory ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Communicative Act ◽  
Indirect Speech Act ◽  
Shed Light

   Tackling any text, e.g. political one, without pragmatic theory constitutes a real problem in the communicative act. the need to shed light on distinctive rules concerning the speech act of assertion is crucial. So this study is concerned with how to establish a model of expressing the speech act of assertion, whether direct or indirect, by using the sentence types of declarative, interrogative, or imperative sentences. Since this utilization highly overlaps with other speech acts as command, obligation, permission, ability, etc. Therefore, this research attempts to answer the following questions: 1- Can this study formulate a model for analysing the speech act of assertion, and on which bases it can be established? 2- How to formulate Felicity conditions for the speech act of assertion? 3- Whether speech act of assertion can be successfully applied to political  speeches? 4- Which sentence type can typically express the direct speech act of assertion? 5- Could other sentence types indicate the speech act of assertion?

scholarly journals The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh Shiamizadeh ◽  
Johanneke Caspers ◽  
Niels O. Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Frequency Code ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

AbstractIt has been reported that prosody contributes to the identification of utterances which lack lexico-syntactic indicators of interrogativity but do have characteristic prosodic correlates (e.g. Vion and Colas 2006. Pitch cues for the recognition of yes-no questions in French. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research 35. 427–445). In Persian wh-in-situ questions, the interrogativity device (the wh-phrase) does not move to the sentence-initial position, and the pre-wh part is characterized by specific prosodic correlates (Shiamizadeh et al. 2016. Do Persian native speakers prosodically mark wh-in-situ questions? Manuscript submitted for publication). The current experiment investigates the role of prosody in the perception of Persian wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives. To this end, an experiment was designed in which Persian native speakers were asked to choose the correct sentence type after hearing only the pre-wh part of a sentence. We hypothesized that prosody guides perception of wh-in-situ questions independent of wh-phrase type. The results of the experiment corroborate our hypothesis. The outcome is discussed in terms of Ohala´s frequency code, and Bolinger´s claim about the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other hand.

The Alcaic Odes of Horace and Greek Poems of the Early 20th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 149-170
Author(s):  
Hisham A. Darwish
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Shed Light

SummaryThis article is concerned with shedding light on two examples of influence between Horace and the Greek poets, both ancient and modern. The aim of this paper is to shed light on several parallel aspects between two of the Alcaic odes of Horace and two modern Greek lyric poems by Constantine Cavafy and Angelos Sikelianos, respectively. Subsequently, I show, within the wider framework of inter-textuality, a subtle example of the utilization and re-utilization of lyric elements that are originally ancient Greek in nature by the Latin and modern Greek poets. In my argumentation, I will rely on textual similarities, as well as on the views expressed by scholars in non-comparative contexts The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, I compare Horace’s carm. 2. 3 with Cavafy’s Ithaka. The most important points of comparison in this section are three common features: instructive tone, the epicurean tendency and the melancholic end. In the second, I compare Horace’s carm. 1. 37 with Sikelianos’ Dithyramb. The most important points of comparison in this section are three common features, namely, the connection of the Bacchic ecstasy to political issues, the connection of the Dionysiac spirit to the struggle against the national enemy and the association of Bacchic frenzy with hunting and chase.

Variably future-marked conditionals in Greek

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiki Nikiforidou ◽  
Rena Torres Cacoullos
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Temporal Reference ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Future Temporal Reference

It has been proposed that future-marked conditionals have discourse-pragmatic functions other than future temporal reference (Comrie 1982, Fillmore 1990, Dancygier & Sweetser 2005). Through a corpus-based multivariate analysis we show that future-marked conditionals in Greek are associated with speech-act conditional uses and correlate systematically with formal contextual features of polarity and subject-person and form. We argue that some of these associations are entrenched enough to warrant constructional status and that the data support the emergence of specific conditional constructions, on a continuum between fixed formulas and schematic or more productive constructions, defined by particular tense-aspect combinations, preferred lexical fillers, and specialized functions, which are really of a discoursal nature. We suggest that construction grammar provides an appropriate framework for integrating discourse-pragmatic conventions, not merely semantics, into grammatical theory; we further propose some attributes and values that may be used for this purpose.

scholarly journals WISHES AS A SPEECH ACT IN MODERN GREEK

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (48) ◽  
pp. 88-91
Author(s):  
Yu. Kior ◽  
N. Kobylenko
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Modern Greek

scholarly journals Partial Truths: Adults Choose to Mention Agents and Patients in Proportion to Informativity, Even If It Doesn’t Fully Disambiguate the Message

Open Mind ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Melissa Kline ◽  
Laura Schulz ◽  
Edward Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Sentence Level

How do we decide what to say to ensure our meanings will be understood? The Rational Speech Act model (RSA; Frank & Goodman, 2012 ) asserts that speakers plan what to say by comparing the informativity of words in a particular context. We present the first example of an RSA model of sentence-level (who-did-what-to-whom) meanings. In these contexts, the set of possible messages must be abstracted from entities in common ground (people and objects) to possible events (Jane eats the apple, Marco peels the banana), with each word contributing unique semantic content. How do speakers accomplish the transformation from context to compositional, informative messages? In a communication game, participants described transitive events (e.g., Jane pets the dog), with only two words, in contexts where two words either were or were not enough to uniquely identify an event. Adults chose utterances matching the predictions of the RSA even when there was no possible fully “successful” utterance. Thus we show that adults’ communicative behavior can be described by a model that accommodates informativity in context, beyond the set of possible entities in common ground. This study provides the first evidence that adults’ language production is affected, at the level of argument structure, by the graded informativity of possible utterances in context, and suggests that full-blown natural speech may result from speakers who model and adapt to the listener’s needs.

scholarly journals Partial Truths: Adults choose to mention agents and patients in proportion to informativity, even if it doesn’t fully disambiguate the message (Kline, Schulz & Gibson)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Kline ◽  
Laura Schulz ◽  
Edward Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Sentence Level

How do we decide what to say to ensure our meanings will be understood? The Rational Speech Act model (RSA, Frank & Goodman, 2012) asserts that speakers plan what to say by comparing the informativity of words in a particular context. We present the first example of an RSA model of sentence level (who-did-what-to-whom) meanings. In these contexts, the set of possible messages must be abstracted from entities in common ground (people and objects) to possible events (Jane eats the apple, Marco peels the banana), with each word contributing unique semantic content. How do speakers accomplish the transformation from context to compositional, informative messages? In a communication game, participants described transitive events (e.g. Jane pets the dog), with only two words, in contexts where two words either were or were not enough to uniquely identify an event. Adults chose utterances matching the predictions of the RSA even when there was no possible fully 'successful' utterance. Thus we show that adults’ communicative behavior can be described by a model that accommodates informativity in context, beyond the set of possible entities in common ground. This study provides the first evidence that adults' language production is affected, at the level of argument structure, by the graded informativity of possible utterances in context, and suggests that full- blown natural speech may result from speakers who model and adapt to the listener’s needs.

How native speakers of Japanese try to sound polite

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-155
Author(s):  
Chiharu Tsurutani ◽  
Shuju Shi
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Phonetic Cues ◽  
Polite Speech

Abstract This study examines phonetic cues used to express politeness in spoken Japanese. The tasks of producing polite and non-polite speech in two different types of sentences (a question and a polite imperative) and in attitudinal speech (a request and a decline) were used to examine various F0 and temporal aspects of polite speech. Eight sentences spoken by 18 native speakers were acoustically measured at both sentence level and sentence final mora level. It was found that Japanese native speakers generally use a slower speech rate and a breathy voice for polite speech, but not necessarily a high pitched voice or wider pitch range, even in the case of female speakers. The use of pitch was found to be attitude dependent, but was not affected by the sentence type. Clear gender differences were seen in various phonetic aspects. Some politeness strategies observed at individual level are also reported.

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