scholarly journals A Stylo- Pragmatic Appraisal of Lawal's Communicative Model Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Acheoah John Emike ◽  
Margaret Nonyerem Agu
Keyword(s):  
Model Theory ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Functional Explanations

This paper is essentially an appraisal of Lawal’s Communicative Model Theory within the purview of stylistics and pragmatics. Any investigation of the stylistic and pragmatic factors that motivate language use is inevitably immersed in language users’ supremacy over the normative properties of language. One of the factors that promoted scholarly interest in pragmatics is the possibility that significant functional explanations can be given for linguistic facts. Like any study in pragmatics, research in stylistics investigates contextual factors that inform language use; in this regard, the meaning of an utterance – not its grammaticalness – is the major concern. This paper hinges on The Pragma-crafting Theory as a theoretical framework and concludes that although the Communicative Model Theory is bedeviled by its inability to explain certain dimensions of language use, it captures the contextual underpinnings of language use.

On the goals, principles, and procedures for prescriptive grammar: Singular they

1980 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Mackay
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Theoretical Linguistics ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Prescriptive Grammar

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the goals of prescriptive grammar and the causes and consequences of the rift between prescriptive and theoretical linguistics. It also proposes a principle for guiding prescriptive recommendations in the future as well as a theoretical framework and procedure for predicting the consequences of prescriptive recommendations. The procedure illustrates a hypothetical prescription: the substitution of singular they for prescriptive he. Projected benefits the prescription include neutral connotation, naturalness, simplicity, and lexical availability. Projected costs include covert and overt referential ambiguity; partial ambiguity; conceptual inaccuracy; loss of precision, imageability, impact, and memorability; bizarreness involving certain referents and case forms; distancing and dehumanizing connotations; unavailability of the ‘he or she’ denotation; potentially disruptive and long-lasting side effects on other areas of the language. Procedures are also illustrated for determining the relative frequency of such costs and benefits and for estimating the relative disruptiveness of the costs normal language use. Implications of the data for several issues general interest to linguistics and psychology are explored. (Ambiguity, language change, prescriptive grammar, theoretical linguistics, language planning, pronouns, neologisms.)

scholarly journals The Discourse Analysis of E-Business Instant Communication from the Perspective of Politeness Principle

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Tingting Guo ◽  
Zhenxia Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Special Occasion ◽  
Instant Communication ◽  
Reasonable Use

With the popularity and frequency of e-business activities, e-business instant communication plays an increasingly important role in e-business, and the appropriate and reasonable use of business language usually directly influences the economic interests. Therefore, the present study takes politeness principle as the theoretical framework and the participants’ chat records of e-business instant communication as the research data, and adopts the methodologies of discourse analysis and interview to explore the language use in e-business activities from the perspective of politeness principle. And the present study finds that servicers and customers use different linguistic resources from the perspective of politeness principle out of different interest pursuit. More specifically, servicers strictly observe the six maxims having no violations in e-business instant communication, while customers go against Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim and usually comply with Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, nevertheless, they violate Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim on special occasion in e-business instant communication. What’s more, if customers can strictly observe Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, and servicers can study how to avoid and deal with customers’ violation to Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim successfully, enterprises, servicers and customers will benefit.

scholarly journals Towards a neuro-computational account of prism adaptation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Petitet ◽  
Jill X. O’Reilly ◽  
Jacinta O’Shea
Keyword(s):  
Decision Theory ◽  
State Space ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Prism Adaptation ◽  
Bayesian Decision Theory ◽  
Bayesian Decision ◽  
Computational Framework ◽  
Functional Explanations

AbstractPrism adaptation has a long history as an experimental paradigm used to investigate the functional and neural processes that underlie sensorimotor control. In the neuropsychology literature, functional explanations of prism adaptation are typically framed within a traditional cognitive psychology ‘box-and-arrow’ framework that distinguishes putative component functions thought to give rise to behaviour (i.e. ‘strategic control’ versus ‘spatial realignment’). However, this kind of theoretical framework lacks precision and explanatory power. Here, we advocate for a computational framework that offers several advantages: 1) an algorithmic explanatory account of the computations and operations that drive behaviour; 2) expressed in quantitative mathematical terms; 3) embedded within a principled theoretical framework (Bayesian decision theory, state-space modelling); 4) that offers a means to generate and test quantitative behavioural predictions. This computational framework offers a route toward mechanistic explanations of prism adaptation behaviour. Thus it constitutes a conceptual advance compared to the traditional theoretical framework. In this paper, we illustrate how Bayesian decision theory and state-space models offer principled explanations for a range of behavioural phenomena in the field of prism adaptation (e.g. visual capture, magnitude of visual versus proprioceptive realignment, spontaneous recovery and dynamics of adaptation memory). We argue that this explanatory framework offers to advance understanding of the functional and neural mechanisms that implement prism adaptation behaviour, by enabling quantitative tests of hypotheses that go beyond mere descriptive mapping claims that ‘brain area X is (somehow) involved in psychological process Y’.

Disconnects between Communicated Impact and Ecological Impact of Biological Invasions

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kali Z Mattingly ◽  
Tara A Pelletier ◽  
Jessie Lanterman ◽  
Danielle Frevola ◽  
Benjamin Stucke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Facts ◽  
Near Synonyms

Abstract Although scientists strive to accurately communicate their research, disconnects can arise between results and rhetoric. Some have regarded invasion scientists as particularly prone to using value-laden language incommensurate with the scientific facts or results. We addressed how authors used 10 near synonyms (words for which usage is similar but not completely overlapping) of the negative-value word invasive. We asked whether study findings (effect sizes) or other factors predicted language use. The use of negative-value words such as invasive was not associated with study findings but, instead, with contextual factors. For example, plant and invertebrate biologists used more negative language to describe nonnatives than did those studying vertebrates. The authors also tended to use more negative language in recently published papers than in older studies. Although many have called for impartial language when communicating research, some scientists use language imbued with value that may be inappropriate. Such use may affect how the public perceives scientific findings.

Dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a trilingual preschool group

Multilingua ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tünde Puskás ◽  
Polly Björk-Willén
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Preschool Curriculum ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Micro Level

AbstractThis article explores dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a preschool group in which three languages (Swedish, Romani and Arabic) are spoken on an everyday basis. The article highlights the interplay between policy decisions on the societal level, the teachers’ interpretations of these policies, as well as language practices on the micro level. The preschool group is seen as a complex context for negotiating language policies and expectations regarding language use. The theoretical framework builds on Billig’s work on ideological and everyday dilemmas that we argue are detectable at both levels of the analysis. The analysis of the ethnographic material shows that the explicit language policy formulated in the Swedish preschool curriculum leads, in practice, to ideological, pedagogical and everyday dilemmas. Moreover, an unwillingness to set rules for children’s language choice combined with the central position of free play in Swedish preschool practice has led to a situation in which children fall short of their potential to develop bilingual competence.

Critical autoethnographic narrative: Ideological contention, metacommentary and aesthetic labor in language education

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fallas-Escobar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Aesthetic Labor ◽  
Learning Language

AbstractBased on the premise that human experience is storied, the researcher engaged in the writing of critical autoethnographic narratives to examine ideological contention in language learning, language use, and language teaching. Using raciolinguistic ideologies as theoretical framework, he shows the ways ideological orientations embedded in circulating metacommentary push individuals to engage in aesthetic labor around the ways they employ their linguistic resources. Findings suggest that language educators and learners should engage in critical examination of seemingly innocent metalinguistic commentary, as these contain contradictory and multiple ideological orientations that largely shape the perception and employment of speakers’ linguistic repertoires.

scholarly journals Linguistic and contextual factors that affect Japanese readers of EFL

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
David Penner
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Learning In Context ◽  
Orthographic Depth

By exploring the linguistic and contextual factors that cause problems for Japanese readers of EFL, this essay adds support to the sociocontextualists’ side of the ongoing debate regarding the scope of SLA research – that is, should SLA research be limited to the study of language use or should it include language-learning in context? In support of a more global approach, linguistic factors and contextual factors that cause Japanese readers difficulty are explored, including differences in orthography, morphology, orthographic depth, and phrasal structure, as well as ethnocentric influences, enculturated writing patterns, non-motivating classrooms, and enculturated learning strategies. Since Japanese readers are affected, not only by linguistic factors, but social factors as well, both linguistic and contextual factors should be considered when teaching and researching second language acquisition. 本論は外国語としての英語学習（EFL）環境にある日本人の読解に関する問題の原因となる言語学的・状況的要因を調査する。さらに、第2言語習得（SLA）研究は言語使用の研究に限定されるべきか、状況に応じた言語学習も含めて行うべきかという昨今の議論において、「社会的文脈」派の立場を支持する。本論ではより包括的なアプローチで、正字法、形態論、正字法深度、句構造等の違いに加え、自文化中心主義の影響、文化適応したライティングパターン、動機づけの低い教室、文化適応した学習ストラテジー等、日本人の読解に関する問題の原因となる言語学的・状況的要因を検討する。日本人の読解力は言語学的要因だけではなく社会的要因からも影響を受けているので、第2言語習得を指導研究する際には、言語学的・状況的要因を考慮すべきである。

scholarly journals Narratives: a review of concepts, determinants, effects, and uses in migration research

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Dennison
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Migration Research ◽  
Migration Behaviour ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Migration Politics

AbstractNarratives are increasingly cited by scholars, international organisations, NGOs, and governments as one of the most powerful factors in migration politics and policymaking today. However, narratives are typically conceptually underspecified, with relatively little known about why some narratives become publicly popular or the nature of their effects. This article reviews recent scholarly advances to specify what narratives are and to offer a novel theoretical framework to better explain variation in their public popularity and effects. It is argued that the popularity of a narrative, defined as a generalisable, constructed and selective depiction of reality across time, is determined by a combination of contextual factors, such as issue complexity and salience, the plausibility of the narrative and the traits of the recipient of the narrative. These findings are relevant for policymakers and, particularly, communicators. However, although significant work has gone into explaining how narratives affect migration policymaking, the often-assumed effects of narratives on attitudes to immigration and migration behaviour have rarely been robustly tested.

The language of Akan herbal drug sellers and advertisers

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-386
Author(s):  
Kofi Agyekum
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Game Model ◽  
Herbal Drug ◽  
Dialogic Interaction ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
Drug Sellers

Abstract This paper addresses the language and pragmatic strategies used by Akan herbal drug sellers to persuade would-be-buyers. It adopts the theoretical framework of Weigand’s Mixed Game Model (MGM) and defines persuasion as a variable of competence-in-performance, and language use as the basis of dialogic interaction. It investigates how sellers employ politeness, honorifics, humour, digression, personification, proverbs, metaphors and hyperbole in dialogic action games. The herbal drug sellers are grouped into three: (a) those normally plying on Ghana’s major roads and at bus stations, (b) those who are on radio and TV and (c) those who advertise on radio and TV. We will discuss excerpts of five recordings in the Akan language and translated into English.

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