scholarly journals How grammar grows out of social interaction: From multi-unit to single-unit question

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 837-864
Author(s):  
Simona Pekarek Doehler
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Single Unit ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Single Turn ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries

Abstract This article scrutinizes interactional motivations for the sedimentation of grammatical usage patterns. It investigates how multi-unit questioning turns may have routinized into a single-unit social action format. Multimodal sequential analysis of French conversational data identifies a recurrent pattern in which a question-word question is followed by a candidate answer (formally: [question-word question + phrase/clause]). The data show a continuum of synchronic usage, the pattern being implemented as either two or one turn-constructional unit(s), with intermediate cases displaying fuzzy boundaries. In usage (i), a candidate answer emerges in response to the recipient’s lack of uptake as a way of pursuing response; in (ii) the candidate answer occurs immediately after the question, with fuzzy prosodic boundaries between the two units; in (iii) the pattern is produced as a single turn-constructional unit, showing important lexico-syntactic and prosodic consistency. It is argued that the integrated format (iii) originates in the repeated interactional sequencing of two subsequent actions, as in (i), and serves as a resource for proffering a highly tentative guess: It is the routinized product of frequent combinations in use, emerging from the interactionally motivated two-unit format. The findings support an understanding of interaction as a driving force for the routinization of patterns of language use.

Displays of concession in university faculty meetings

Pragmatics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Saft
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
University Faculty ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
Faculty Meetings ◽  
Do So

In light of the tendency in studies of Japanese discourse and communication to account for patterns of social interaction in terms of cultural concepts such as wa (“harmony”), omoiyari (“empathy”), and enryo (“restraint”), this report sets out to demonstrate how much of an endogenously produced, local achievement social interaction can be in Japanese. To do so, the techniques and principles of conversation analysis are employed to describe how a particular social action, the expression of concession to statements of opposition, is produced by participants in a set of Japanese university faculty meetings. Although it is suggested that the very direct and explicit design of the concession displays could be explained in terms of concepts such as wa and/or enryo, it is nonetheless argued that the interactional significance of this action can be best understood by undertaking a detailed, sequential analysis of the interaction. The analysis itself is divided into two parts: First it is demonstrated that the concessions are products of the participants’ close attendance to and monitoring of the details of the unfolding interaction; second it is shown that instead of turning to pre-determined cultural concepts to account for the trajectory of the interaction, it is possible to understand the concession displays by situating them within the flow of the interaction itself.

Aaron Cicourel's contributions to language use, theory, method, and measurement

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (5-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Davies ◽  
Hugh Mehan
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Academic Careers ◽  
Theory Method ◽  
Healthcare Outcomes

AbstractAaron Cicourel's contributions to sociology and other disciplines are discussed. Cicourel brought to sociology the philosophical and linguistic principle that language plays an active role in creating and sustaining social interaction and social reality; Cicourel and his colleagues pioneered the use of videotape as an analytic tool, which enabled them to vividly illustrate the importance of organizational and interpersonal constraints on social interaction and communication. His empirical studies of healthcare and schooling uncovered linguistic and organizational practices that contribute to the assembly of steps on students' academic careers and patients' diagnoses, treatments, and healthcare outcomes. Cicourel's work provides a wealth of empirical evidence for the argument that there is a reflexive relationship between social structure and social action as displayed in language use.

Absent appreciation in Mandarin Chinese interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyan Liang
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Complete Sequence ◽  
Normative Expectation ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
The Social

When receiving something beneficial, interlocutors are expected to express their appreciation in the second pair part (SPP) or the sequence-closing third position with linguistic resources such as ‘thanks’ and ‘thank you’, thus forming an adjency pair or a complete sequence. However, under some circumstances, relevant or appropriate appreciation is expected but does not appear. Adopting conversation analysis as the research methodology, this article examines the absence of appreciation in ordinary Mandarin interactions where gratitude and appreciation are often socially prescribed. Its sequential analysis of talks demonstrates that at times a verbal appreciative response in situations such as offering and requesting does not occur until a later conversational turn rather than in the preferred second pair part, whereas at other times the social action, although expected, is actually absent in social interaction. The analysis of the data shows that when interlocutors transgress the normative expectation of appreciation, the expected pattern of action and interactional organisation will be evidenced circumstantially within the ongoing interaction itself. The present study proves that deviations from standard forms in the interactional organisation can give rise to additional accounts or other visible interactional behaviour.

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 Análisis observacional de la organización acerca de la persistencia en el trabajo académico en el aula, aplicando análisis de datos complementarios

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Santoyo Velasco ◽  
Gudberg Jonsson ◽  
María Teresa Anguera ◽  
José Antonio López-López
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Behavioral Observation ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Actual Distribution ◽  
Task Behavior ◽  
Polar Coordinate ◽  
On Task Behavior

<p>The aim of this study was to analyze the organization of on-task behavior in the classroom. Four observational methodology techniques—T-pattern detection, lag sequential analysis, trend analysis, and polar coordinate analysis—were used to study the organization of on-task and off-task behavioral patterns during class time in a primary school setting. The specific objective was to detect and explore relationships between on-task behavior and different social interaction categories in relation to the actual distribution of activities in a real-life classroom setting. The study was conducted using the behavioral observation system for social interaction SOC-IS and the software programs Theme (version 6, Edu), SDIS-GSEQ (version 4.1.2), HOISAN (version 1.6), and STATGRAPHICS (version 6). We describe the results obtained for the four techniques and discuss the methodological implications of combining complementary techniques in a single study.</p>

Linguistic units and their systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-300
Author(s):  
Ross Krekoski
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Formal Systems ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Self Reference

Abstract A theoretical discussion of units in linguistic theory would be, in a sense, incomplete without a discussion of the systems, whether overt or implied, that the units are associated with. This paper traces conceptualizations of units and their accompanying systems in several disciplines. We identify some important problems with rule-based accounts (Parsons 1937) of social action and discuss the transition to non-rule-based theory afforded by ethnomethodology (e.g. Garfinkel 1963, 1967; Heritage 1984, 2011). We draw direct parallels between these issues and analogous developments in mathematical logic (Gödel 1992) and philosophy of mind (Fodor 1968, 1983; Lucas 1961; Putnam 1960, 1967 etc.), and argue that these stem directly from fundamental properties of a class of all formal systems which permit self-reference. We argue that, since these issues are architectural in nature, linguistic theory which postulates that linguistic units are the outputs of a consistent, self-referential, rule-based formal systems (e.g. Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch 2002) will inevitably run into similar problems. This is further supported by examples from actual language use which, as a class, will elude any theoretical explanation grounded in such a system.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Pre-2019 General Elections Reports in Selected Nigerian Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 142-147
Author(s):  
Samuel Oyeyemi Agbeleoba ◽  
Edward Owusu ◽  
Asuamah Adade-Yeboah
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
News Reports ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Language Corpus ◽  
Different Levels

Generally, language experts believe that there are inherent ideologies in language use. The aspect of discourse study that discloses such ideologies is known as Critical Discourse Study (CDA). This paper seeks to exhume the various inherent ideologies that presuppose selected news reports on the Nigeria’s 2019 General Elections in Nigerian newspapers. This study is, however, corpus-based. Scholars have established that discourse is a kind of constructively conditioned public exercise. They believe that power relations exist at different levels of daily social interaction; revealing superiority or inferiority of interlocutors involved. News reports relating to the General Elections were electronically collated from the various newspaper platforms for a sizable language corpus. The name Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was selected and analysed purposively with the aid of Digital Humanities (DH) tool to observe the frequency of the acronym INEC and the textual context in which it occurs in five newspapers’ reports about the electoral body via the authority it gives; the warning it issues, and the appeal it makes to the stakeholders. The paper finds out that the negative perceptions of many observers about the elections have actually been predicted by the various reports in the newspapers, prior to the elections. The paper concludes that reporters of news items do not account for issues concerning electoral body with the same constructive and destructive dispositions; and this gives room for subjectivity and prejudice.

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