Functional logical semiotics of natural language

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Odrowąż-Sypniewska
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Semantic Minimalism ◽  
Grammatical Sentence

Abstract In the first part of my paper I briefly present Jerzy Pelc’s functional approach to logical semiotics of natural language. This approach focuses on the use of natural language expressions and on its dependence on context and conversational situation. One of the important goals of this analysis is to appreciate the role of sentences in natural language and stress that it is by means of sentences that language fulfills its main roles. However, for Pelc almost any expression can be used as a sentence, despite not being a grammatical sentence. In the second part I try to place Pelc’s standpoint within the framework of contemporary semantic minimalism – contextualism debate. I pay special attention to his treatment of subsentential expressions used to express propositions and argue that his view belongs to pragmatics-oriented approaches to subsentential speech acts.

How Does Motivational Interviewing Work? What Client Talk Reveals

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Amrhein
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Motivational Interviewing ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
The Status ◽  
Mediational Role

A psycholinguistic account of motivational interviewing (MI) is proposed. Critical to this view is the assumption that therapists and clients are natural language users engaged in a constructive conversation that reveals and augments relevant information about the status of future change in a client’s substance abuse. The role of client speech acts—most notably, verbal commitments—during MI is highlighted. How commitments can be signaled in client speech or gestures is discussed. How these commitment signals can inform therapeutic process and subsequent behavioral outcome is then put forth. Using natural language as a measure, a MI process model is presented that not only posits a mediational role for client commitment in relating underlying factors of desire, ability (self-efficacy), need, and reasons to behavior, but also a pivotal role as a need-satisfying enabler of a social-cognitive mechanism for personal change.

The manner of use, the uses and sub-uses of terms in social sciences: from the functional approach to natural language to applied semiotics and the philosophy of science

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Roman Węsierski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
The One ◽  
New Research ◽  
Language Context

Abstract The functional approach to natural language (FANL) emerged in the late 1960s. It focused on the use and the sub-use of language expressions, taking into account role of the language context and the extra-linguistic situation of a given statements. This approach referred, both conceptually and methodologically, to the tradition of British analytical philosophy of language on the one hand, and to the achievements of the Lvov-Warsaw School on the other. It seems that despite the passage of more than half a century since its inception, this approach has lost nothing of its relevance and its cognitive value, and may even provide inspiration for the exploration new research areas concerning the formulation of language utterances. The aim of this article is to show the potential applications of the FANL as a specific semiotic concept in the field of the philosophy of social sciences. The paper points out how the functional conception can be successfully used in methodological analyses of the logical methodology of social sciences. The case studies presented in the article refer to the research practice of social sciences. Examples of the use and sub-uses of terms are discussed in the light of the polyparadigmatic structure of social sciences and the differences in research patterns accepted by given scientific collectives.

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATIVE AND FUNCTIONAL APPROACH IN THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LITERATURE (Ukrainian — German discourse)

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (27) ◽  
pp. 68-74
Author(s):  
Svitlana Gruschko
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Communication Structure ◽  
Technical Literature ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Purposeful Activity

The article investigates the role of communicative-functional approach in the translation of scientific and technical literature, when the translation itself is seen as a tool to accomplish purposeful activity of communicators, representatives of different interlingual groups. In practical terms, the difficulties of translating scientific and technical texts are due to the peculiarities of scientific style, insufficient understanding of the terminology of a particular field of knowledge, which complicates the choice of adequate translation solutions. In this context, an important role is played by the translation strategy, where the communicativefunctional approach dominates. The translation is implicitly included in the communication structure between the author and the recipient. The relevance of the article is determined by the necessity of studying the problems of scientific and technical literature translation, taking into account the current realities of interlanguage information exchange. Key words: communicative-functional approach, interlingual communication, translation, structure

The Role of Cognitive Patterns in Modelling Reality by Means of Natural Language (The Case Study of the English Cognitive Pattern “Cleanness / Dirtiness”)

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Savitskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Cognitive Patterns ◽  
Cognitive Pattern ◽  
The World ◽  
Internal Comparison

In the field of cognitive linguistics it is accepted that, before developing its capacity for abstract and theoretical thought, the human mind went through the stage of reflecting reality through concrete images and thus has inherited old cognitive patterns. Even abstract notions of the modern civilization are based on traditional concrete images, and it is all fixed in natural language units. By way of illustration, the author analyzes the cognitive pattern “сleanness / dirtiness” as a constituent part of the English linguoculture, looking at the whole range of its verbal realization and demonstrating its influence on language-based thinking and modeling of reality. Comparing meanings of language units with their inner forms enabled the author to establish the connection between abstract notions and concrete images within cognitive patterns. Using the method of internal comparison and applying the results of etymological reconstruction of language units’ inner form made it possible to see how the world is viewed by representatives of the English linguoculture. Apparently, in the English linguoculture images of cleanness / dirtiness symbolize mainly two thematic areas: that of morality and that of renewal. Since every ethnic group has its own axiological dominants (key values) that determine the expressiveness of verbal invectives, one can draw the conclusion that people perceive and comprehend world fragments through the prism of mental stereo-types fixed in the inner form of language units. Sometimes, in relation to specific language units, a conflict arises between the inner form which retains traditional thinking and a meaning that reflects modern reality. Still, linguoculture is a constantly evolving entity, and its de-velopment entails breaking established stereotypes and creating new ones. Linguistically, the victory of the new over the old is manifested in the “dying out” of the verbal support for pre-vious cognitive patterns, which leads to “reprogramming” (“recoding”) of linguoculture rep-resentatives’ mentality.

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

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
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.

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>

Surface-marker-based dialog modelling: A progress report on the MAREDI project

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-363
Author(s):  
SYLVAIN DELISLE ◽  
BERNARD MOULIN ◽  
TERRY COPECK
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Progress Report ◽  
Surface Marker ◽  
Simplified Model ◽  
Surface Markers ◽  
Connectionist Network ◽  
Current State

Most information systems that deal with natural language texts do not tolerate much deviation from their idealized and simplified model of language. Spoken dialog is notoriously ungrammatical, however. Because the MAREDI project focuses in particular on the automatic analysis of scripted dialogs, we needed to develop a robust capacity to analyze transcribed spoken language. This paper summarizes the current state of our work. It presents the main elements of our approach, which is based on exploiting surface markers as the best route to the semantics of the conversation modelled. We highlight the foundations of our particular conversational model, and give an overview of the MAREDI system. We then discuss its three key modules, a connectionist network to recognise speech acts, a robust syntactic analyzer, and a semantic analyzer.

scholarly journals ‘You dribble faster than Messi and jump higher than Jordan’: The art of complimenting and praising in political discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohar Kampf ◽  
Roni Danziger
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Communities

Abstract Communicating admiration and appreciation in public discourse are two important tasks for political actors who wish to secure relationships and advance models for civic behavior. Our goal in this study is to understand how political actors signal their desire to please addressees and advance political sociability by way of manifesting positive judgment towards others. On the basis of 241 utterances praising and complimenting others’ words and deeds, we identify the topics, patterns, and functions of these speech acts and the processes and struggles they evoke in Israeli public discourse. We conclude by discussing the role of positive evaluations in demarcating the boundaries of proper conduct in political communities and the ways the distinctive logic of politics is integrated with specific cultural speaking styles in influencing how members of the Israeli political community signal their appreciation and affect for other members’ skills, performances, and personalities.

World Englishes, Pragmatics, and Discourse

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamuna Kachru
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Unique Site ◽  
Selection Of

The central role of English in cross-cultural communication worldwide has made it a unique site for understanding diversity in systems of discourse pragmatics. In contact situations, these differences can help to refine theoretical models, such as the question of how universal speech acts or properties of facework and politeness are. They can also have significant real-world implications in the form of cross-cultural (mis-) communication in globalized contexts. This chapter reviews a selection of examples of speech acts and politeness in World Englishes contexts that use theoretical models to account for variation, but in some instances also challenge elements of such models. The discussion also includes a consideration of variation in surface form as well as variation in discourse other than conversational speech, such as written genres.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document