scholarly journals Self-praise and Positive Self-assessment in Chekhov’s Plays

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-229
Author(s):  
Veronika A. Makarova

This paper applies Speech Act Theory towards an investigation of the use and role of self-praise/positive self-assessment in the texts of three Chekhov’s plays: The Seagull, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. The findings conducted with manual coding of texts for the speech acts of self-praise/positive self-assessment suggest that Chekhov employed self-praise for a number of textual and character-building functions. In particular, self-praise functions as a literary device to identify less likable characters as well as to provide a chance for more likable characters to stand up for themselves against injustice and provocation. The self-praise/positive self-assessment comes in mitigated and aggravated forms. Mitigation is mostly achieved through grammatical or phrasal means, as well as semantically through self-criticism, whereby the only form of aggravation observed in the data was other-criticism/other-derogation. Specific forms of a positive self-assessment likely unique to Chekhov’s plays are ‘linguistic brags’, i.e., contextually unjustifiable switches to French and Latin as well as ‘generational’ positive self-representation in Three Sisters. The results suggest that investigations of speeh acts in dramas could be productive for literary theory, as they shed more light on the characters development as well as the genre mastery of the playwright.

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Alcón Soler ◽  
Josep Guzmán Pitarch

The benefits of instruction on learners’ production and awareness of speech acts is well documented (see Alcón and Martínez-Flor, 2008, for a review of pragmatics in instructional contexts). However, few studies examine the influence that instruction may have on the cognitive processes involved in speech act production (Félix- Brasdefer, 2008). In order to address this research gap, and taking into account the discussion in research on the concept of attention and related terms such as awareness (see Al-Hejin, 2004, for a review of the role of attention and awareness in second language acquisition research) this paper reports on the benefits of instruction on learners’ attention and awareness during the performance of refusals. Thus, based on a pedagogical proposal for teaching refusals at the discourse level, we focus on the benefits that this pedagogical proposal can have on the information attended to during the planning and execution of refusals. Secondly, we explore whether instruction makes a difference in learners’ awareness of refusals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>


Author(s):  
Stephen C. Levinson

The essential insight of speech act theory was that when we use language, we perform actions—in a more modern parlance, core language use in interaction is a form of joint action. Over the last thirty years, speech acts have been relatively neglected in linguistic pragmatics, although important work has been done especially in conversation analysis. Here we review the core issues—the identifying characteristics, the degree of universality, the problem of multiple functions, and the puzzle of speech act recognition. Special attention is drawn to the role of conversation structure, probabilistic linguistic cues, and plan or sequence inference in speech act recognition, and to the centrality of deep recursive structures in sequences of speech acts in conversation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-418
Author(s):  
Claudia Bianchi

According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects of conversational contexts, including those in which the speaker’s social position affects the possibility of her performing certain speech acts. In recent times, asymmetries in communicative situations have become a lively object of study for linguists, philosophers of language and moral philosophers: several scholars view hate speech itself in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (acts establishing or reinforcing unfair hierarchies). The aim of this paper is to address one of the main objections to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, that is the Authority Problem. While the social role of the speaker is the focus of several approaches (Langton 2018a, 2018b; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014; Green 2014, 2017a, 2017b), the social role of the audience has too often been neglected. The author will show that not only must the speaker have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to perform speech acts of subordination, but also the audience must typically have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to either license or object to the speaker’s authority, and her acts of subordination.


2021 ◽  
Vol Volume 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 303-314
Author(s):  
Rabiah Rustam ◽  
Mian Shah Bacha

Present article attempts to analyze the role of the pragmatic markers or illocutionary force indicating devices in the speech acts of prediction. The headlines play a significant role in making a news story readable and approaching large number of audience. The headlines used in the present article were taken from CNN website. These headlines cover a variety of stories related with Pakistan. As the headlines communicate more than what is said they have been treated as speech acts. Searle (1969) defines speech act as a minimum unit of communication which is illocutionary in nature and creates an impact on the mind of the reader. Keeping, this definition in view, the headlines are speech acts that affect the readers. Current study is limited to the headlines that are related to prediction or forecasting the future state of affairs.The detailed analysis of the speech acts finds that the interpretation of the headlines depends on the language devices which help in shaping the illocutionary functions of the speech acts in collaboration with the context. It has also been found that the headlines use negative words more often than the positive ones in an attempt to take the reeaders to the detailed stories.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Aan Anisah Agustini Safari

Background: Different countries may have different cultures that are influenced by their religion, traditions, or norms. These differences affect the way they speak, such as when they are commenting or giving opinions. Due to the way people express speech acts can be varied and lead to misinterpretation because of their differences, the researcher was intrigued to conduct this study. Methodology: This cross-cultural study was carried out to observe and compare the speech act of criticism between Korean and American YouTubers and to investigate the role of their cultural background in influencing the directness level they conveyed. First, the researcher selected three Korean Youtubers and Americans as well with food review content. Second, the researcher watched one video from each channel and took notes on every expression of criticism they used. Findings: The result of this study demonstrates that in American YouTubers speech, direct strategy emerges more frequently than the indirect one. Conversely, Korean YouTubers tend to use the indirect one. The finding also indicates that their speech behavior is related to their cultural norms, in which American culture encourages clear personal opinions, while Korean culture is a restraint to express their opinion or feeling clearly. Conclusion: Due to the considerable difference between Korean and American YouTuber speech, it can be concluded that culture takes a significant part in shaping one’s speech behavior. That is why people with different cultural backgrounds may have different ways of speaking.  Keywords: Criticism; cross-culture pragmatic; directness-indirectness.


Pragmatics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
María-Isabel González-Cruz

This article provides insights into the strategies used by a group of university students of Canarian origin to perform the speech act of apologizing. Though Canarian Spanish has been recognised as one of the most deeply studied dialects in the Hispanic world (Medina 1996; Álvarez 1996; Corrales, Álvarez and Corbella 2007), little has been said about this variety at the socio-pragmatic level, and, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been carried out on the issue of speech acts, let alone about apologies in Canarian Spanish. This article attempts to start filling this gap by describing the most frequent apology strategies used by one hundred university students at the ULPGC (Canary Islands, Spain) when apologizing in eight different situations. Following the lines of many other studies, we obtained the data through the application of a Discourse Completion Test, slightly adapted from the well-known CCSARP (Cross-cultural Speech Act Realisation Project). Gender differences are explored, along with the role of other situational factors such as degree of familiarity between the participants, severity of the offense and age of the offended person. Suggestions for further work in the fields of intercultural pragmatics and EFL teaching and learning are also given.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-41
Author(s):  
Jacob Ølgaard Nyboe

Abstract In the survey 115 participants read one of four books by Svend Age Madsen, Lars Skinnebach, Pia Juul and Maja Lee Langvad, respectively, and were asked about their valuation, expectations and own generic classification of the work. The books all have a singular, non-standard genre label (genre signature), and the main hypothesis was that this paratextual marker would have an effect on the expectations and experience of the readers. The hypothesis was only partly confirmed, but other findings were made among which two are to be highlighted: 1) The participants had difficulties generically classifying in an unambiguous manner suggesting that the self-claimed extraordinary genre status is reflected in the actual texts. 2) In general, the participants did not like the books, though these are all critically acclaimed. This points towards the old distinction between low and high culture still being relevant and suggests that the genre signature might be a marker of the latter. The article ends with a discussion of the role of empirical studies within literary theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Marissa Leviani Sugiarto ◽  
Deli Nirmala

ABSTRAKPenelitian ini membahas tindak tutur Pandita dan kedua mempelai dalam pernikahan etnis Tionghoa Peranakan di Klenteng Kebon Jeruk, Semarang. Dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti melakukan perekaman dan observasi partisipan dalam pernikahan di Klenteng Kebon Jeruk, Semarang. Dari analisis ditemukan bahwa semua tindak tutur ada dalam peristiwa komunikasi pernikahan ini. Walau Pandita dan kedua mempelai memiliki kapasitas berbicara yang sangat berbeda. Urutan tindak tutur partisipan utama yang terbanyak yaitu Pandita, mempelai pria dan mempelai wanita. Pandita berperan dominan  dilihat dari kuantitas tindak tutur. Peran Pandita dalam upacara sebagai pengendali terlihat jelas dari jumlah tindak tutur direktif yang muncul. Makna dari tindak tutur tersebut menginstruksi kedua mempelai untuk mengikuti apa yang dikatakan Pandita. Mempelai pria dan wanita memiliki porsi bicara yang sama dan terbatasi terlihat dari jumlah tindak tutur mereka. Upacara pernikahan etnis Tionghoa peranakan mengakomodasi Pandita untuk mengambil kendali penuh atas pernikahan etnis tersebut dan sekaligus mengontrol tindak tutur mempelai. Kedua mempelai menggunakan tindak tutur komisif berjanji untuk hidup dengan rukun dan menaati ajaran Budha dalam pernikahan dan asertif yang memaknai respons tindak tutur direktif Pandita.Kata kunci: Penutur, tuturan, pernikahan,tindak tutur ilokusiABSTRACTThis study discusses the speech acts of a priest and the bride and groom in a Chinese ethnic marriage at Kebon Jeruk Temple, Semarang. In collecting data, researchers conducted the recording and observation of participants in marriage at the Kebon Jeruk Temple, Semarang. From the analysis, the researchers find that all speech acts existed in this marriage communication event, although the priest and the bride and groom have a very different speaking capacity. The main sequence of speech acts of the main participants was the priest, bridegroom, and bride. Priest plays a dominant role in terms of the number of speech acts. The role of the priest in the ceremony as a controller is evident from the number of directive speech acts that arise. The bride and groom have the same portion of speech and are limited in their number of speech acts. The Chinese descents’ wedding ceremony accommodates the priest to take full control of the ethnic marriage and at the same time, control the speech acts of the bride and groom. The bride and groom use commissive and assertive speech acts, which are responses to the priest's directive speech acts.Keywords: speaker, utterance, marriage, speech act, illocution


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