Argumentative use of reported speech in British newspaper discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alla Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
British Press ◽  
The Way

AbstractA reported utterance cannot be incorporated into the new discourse without undergoing certain transformations and losing some of its initial properties. Decision of representing or omitting information on certain aspects of the quoted utterance is not arbitrary, and this choice is subordinated to the writer's goals. In argumentative discourse the overall aim of convincing the addressee determines the way reported speech is presented to the readers. The present work analyzes those features of other discourses which are reproduced in argumentative discourse of the quality British press. Research revealed that of the six linguistic levels characterizing the initial utterance (phonetic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and rhetorical), journalists choose only those relevant for the argumentative function the quotation performs. When reported speech is used as the thesis, the writer retains maximum control of the quotation by reproducing fewer levels, and focusing mainly on global semantics and pragmatics. When reported speech is used as an argument, the journalist, on the contrary, aims to show minimum control of the quoted utterance to increase its argumentative credibility. This is achieved by detailed reproduction of local semantics, lexica, and syntax of the quotation.

Conceptual metaphors in press headlines on globalisation

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Honesto Herrera-Soler
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
The Press ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
The Subject ◽  
British Press ◽  
National Stereotypes ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy ◽  
The Way ◽  
Cultural Frames

The systematic use of metaphor and metonymy in economics discourse facilitates reading and widens the scope of our understanding in the globalisation domain. The importance of metaphor in conveying ideology has been highlighted since Lakoff and Johnson (1980:34) and recent studies have shown in detail how ideology, particularly in press discourse, underlies conceptual metaphors (Hawkins 2001; White and Herrera-Soler 2003). The aim of this article is to identify and contrast the conceptual metaphors underlying the metaphorical expressions found on internet editions throughout 2003 in Spanish and British press headlines dealing with the subject of globalisation. Findings show that though the meaning of globalisation seems to be elusive, the perspectivation metaphor provides a good understanding of the way the press handles pro- and anti-globalisation headlines. On the grounds of cultural frames such as national stereotypes and economies, and newspaper ideology, no significant differences are found between the languages at the conceptual level. Nevertheless, important differences arise by virtue of culture specific imagery and value-judgements occasionally show a markedly cultural realisation.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Portner
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
General Definition ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
The Way

This chapter develops a framework for trying to understand the nature of mood from the perspective of semantics and pragmatics. It introduces the concept of mood and its subtypes in an intuitive way, and gives a general definition which aims to capture what is essential to the way it figures in both descriptive and theoretical studies of language. It explains the relation between mood and the broader category of modality, and provides essential background on the theories of modality, speech acts, and discourse semantics which will be the frameworks for theories of mood discussed in later chapters.

Pragmalinguistic challenges for trainee interpreters in achieving accuracy

Interpreting ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Xin Liu
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
South Wales ◽  
High Level ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

Abstract In cross-examination, questions are used by counsel as powerful tools to control witness testimonies. In bilingual courtrooms, conveying the subtlety in the use of questions from one language to another is crucial for all participants. However, achieving a high level of accuracy is extremely demanding due to the intricacy of courtroom discourse and the complexity of interpreting in such an institutional setting. Drawing on a moot court exercise at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, this study investigates the most common pragmalinguistic challenges for trainee interpreters in achieving accuracy when interpreting cross-examination questions from English to Mandarin. Findings show that it can be challenging to produce pragmatically accurate renditions: Mandarin interpretations have an overall weakened illocutionary force compared to the original English questions. In particular, declaratives, reported speech declaratives, modal interrogatives, and tag questions are found to be difficult to interpret into Mandarin. This paper also explores the way the illocutionary force of the interpreted questions deviates from the original and the possible causes for this shift. Findings point to the need to enhance pragmatic competence among trainee interpreters, which in turn will require specialised training for interpreters working in legal settings.

scholarly journals The syntax, semantics and pragmatics of ‘optional’ wh-in situ in Greek

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-131
Author(s):  
Christos Vlachos ◽  
Michalis Chiou
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
The Way

Abstract Building on the relevant literature, this paper provides an up-to-now missing overarching approach to ‘optional’ wh-in situ questions in Greek, by arguing that some properties of wh-in situ are computed at the interface between syntax and semantics, other properties relate to the syntax-pragmatics interface, and yet others are derived at the interface between PF and pragmatics. Wh-in situ is not semantically (hence, syntactically) equivalent to wh-fronting, with the latter being the default strategy of Greek on empirical grounds. Wh-in situ assumes distinct syntax and semantics, while its pragmatics is computed partly by the way it is associated to the discourse, and partly by intonation.

scholarly journals Informacja pragmatyczna w słowniku ortoepicznym. Stan obecny i potrzeby

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-74
Author(s):  
Dorota Zdunkiewicz-Jedynak
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Pragmatic Aspect ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Way

For language users, language is a certain continuum along which the boundary between semantics and pragmatics blurs and where phenomena from both planes are related to the concept of language norm (linguistic standard, literary norm) and the proper use of linguistic units is not limited to complying with the rules of grammar or respecting their strict meaning. An important component of the proper use of language is the pragmatically adequate selection of the available language means. The question of a methodological nature is the way in which pragmatic information is introduced to such lexicons. Traditionally, usage labels are used for this purpose. Sometimes, however, in order for an orthoepic dictionary to really fulfi l its function, pragmatic information should be presented in a more descriptive, narrative manner. The pragmatic aspect of the language norm can be described in a dictionary not only in the “pragmatic tabs” of specifi c entries but it can also be captured comprehensively, as a “theoretical article” relating either to the pragmatic properties of certain word categories (e.g. diminutives, children’s vocabulary, metaphors relating to people). Keywords: pragmatics – orthoepic dictionary – language norm – correctness

Pictures, Communication, and Meaning

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
John Kulvicki
Keyword(s):  
Specific Aspect ◽  
Subsequent Chapter ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides an overview of the project. Pictures are used for communication, and the way they do this sheds light on their syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Pictures can have attributive and singular contents in many different ways. All of these pictorial meanings are built on a foundation of pictorial character and pictorial content. Unpacking these various meanings constitutes the meaning thread of the book, which is most prominent in Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6. In addition, it is impossible to understand the communicative uses to which pictures are put without understanding how pictures have meaningful parts, the focus of Chapters 3, 7, and 8. This chapter sketches both the meaning thread and the parts thread as a way of helping keep the whole project in view, while each subsequent chapter winds up being focused on a specific aspect of it.

scholarly journals Asking and answering: A contrastive study of English and Swedish basic communication verbs

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 180-212
Author(s):  
Åke Viberg
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Conceptual Network ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Way

This article presents a contrastive study of the English verbs ask and answer and their Swedish correspondents based on data from the English Swedish Parallel Corpus (ESPC), which is bi-directional and contains Swedish and English original texts and their corresponding translations. As a background, a short overview is given of Verbal Communication Verbs (VCVs) in general with brief discussions of speech act theory (Searle), direct and reported speech and conceptual frames (FrameNet) and their syntactic realizations. The contrastive study is concerned with networks of polysemy and the relationships of various senses with differing syntactic realizations across languages. The senses of ask are primarily distributed between two verbs in Swedish: fråga ‘ask a question’ and be ‘request (politely)’ but even some verbs with more specific meanings are involved. The concept of answering forms a conceptual network which is similar in English and Swedish but contrasts with respect to the way meanings are divided up between various verbs. English has a number of verbs such as answer, reply, respond, correspond, retort and rejoin, whereas Swedish to a great extent relies on one verb (svara) and its morphological derivations: besvara, ansvara, motsvara, försvara. In the Conclusion, pedagogical applications of the study are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Reported speech in Kakabe: Loose syntax with flexible indexicality

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nikitina ◽  
Alexandra Vydrina
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Speech Reports ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation ◽  
The Way

AbstractMainstream approaches to the typology of reported discourse have been based on the notion of a direct-indirect continuum: reported speech constructions are traditionally analyzed as conforming to or deviating from the “ideals” of European direct and indirect speech. This study argues that continuum-based approaches fail to distinguish between two dimensions of variation that are systematically discriminated in a number of African languages and should therefore be treated separately. First, different constructions can be recruited for speech reporting, ranging from paratactic to subordinate structures. Second, languages differ in the way pronouns in speech reports are interpreted. In European languages two different deictic strategies are associated with different syntactic types of speech report (‘indirect’ and ‘direct’ deixis is correlated with subordination and parataxis, respectively). In Kakabe, we argue, the choice of pronominal values is independent of the construction’s syntax. Dissociating the construction’s structural properties from the behavior of indexicals allows us to describe the Kakabe strategies of speech reporting as well as account for the seemingly puzzling behavior of reported commands. Our data shows that speech reporting strategies of Kakabe should be treated as a type in its own right: a type characterized by loose syntax and flexible pronominal indexicality.

Reconstructing misinterpretation and misrepresentation through represented talk in Korean conversation

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Shin Kim
Keyword(s):  
Reported Speech ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Current Interaction ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
The Way

AbstractDrawing from a corpus of telephone and face-to-face Korean conversational data, this study investigates cases of represented talk (RT) that routinely occur in second position as a response to a prior turn that the speaker finds problematic and in need of repair. The speaker finds problems in the way the recipient interprets or represents certain events, situations, or the interlocutors themselves, and the speaker seeks to rectify these (mis)conceptions and (mis)representations through RT. The speaker reports a former locution, which demonstrates the recipient’s understanding to be incorrect or insufficient. At such delicate interactional junctures, the speaker begins a quote as direct reported speech (DRS) and closes the same quote as indirect reported speech (IRS). The unique design of combining DRS and IRS allows Korean speakers to negotiate what to show (DRS) and what to tell (IRS) according to the importance and relevance of the current interaction and current recipients. The study further discusses why this particular design of RT is readily observed in Korean conversation and how it fits within its interactional task of reconstructing matters according to the speaker’s perspective.

scholarly journals Border Crossings

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-152
Author(s):  
Lynda Mugglestone
Keyword(s):  
Time Use ◽  
Language Barriers ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Indian English ◽  
British Press

This chapter examines Andrew Clark’s exploration of language and language barriers in war-time use, and the border crossings that words often revealed. French, Belgian, Russian, Indian English, and German (among others) all attracted his attention. As he explored, articles and advertisements in the British press appeared in Flemish or French, directly addressing the shifting constitution of the Home Front in the wake of war. Clark’s interest in Indian English is richly documented. French, in particular, claimed a topical currency, infusing trench slang (and reported speech) alongside popular reportage. In contrast, distinctive forms of logophobia with reference to German as the language of the enemy generated a set of highly divisive language tactics in which linguistic and moral inversion were intentionally aligned.

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