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

Author(s):  
Philip Davies ◽  
Hugh Mehan

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.

Author(s):  
Aviv Nof ◽  
Tohar Dolev ◽  
Liat Leibovich ◽  
Judith Harel ◽  
Sigal Zilcha-Mano

Safran and Muran’s classic theoretical framework of alliance rupture and repair suggests effective techniques for repairing alliance ruptures. Accumulating empirical evidence suggests that successful processes of rupture and repair result in better therapeutic outcome and reduced dropout rates. Although ruptures in the alliance in child psychotherapy are frequent, little is known about how to repair them. The present paper proposes a model for identifying and repairing ruptures in child psychotherapy based on Safran and Muran. It consists of four phases: i) identifying the rupture and understanding its underlying communication message, ii) indicating the presence of the rupture, iii) accepting responsibility over the therapists’ part in the rupture and emphasizing the children’s active role as communicators of their distress, and iv) resolving the rupture using change strategies and meta-communication by constructing a narrative story. The theoretical rationale of each phase is explained in detail, and practical clinical guidelines are provided. Empirical studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen D. Grimshaw

AbstractWhile studies of written text continue to engage students from a number disciplines, investigations of naturally occurring talk have increased exponentially in the last decade. This paper reports on such an investigation, comprehensive discourse analysis of talk among professional peers (in a doctoral dissertation defense), attending to an instance of problematic communication and to some possible implications and interpretations of such nonsuccesses in social interaction. The method employed is an adaptation Labov and Fanshel. (Communicative nonsuccess, comprehensive discourse analysis, interaction among professional peers, naturally occurring talk, social structure, and language use.)


Author(s):  
Jos Hornikx ◽  
Frank van Meurs

When targeting consumers on a global scale, companies make strategic use of languages in their advertising campaigns. This chapter presents an overview of theories and research regarding the effectiveness of the use of foreign languages (foreign language display, FLD) in advertising. The aim is to bring together theories and empirical studies from various domains, and to show principled explanations for the effectiveness of FLD from two perspectives. The first, psycholinguistic perspective examines the way in which foreign languages in advertising are mentally processed; the second, sociolinguistic perspective links the foreign language use to characteristics of the country where the foreign language is typically spoken. This chapter presents empirical evidence for the benefits and drawbacks of FLD, and identifies areas for further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 837-864
Author(s):  
Simona Pekarek Doehler

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.


2017 ◽  
pp. 952-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Hornikx ◽  
Frank van Meurs

When targeting consumers on a global scale, companies make strategic use of languages in their advertising campaigns. This chapter presents an overview of theories and research regarding the effectiveness of the use of foreign languages (foreign language display, FLD) in advertising. The aim is to bring together theories and empirical studies from various domains, and to show principled explanations for the effectiveness of FLD from two perspectives. The first, psycholinguistic perspective examines the way in which foreign languages in advertising are mentally processed; the second, sociolinguistic perspective links the foreign language use to characteristics of the country where the foreign language is typically spoken. This chapter presents empirical evidence for the benefits and drawbacks of FLD, and identifies areas for further research.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xunbing Shen

Microexpressions do exist, and they are regarded as valid cues to deception by many researchers, furthermore, there is a lot of empirical evidence which substantiates this claim. However, some researchers don’t think the microexpression can be a way to catch a liar. The author elucidates the theories predicting that looking for microexpressions can be a way to catch a liar, and notes that some data can support for the utilization of microexpressions as a good way to detect deception. In addition, the author thinks that the mixed results in the area of investigating microexpressions and deception detection may be moderated by the stake. More empirical studies which employ high-stake lies to explore the relationship between microexpressions and deception detection are needed.


Author(s):  
Avner Baz

The chapter argues that empirical studies of first-language acquisition lend support to the Wittgensteinian-Merleau-Pontian conception of language as against the prevailing conception that underwrites the method of cases in either its armchair or experimental version. It offers a non-representationalist model, inspired by the work of Michael Tomasello, for the acquisition of “knowledge,” with the aim of showing that we could fully account for the acquisition of this and other philosophically troublesome words without positing independently existing “items” to which these words refer. The chapter also aims at bringing out and underscoring the striking fact that, whereas many in contemporary analytic philosophy regard and present themselves as open and attentive to empirical science, they have often relied on a conception of language that has been supported by no empirical evidence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Klich ◽  
Rafał Łopucki ◽  
Marta Gałązka ◽  
Agnieszka Ścibior ◽  
Dorota Gołębiowska ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Captive European bison (Bison bonasus) play an active role in conservation measures for this species; this includes education, which may conflict with these animals’ welfare. The effect of the presence of visitors on the welfare of captive animals can be negative, positive or neutral. However, the response of a given species to visitors is difficult to predict, since even closely related species display varying levels of tolerance to captivity. The aim of the study was to compare immunoreactive fecal cortisol levels (regarded as an indicator of the level of physiological stress) in groups of captive European bison that differed in terms of their social structure and the level of visitor pressure. The second aim was to determine if there was a correlation between intestinal parasitic burden and immunoreactive fecal cortisol levels. Results Immunoreactive fecal cortisol levels were not influenced by sex or age. However, study site and the interaction between study site and visitor pressure were statistically significant. European bison in one enclosure presented higher levels of immunoreactive fecal cortisol on weekdays than at weekends. In the other two study sites, the levels did not differ between weekdays and weekends. No correlation was found between parasitological infestation and immunoreactive fecal cortisol levels. Conclusions Measurement of fecal cortisol metabolites could be a valuable method for further research into the welfare of European bison in captivity. More subtle factors such as individual animal characteristics, feeding systems, and the arrangement of enclosures can be of great importance in terms of the effect of visitors on animals. The results of this study can be used in guidelines for the management of European bison populations.


2022 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-84

Many mathematics educators believe a goal of instruction is for students to obtain conviction and certainty in mathematical statements using the same types of evidence that mathematicians do. However, few empirical studies have examined how mathematicians use proofs to obtain conviction and certainty. We report on a study in which 16 advanced mathematics doctoral students were given a task-based interview in which they were presented with various sources of evidence in support of a specific mathematical claim and were asked how convinced they were that the claim was true after reviewing this evidence. In particular, we explore why our participants retained doubts about our claim after reading its proof and how they used empirical evidence to reduce those doubts.


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