scholarly journals Lithuanian and English request strategies and politeness

2009 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Inga Hilbig

  Requests are among the most studied speech acts in the area of interactional pragmatics and linguistic politeness. Empirical studies have proliferated over the past decades; however, although requests in many Western languages, including English, have received significant attention, this paper is the very first attempt to explore request strategies in Lithuanian. The research is based on an assumption about three main universal directness levels in requests as well as on a distinction between positive (closeness, solidarity) and negative (distance, deference) politeness systems. The data has been collected by means of the Discourse Completion Test, which is an open-ended questionnaire with socially divergent situations to prompt requests. It was filled in by 100 Lithuanian university undergraduates and 100 English university undergraduates. The findings demonstrate that while both groups mostly opted for conventionally indirect requests (e.g. indirect questions about the hearer's ability or willingness to fulfil a request), the Lithuanian responses spread much wider along the directness-indirectness continuum, the respondents employing notably more direct (e.g. imperatives, explicit performatives) as well as a slightly larger number of non-conventionally indirect strategies (hints). Indirect structures do not necessarily convey politeness, just as blunt requests per se are not impolite. No linguistic group of people can be legitimately considered more or less polite than the other, but rather polite in their own socio-culturally acceptable way. Conventionally indirect requests are commonly associated with the negative positive politeness system, whereas direct requests with the positive politeness orientation. The results of the present investigation reveal that Lithuanians are more inclined towards positive politeness, but this is still to be confirmed by further research.

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misty Cook ◽  
Anthony J. Liddicoat

Abstract In the past, research in interlanguage pragmatics has primarily explained the differences between native speakers’ (NS) and non-native speakers’ (NNS) pragmatic performance based on cross-cultural and linguistic differences. Very few researchers have considered learners’ pragmatic performance based on second language comprehension. In this study, we will examine learners’ pragmatic performance using request strategies. The results of this study reveal that there is a proficiency effect for interpreting request speech acts at different levels of directness. We propose that learners’ processing strategies and capacities are important factors to consider when examining learners’ pragmatic performance.


Author(s):  
Khalid Abdel Gadir Tag Eldin

<p>This study tried to identify the Sudanese university students’ preferences of request strategies. It explored the claim of the universality of the speech act’s three levels of directness i.e. direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect. It contrasted and compared the subjects’ choice of strategies in Arabic and English languages. It also investigated the impact of some social factors on the subjects’ strategy choice. The data collected from the subjects showed that they used direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect requests when they responded to English and Arabic Discourse Completion Tests. This finding consolidated the universality claim of the three levels of directness. The data also showed that the subjects preferred to use direct requests more than the conventionally indirect ones and hints. The collectivist culture of the students’ society influenced their choice of direct strategies as it is based on solidarity, intimacy, etc. The results also showed that the different social variables i.e. the social distance between the interactants, the power one interlocutor has over the other, and the degree of request imposition had impact on the subjects’ choice of strategies. </p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><strong>:</strong> Pragmatics, Request Strategies, Speech acts, Sudanese university students, Sudanese Colloquial Arabic.</p>


HUMANIS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Gede Eka Wahyu ◽  
Ni Putu Evi Wahyu Citrawati

Communicative competence has been the goal teaching of a second or foreign language. In acquiring the language, speakers of language also acquire the rules of knowledge and choose the speech acts when communicating with others. This study aimed to investigate the act of request strategies and request perspectives produced by the student of The International Institute of Tourism and Business Denpasar. There are fifty students’ involved in the study with intermediate level in their English proficiency. The data is collected with a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which has ten request situations. Soshana Blum Kulka and Olshtain’s (1984) theory is used to categorize the speech acts produce in analyzing data. The result of the project showed that most of the students use internal modification and the number of students external modification in their speech acts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58
Author(s):  
Arif Nugroho ◽  
Nuning Wahyu Astuti ◽  
Arief Eko Priyo Atmojo

The success of language learners’ intercultural communication highly depends on their acquisition of not only grammatical knowledge but also pragmatic aspects of the target language. However, research examining English for specific purposes (ESP) learners’ request realization, as a crucial indicator of pragmatic competence, still remains a paucity of evidence. Addressing this issue, the present study aims to examine English for specific purposes (ESP) students’ most frequently used request strategy and their reasons behind the selected strategy. To this end, 36 ESP students of a public university in Surakarta Indonesia were involved in a descriptive qualitative study. A set of Discourse Completion Test (DCT), role-play, and semi-structured interview were employed as a means of data collection. The data were analyzed based on Blum-Kulka and Olshtain’s Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) and followed by thematic content analysis for the interview responses. The results depicted that conventionally indirect requests were the most frequently used strategy by the students than other strategies, i.e. direct request, and non-conventionally indirect request. The semi-structured interview further revealed that cultural factors, degree of politeness, and social distance among the interlocutors became the primary reasons for the students’ massive selection of conventionally indirect strategies. These results offer fruitful insights for English language teaching stakeholders as an effort to equip ESP students with satisfactory pragmatic and cross-cultural knowledge.Keywords: acts of requesting, pragmatics, request strategies,


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Somayyeh Daneshpazhuh ◽  
Mohsen Shahrokhi

<p>This study was an attempt to delve into how requestive speech acts were realized in English, Persian, and Badrudi by EFL Persian students at the upper-intermediate level who spoke Badrudi as well. To collect the required data three versions of a Discourse Completion Test in English, Persian and Badrudi were administered to the research sample (N=40). The collected data was codified and analyzed with regard to social power and distance as two contextual variables and further statistical procedure was run to sustain or reject the research hypotheses. The analysis of the data revealed that the presence of power in interactions influences the request realization by the participants as there were differences among the most frequent strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi. Moreover, with respect to the presence of social distance the comparison among request strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi indicated the participants opt for different strategies as the most frequent strategies. The results also revealed that with the presence of power and distance direct strategies were the most frequent ones, conventionally indirect ranked second and indirect strategies were used as the least frequent strategies in English, Persian, and Badrudi.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-61
Author(s):  
Anoud Abusalim

Abstract Limited empirical research addresses how Arabic-speaking English as an Additional Language (EAL) scholars approach research writing and its associated challenges despite that many Arabic-Speaking EAL scholars are engaging in global knowledge production outside and inside the Arab World. This is even more the case now than in the past as some Arab universities are prompting proactive research agendas that encourage publishing in high-impact English language journals. This paper examines 20 empirical studies that investigated the research writing and publishing practices of Arabic-speaking EAL scholars, and analyzes the content of those studies according to the scholars’ research drivers and the accompanying challenges they faced when publishing their research in English. This paper also highlights how these challenges are experienced in different universities and countries, emphasizing the complexity of English for Research Publishing Purposes (ERPP) practices even within the same linguistic group. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the growing ERPP scholarship by serving as a starting point for more systematic research on Arabic-speaking EAL scholars.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 687-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Houda N. Washah ◽  
Elliasu Y. Salifu ◽  
Opeyemi Soremekun ◽  
Ahmed A. Elrashedy ◽  
Geraldene Munsamy ◽  
...  

For the past few decades, the mechanisms of immune responses to cancer have been exploited extensively and significant attention has been given into utilizing the therapeutic potential of the immune system. Cancer immunotherapy has been established as a promising innovative treatment for many forms of cancer. Immunotherapy has gained its prominence through various strategies, including cancer vaccines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), adoptive T cell cancer therapy, and immune checkpoint therapy. However, the full potential of cancer immunotherapy is yet to be attained. Recent studies have identified the use of bioinformatics tools as a viable option to help transform the treatment paradigm of several tumors by providing a therapeutically efficient method of cataloging, predicting and selecting immunotherapeutic targets, which are known bottlenecks in the application of immunotherapy. Herein, we gave an insightful overview of the types of immunotherapy techniques used currently, their mechanisms of action, and discussed some bioinformatics tools and databases applied in the immunotherapy of cancer. This review also provides some future perspectives in the use of bioinformatics tools for immunotherapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-337
Author(s):  
Amit Ranjan

Language is an inherent part of an individual’s identity. Any attempt to subjugate that identity is vehemently resisted by the people. In India, Hindi is not only seen as a language per se but also linked with North Indian Hindus. In the past, the introduction and imposition of Hindi in non-Hindi-speaking states, mainly Tamil Nadu, had faced strong opposition. Since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Hindu Nationalist Party—Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)—elected to power in May 2014, the union government has taken measures to what it calls promoting the use of the Hindi language in India. These measures have been strongly resisted in the non-Hindi-speaking states of the country. This article looks at the debates between Hindi and non-Hindi speakers since the years of the anti-colonial movement in India. It examines the character of the movement to promote Hindi and the resistance against the Hindi movements in India. This article also discusses the demands for language-based states in India. In this paper, the author argues that in the non-Hindi-speaking states, Hindi is mainly looked at as a means to subsume and suppress the native’s identity. To protect their linguistic identity, which is inextricably intertwined with other identities, people in non-Hindi-speaking areas have protested in past and also resist such attempts in present.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Vien-Thong Nguyen

This systematic review of research used science mapping as a means of analyzing the knowledge base on education for sustainable development (ESD) in K-12 schooling. The review documented the size, growth trajectory and geographic distribution of this literature, identified high impact scholars and documents, and visualized the “intellectual structure” of the field. The database examined in this review consisted of 1842 English language, Scopus-indexed documents published between 1990 and 2018. The review found that the knowledge base on ESD has grown dramatically over the past 30 years, with a rapidly accelerating rate of publication in the past decade. Although the field has been dominated by scholarship from Anglo-American_European nations, there is evidence of increasing geographic diversification of the ESD knowledge base over the past 15 years. Citation analyses identified authors who have had a significant influence on the development of this literature. Author co-citation analysis revealed three “schools of thought” that comprise the “intellectual structure” of this knowledge base: Education for Sustainable Development, Developing a Sustainability Mindset, Teaching and Learning for Sustainability. Document content analyses led to the conclusion that the current knowledge base is heavily weighted towards critical, descriptive and prescriptive papers, with an insufficient body of analytical empirical studies. Several recommendations are offered for strengthening this literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 473-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Rauthmann ◽  
Ryne A. Sherman

Over the past 15 years, research on the assessment of psychological situations has flourished. As a result, many basic questions about psychological situations have been answered. We discuss the theoretical and empirical studies that answered these questions, including what situations are; how they can be characterized, taxonomized, and measured; how they relate to person variables; and how persons navigate situations. We first summarize the “knowns” of psychological situation research and then proceed to chart the “unknowns” that have yet to be examined. We conclude with an agenda for future situation research.


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