scholarly journals Communicative Efficiency, Uniform Information Density, and the Rational Speech Act theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Philip Levy
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Iterative Process ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Information Density ◽  
Major Class ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Optional Function

One major class of approaches to explaining the distribution of linguistic forms is rooted in communicative efficiency. For theories in which the communicative efficiency of an utterance is itself dependent on the distribution of linguistic forms in the language, however, it is less clear how to make distributional predictions that escape circularity. We propose an approach to making distributional predictions for these cases by iterating between speaker and listener in the Rational Speech Act theory. Characteristics of the fixed points of this iterative process constitute the distributional predictions of the theory. Through computer simulation we apply this approach to the well-studied case of predictability-sensitive optional function word omission for the theory of Uniform Information Density, and show that the approach strongly predicts the negative correlation between phrase onset probability and rate of function word use that has previously been argued for and that has been empirically observed in previous studies.

scholarly journals Decoding social media speak: developing a speech act theory research agenda

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Ludwig ◽  
Ko de Ruyter
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Text Analytics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Word Use

Purpose – Drawing on the theoretical domain of speech act theory (SAT) and a discussion of its suitability for setting the agenda for social media research, this study aims to explore a range of research directions that are both relevant and conceptually robust, to stimulate the advancement of knowledge and understanding of online verbatim data. Design/methodology/approach – Examining previously published cross-disciplinary research, the study identifies how recent conceptual and empirical advances in SAT may further guide the development of text analytics in a social media context. Findings – Decoding content and function word use in customers’ social media communication can enhance the efficiency of determining potential impacts of customer reviews, sentiment strength, the quality of contributions in social media, customers’ socialization perceptions in online communities and deceptive messages. Originality/value – Considering the variety of managerial demand, increasing and diverging social media formats, expanding archives, rapid development of software tools and fast-paced market changes, this study provides an urgently needed, theory-driven, coherent research agenda to guide the conceptual development of text analytics in a social media context.

Ambiguity Avoidance by Means of Function Words in English? Providing Additional Corpus-based Counterevidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-236
Author(s):  
Günter Rohdenburg
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Testing Procedures ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Optional Function ◽  
Free Constructions

Abstract The present paper considers three types of constructions where optional function words have been claimed to be used primarily for the purpose of avoiding a global or local attachment ambiguity. a) In the absence of the complementiser in that-clauses, certain subject NPs might be (temporarily) misconstrued as direct objects of the superordinate verb. b) In the absence of the complementiser that, certain adverbials might be (wrongly) assigned to the subordinate or the superordinate clause. c) In the absence of a relativiser, certain combinations of the antecedent NP and the relative clause subject might be (temporarily) misconstrued as forming a single NP. The paper uses two corpus-based testing procedures to refute these claims. (i) Analysing otherwise comparable ambiguity-free and ambiguity-prone structures in a)–c) we find that they involve similar rates of function word use. (ii) Moreover, it is shown that a variety of other ambiguity-free constructions, containing the same or other optional grammatical markers, display similar distributional profiles.

Communication And Speech Act Theory : A Contextual Study Of Language

2016 ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Makhlouf Abdelkader ◽  
Driss Mohamed Amine
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Contextual Study

New Work on Speech Acts

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
New Work ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship

The essays collected in this book represent recent advances in our understanding of speech acts-actions like asserting, asking, and commanding that speakers perform when producing an utterance. The study of speech acts spans disciplines, and embraces both the theoretical and scientific concerns proper to linguistics and philosophy as well as the normative questions that speech acts raise for our politics, our societies, and our ethical lives generally. It is the goal of this book to reflect the diversity of current thinking on speech acts as well as to bring these conversations together, so that they may better inform one another. Topics explored in this book include the relationship between sentence grammar and speech act potential; the fate of traditional frameworks in speech act theory, such as the content-force distinction and the taxonomy of speech acts; and the ways in which speech act theory can illuminate the dynamics of hostile and harmful speech. The book takes stock of well over a half century of thinking about speech acts, bringing this classicwork in linewith recent developments in semantics and pragmatics, and pointing the way forward to further debate and research.

God’s liturgical activity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Wolterstorff
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Times

It is typical of Christian liturgical enactments for the people to pray and take for granted that God will act in the course of the enactment. This chapter first identifies and analyzes a number of ways in which God might act liturgically and then discusses at some length what might be meant when the people say, in response to the reading of Scripture, “This is the word of the Lord.” After suggesting that what might be meant is either that the reading presented what God said in ancient times or that, by way of the reading, God speaks anew here and now, the chapter suggests a third possibility by going beyond speech-act theory to introduce the idea of a continuant illocution in distinction from an occurrent illocution. Perhaps the reference is to one of God’s continuant illocutions.

Sentence mood

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Portner
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Major Topic

Sentence mood is the linguistic category which marks the fundamental conversational function, or “sentential force,” of a sentence. Exemplified by the universal types of declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences (as well as by less-common types), sentence mood has been a major topic of research in both linguistics and philosophy. This chapter identifies the two main theories which address the topic, one based on speech act theory and the other on dynamic approaches to meaning. It explains and evaluates current research which uses the two theories, and identifies the most important insights which come out of each.

Sexual Harassment, Speech Acts, and Public Secrets in U.S. Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Debenport
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Online Conversations ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Discursive Representations

This chapter draws on data from U.S. higher education to analyze the ways that the language used to describe sexual harassment secures its continued power. Focusing on two features viewed as definitional to sexual harassment, frequency and severity, the discussion analyzes three sets of online conversations about the disclosure of abuse in academia (a series of tweets, survey responses, and posts on a philosophy blog) from grammatical, pragmatic, and semiotic perspectives. Unlike most prior research, this chapter focuses on the language of victims rather than the intentions of harassers. The results suggest that speech act theory is unable to account fully for sexual harassment without accepting the relevance of perlocutionary effects. Using Gal and Irvine’s (2019) model of axes of differentiation, the chapter demonstrates how opposing discursive representations (of professors, sexual harassers, victims, and accusers) create a discursive space in which it becomes difficult for victims to report their harassers.

scholarly journals Uttering geographies: Speech acts, felicity conditions and modes of existence

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1124-1140
Author(s):  
Miles Ogborn
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Human Speech ◽  
Everyday Talk ◽  
Modes Of Existence

The geographies of speech has become stuck in a form of interpretation which considers the potentially infinite detail of spoken performances understood within their equally infinitely complex contexts. This paper offers a way forward by considering the uses, critiques and reworkings of J.L. Austin’s speech act theory by those who study everyday talk, by deconstructionists and critical theorists, and by Bruno Latour in his AIME (‘An Inquiry into Modes of Existence’) project. This offers a rethinking of speech acts in terms of power and space, and a series of ontological differentiations between forms of utterances and enunciations beyond human speech.

Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse

Language ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
William O. Hendricks ◽  
Mary Louise Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Literary Discourse
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