scholarly journals Modalized speech acts in a spoken learner corpus: The case of can and could

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Petra Huschová
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries

Abstract This paper examines the use of the modal auxiliaries can and could in speech acts produced by university students of English. Its aim is to explore syntactic patterns, semantic features and pragmatic functions of utterances containing can/could in Corpus of Czech Students’ Spoken English. Taking account of pragmatic factors, including broader linguistic and extralinguistic context, the analysis attempts to identify the illocutionary forces conveyed by the modalized speech acts excerpted from the corpus dialogues. The findings indicate that the modal verbs are commonly employed as a modifying device in indirect speech acts, particularly in conventionalized directives. As for their frequency of occurrence, can proves to be a widely used modal auxiliary in spoken learner discourse, whereas the more remote could appears in the corpus much less frequently in that it is associated with a higher degree of diffidence.

Jordanian graduate students’ complaints on Facebook: Semantic formulas and politeness

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-165
Author(s):  
Fathi Migdadi ◽  
Muhammad A. Badarneh ◽  
Laila Khwaylih
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Student Union ◽  
Closed Group ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Face Saving

Abstract This study examines Jordanian graduate students' complaints posted on a Facebook closed group and directed to the representatives of Student Union at Jordan University of Science and Technology to be transferred to the officials concerned. In line with Boxer (1993b), the study considers the students' complaints to be indirect speech acts, as the addressee(s) are not the source of the offense. Using a sample of 60 institutional complaining posts, the researchers have analysed the complaints in terms of their semantic formulas, politeness functions and correlations with the gender of the complainers. The students’ complaints are classified into six semantic formulas of which the act statement element is indispensable as the complaint is stated in it. The other five formulas, ordered according to their frequency, are opener, remedy, appreciative closing, justification and others. Despite the negative affect typically involved in the complaining act, the semantic formulas identified in this study are found to signal politeness and fit into Brown and Levinson’s (1987) pool of face-saving strategies rather than face-threatening acts. Specifically, when the graduate students direct their Facebook complaints to the students' representatives, they tend to offer camaraderie with them to be encouraged to pursue the problems specified in the complainers’ posts.

Conversational sequences and preference for indirect speech acts

1988 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond W. Gibbs ◽  
Rachel A. G. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Conversational Sequences

scholarly journals PRAGMATIC TRANSPOSITIONS OF INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS IN EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-63
Author(s):  
Т.В. Нестерова
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Comparative Aspect ◽  
Expression Of Emotions ◽  
Lexical Composition ◽  
Everyday Communication

В статье описаны контекстуально-ситуативные косвенные речевые акты, имеющие форму вопроса, но реализующие другие коммуникативные интенции – сообщение, согласие, побуждение, выражение эмоций. Речь идет о высказываниях с одинаковым синтаксическим строением и лексическим составом (омонимия высказываний разных коммуникативных типов), в которых наиболее ярко проявляются различительные свойства интонации. Механизмом порождения этих речевых актов является прагматическая транспозиция. The article describes contextual-situational indirect speech acts in the form of a question, but realizing other communicative intentions – message, consent, motivation, expression of emotions. We are talking about statements with the same syntactic structure and lexical composition (homonymy of statements of different communicative types), in which the distinctive properties of intonation are most clearly manifested. The mechanism for generating these speech acts is pragmatic transposition. The materials of the article can be used both for further theoretical studies of transposed speech acts (including in a comparative aspect), and for the creation of communicatively oriented textbooks on Russian as a foreign language.

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