scholarly journals Atenuação de atos de fala diretivos em livros de PLE os procedimentos acompanhantes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 155-197
Author(s):  
Patrícia Mariano Marcos ◽  
Paulo Pinheiro-Correa
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Lexical Resources

In this paper, a specific pragmatic type of request mitigation strategies (orders and requests) is analyzed in the dialogues of two Portuguese textbooks for foreigners, namely, the accompanying procedures, as classified by Kerbrat-Orecchioni (2005, 2006). The work is based on speech acts theory (Austin, 1962/1990; Searle, 1979/2002), on Goffman’s (1967/1980) concept of face and on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) concepts of positive and negative politeness. The results showed that mitigation strategies included not only lexical resources but also reformulation procedures and that the use of moderators, such as “please”, was among the most used lexical mitigation resources. The results also point out failures in the pragmatic treatment of the issue in the books analyzed.

scholarly journals Situational Variations in Request and Apology Realization Strategies among International Postgraduate Students at Malaysian Universities

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paramasivam Muthusamy ◽  
Atieh Farashaiyan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Data Collection Procedure

<p>The present study attempted to describe the request, apology, and request mitigation strategies utilized by international postgraduate students in confronting different situations. In addition, it examined the effects of the situational factors of social distance, power, and imposition on the students’ choice of request and apology strategies as well as the modifications in requests. Another objective has been to categorize the difficulties students face in the production of the speech acts. One hundred and thirty international postgraduate students majoring in different fields voluntarily participated in this study. A Written Discourse Completion Task Questionnaire (Liu, 2005) and semi-structured interview were utilized for data collection procedure. The results of the questionnaire illustrated that the participants made use of IFID strategy for apologies and conventionally indirect expressions (Preparatory questions) for requests more frequently than other strategies. Moreover, the situational factors of social distance, power and imposition did not affect the participants’ choice of request and apology strategies but they had some influences on the use of mitigating strategies in different situations. Regarding modifiers, the students opted out external modifications (66.6%) more than internal modifiers (33.3%). Among the external mitigation types, “please” with 21% and grounders with 25% respectively have been utilized more than other external mitigation types. Finally, the results of the interviews indicated that the difficulties that students face in the production of the speech acts were grammar, expression, vocabulary and structure. This study has some implications for second language acquisition research and intercultural communication.</p>

scholarly journals Criticism and politeness strategies in academic review discourse: a contrastive (English-Italian) corpus-based analysis

Kalbotyra ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (70) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliana Diani
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Review Articles ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Academic Review

Drawing on a corpus-based approach, this paper explores the mitigation strategies used to soften criticism in English and Italian book review articles in the disciplinary field of linguistics. Most corpus-based analyses on academic criticism have focused on the use and function of politeness strategies in English academic review genres, mainly book reviews. Recently, an increasing number of studies on academic book reviews have examined the issue from a cross-cultural perspective. This study attempts to contribute to the area of cross-cultural research on reviewing practices by exploring how criticisms are managed in a somewhat neglected review genre in academic discourse studies – the book review article. Criticisms will be identified on the basis of their lexico-grammatical features and further categorized into “direct” and “mitigated” (Itakura & Tsui 2011, 1369). The mitigation strategies identified in both language corpora mainly involve the use of sequences of speech acts such as praise-criticism, criticism-praise, criticism-suggestion, praise-suggestion, and hedging. However, their distributions reveal differences in the two languages. While praise is prominently used in both English and Italian book review articles, Italian-speaking linguistics reviewers employ a lower proportion of hedges than their English-speaking colleagues and are more likely to opt for suggestions as a form of indirect criticism. The results demonstrate that linguistics reviewers writing in English and Italian deploy a considerable range of linguistic devices when expressing mitigated criticism of peers. Their use and distribution are discussed in relation to national/cultural writing conventions, but also differences between “large” and “small” disciplinary cultures (Holliday 1999). Some implications for EAP learners and practitioners are also considered.

¡Escribiré con tu sangre! Los recursos conminatorios del español de principios del siglo XVIII y su descripción en el Diccionario de autoridades

2021 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-146
Author(s):  
Stefan Ruhstaller
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Good Number

Abstract The first lexicographic work compiled by the Royal Spanish Academy, known as Diccionario de autoridades (1726–1739), includes a wide range of lexical resources used at the time to perform speech acts of threatening. In the dictionary’s microstructure these mostly phraseological items are characterized both semantically and pragmatically. The dictionary also offers relevant data and reflections on aspects such as the function and procedures of intensification, the role of the interlocutors in the speech act, the limitation of some expressions to certain social groups, or the factors that influence the success or failure of the perlocutive act. The analysis of the dictionary articles that contain relevant information in this regard reveals the extent to which the founders of the Academy anticipated a good number of ideas that would not be systematized until the emergence, centuries later, of modern Pragmatics.

scholarly journals CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF REFUSAL STRATEGIES OF AMERICAN AND ARMENIAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2 (24)) ◽  
pp. 100-115
Author(s):  
Gohar Hovsepyan
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Language Data ◽  
High Level ◽  
Refusal Strategies

Several studies have been carried out on refusal strategies that native and non-native English speakers employ to mitigate potential threat to listener’s face when forming refusals to various speech acts, such as requests, offers, invitations, etc. This study adds the perspective of Armenian English speakers in using such mitigation strategies. The objective of the study is to identify similarities and differences in the use of various politeness strategies used in refusal acts by native English speakers (NES) and Armenian non-native English speakers (ANNES) with the aim of establishing the extent of cultural impact on pragmatic competence of ANNES. Language data was collected among 24 Armenian English speakers of high level of English proficiency and 15 American English speakers. A modified version of the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) developed by Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz (Beebe et al., 1990) was used to collect data. Along with considerable similarities in the use of politeness strategies in refusals between the two groups which indicate the high degree of pragmatic competence of ANNES, the analysis of the data also revealed some differences which attest to certain impact of the Armenian culture on this competence. The differences are mainly observed in frequency of use and in the content of the same strategies used by the two groups.

"Let's do lunch sometime": An analysis of ostensible speech acts

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen E. Link ◽  
Roger J. Kreuz ◽  
Jackie Soto
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts

Orientalist Speech-acts and Israeli Middle East Studies: Cautions and Criticisms of Edward Said Beyond the Battle of Ideas

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Eyal Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Middle East Studies

Drawing on speech acts theory, this article discusses the illocutionary and perlocutionary forces of discursive practices with which certain academic circles seek to discredit the Saidian ‘Orientalism’ framework. Identifying the unusual value attached to Said as object of attachment or detachment, desirability and exceptionality, this analysis turns away from deliberations about ‘orientalism’ as a party in a battle of ideas, and studies common cautionary statements and other responses by peers as actions in the social (academic) world, that enculture and police expectations. Cautioning subjects about this framework, or conditioning its employment to preceding extensive pre-emptive complicating mitigations, in effect constructs this framework as undesirable and ‘risky’. While strong discursive reactions are not uncommon in academia, comparing them to treatments of less-controversial social theories reveals formulations, meanings and attentions which are arguably reserved for this ‘theory’. Conclusively, common dismissals, warnings and criticisms of Said and ‘Orientalism’ often exemplify Saidian claims, as they deploy the powerful advantage of enforcing hegemonic, and indeed Orientalist, views.

Pragmatic instruction in L2-Russian

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-95
Author(s):  
Daniele Artoni ◽  
Valentina Benigni ◽  
Elena Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Instructional Treatment ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

Over the last three decades, a growing number of studies have investigated the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic features in L2. The bulk of this research has focused mainly on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. However, instructional pragmatic studies in L2-Russian are lacking. The main purpose of our study is to contribute towards filling this gap by analysing the effects of pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of two speech acts by Italian learners of Russian. Furthermore, we aim to explore whether the Multimodal Russian Corpus (MURCO), a multimedia subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, can be an effective tool for teaching speech acts in L2-Russian. Our research was composed of one experimental group (n = 18) and one control group (n = 11); each was composed of two intact classes of Italian university students at an intermediate level of L2-Russian, who were pre- and post-tested using a written discourse completion task. The experimental group was subjected to a programme of pragmatic instruction – eight thirty-minute MURCO-based lessons devoted to requests and advice, while the control group was taught according to the standard syllabus, that is, with no pragmatic instruction. The results revealed that the use of the target pragmatic features varied significantly in the experimental group, but not in the control group, thus showing a general positive effect of the instructional treatment based on the MURCO corpus. However, some limitations were identified with regard to the usability of this tool by teachers and learners.

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