scholarly journals The potency of pragmatic theoretical frameworks in the analysis of female literary writings in northern Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
Acheoah John Emike ◽  
Margaret Nonyerem Agu
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Core ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The paper examines the potency of pragmatic theories in the analysis of female writings in northern Nigeria. As a literary genre, poetry is unique for deploying enchanting language in the communication of the poet’s thematic preoccupations. In using language to communicate themes or subject matter, the poet is engaged in two basic tasks: selecting appropriate words and skillfully patterning such words with others in stretches. From classical to contemporary times, pragmatic theories are essentially theoretical frameworks for the interpretation of textual meanings – meanings which reveal language use as the performance of actions. In the analysis of Sheefah Zarma’s poem (“Love”), this paper hinges on two theoretical underpinnings: Adegbija’s pragmatic theory and the Pragma-crafting Theory. The significance of this study is worthy of scholarly attention; to the best of our knowledge, most studies on the pragmatic investigation of language use in literary writings focus on prose and drama because these two genres of literature are more action-revealing in terms of the dynamics of human interaction which is the core of pragmatics. It is therefore particularly significant that this study demonstrates phenomenally that even poetry can capture fascinating action-like dimensions of language use to disabuse the minds of readers who do not see poetry as speech-acts-revealing. Interestingly, this study examines the work of a young female poet from northern Nigeria, rather than that of a celebrated writer from the same region – Zeinab Alkali. This study concludes that pragmatic theories are integrative and capture the contextual underpinnings of language use.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Harris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Art World ◽  
Dance History ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Global Art ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The introduction presents the core historiographical problem that Making BalletAmerican aims to correct: the idea that George Balanchine’s neoclassical choreography represents the first successful manifestation of an “American” ballet. While this idea is pervasive in dance history, little scholarly attention has been paid to its construction. The introduction brings to light an alternative, more complex historical context for American neoclassical ballet than has been previously considered. It places Lincoln Kirstein’s 1933 trip to Paris, famous for bringing Balanchine to the United States, within a transnational and interdisciplinary backdrop of modernism, during a time when the global art world was shifting significantly in response to the international rise of fascism. This context reverberates throughout to the book’s examination of American ballet as a form that was embedded in and responsive to a changing set of social, cultural, and political conditions over the period covered, 1933–1963.

Definitions and Intellectual Property Subject Matter

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine Pila
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Legal Definition ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This chapter considers the relative absence of scholarly attention to the meaning of the terms used to denote the subject matter that IP rights protect and the nature of those subject matter themselves. It then outlines the aims and methods of the definitional task undertaken in later chapters, and the stages in which that task proceeds. Using the distinction drawn by Richard Robinson, it proposes a nominal word:thing definitional exercise, rather than a word:word exercise, that considers recent use of the terms to be defined by European and UK legal officials. Drawing on the stipulative nature of authoritative legal definition, it also proposes an explicative aspect to the definitional exercise, focused on clarifying legal officials’ understandings of the relevant terms in the light of the relevant legal and policy context. And finally, it summarizes the conclusions reached at each stage of the definitional exercise undertaken in later chapters.

Career Development Theory: An Integrated Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Yates
Keyword(s):  
Career Choice ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Integrated Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Career Practice

Career theories are developed to help make sense of the complexity of career choice and development. The intricacy of the subject matter is such that career theories most often focus on one or two aspects of the phenomenon. As such, the challenges of integrating the theories with each other, and integrating them within career practice, are not insignificant. In this chapter, an overview of the theoretical landscape is offered that illustrates how the theories align with each other to build up a comprehensive picture of career choice and development. The chapter introduces a wide range of theoretical frameworks, spanning seven decades and numerous academic disciplines, and discusses the most well-known theorists alongside less familiar names. The chapter is structured around four concepts: identity, environment, career learning, and psychological career resources. Suggestions are offered for the incorporation of theories in career practice.

scholarly journals Los contenidos socioculturales de los actos de habla: el contexto del usuario ideal en cuestionarios de hábitos sociales

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-296
Author(s):  
Diana Bravo
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Pragmatic Failure ◽  
Actos De Habla ◽  
Cultural Pragmatics

ResumenEn este trabajo se aborda la problemática de la universalidad de los actos de habla (Searle, ([1969]1980. Actos de habla. Madrid: Cátedra Visor.) y de su relación con las amenazas a la imagen social (cf. Placencia y Bravo, 2002. Actos de habla y cortesía en español. London: LINCOM; ; Bravo y Briz, 2004. Pragmática sociocultural: estudios del discurso de cortesía en español. Barcelona: Ariel). Dentro de los estudios de orientación pragmática de mayor difusión entre los académicos, encontramos dos posiciones, por un lado la de autores como Leech (([1983] 1988). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.) y Brown y Levinson ([1978] 1987. Politeness. Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), que asumen que determinados actos de habla serían inherentemente amenazantes para la mantención de la imagen social (face); por otro, la de Thomas ((1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4 (2), pp. 91–112.), Wierzbicka ((1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics. The Semantics of Human Interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.) y Blum-Kulka, S. y Olshtain, E. ((1984). Request and apologies: a cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics, (5), pp. 196–213.), entre otros, para quienes la percepción de los mismos actos en distintas culturas estaría influida por factores socioculturales, de manera que los actos de habla no serían per se amenazantes, sino que esta condición dependería de su interpretación en contexto. Creemos que los actos se describen de modo distinto dependiendo de cuál sea el contexto del usuario ideal, término que refiere al uso habitual de la lengua en su contexto situacional y sociocultural. Por ello sostenemos que no basta con interpretar los actos con la sola ayuda de la bibliografía y de las propias intuiciones, sino que es necesario consultar al usuario de la lengua. En este artículo nos enfocaremos en justificar una metodología de recogida de datos socio-pragmáticos que establece relaciones directas entre los actos y los hábitos sociales de sus usuarios. Nos basaremos en un método de consulta usado por varios autores, el cuestionario de hábitos sociales (cf. Hernández Flores, (2002). La cortesía en la conversación española de familiares y amigos. La búsqueda de equilibrio entre la imagen del hablante y la imagen del destinatario. Tesis doctoral. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitet. Recuperado de http://edice.asice.se/?page_id=305, y Bernal y Hernández Flores, (2016). Variación socio-pragmática en la enseñanza del español: aplicación didáctica de un cuestionario de hábitos sociales. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 3 (2), pp. 114–126.).

scholarly journals What is special about L3 processing?

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES DE BOT ◽  
CAROL JAENSCH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Third Language ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

While research on third language (L3) and multilingualism has recently shown remarkable growth, the fundamental question of what makes trilingualism special compared to bilingualism, and indeed monolingualism, continues to be evaded. In this contribution we consider whether there is such a thing as a true monolingual, and if there is a difference between dialects, styles, registers and languages. While linguistic and psycholinguistic studies suggest differences in the processing of a third, compared to the first or second language, neurolinguistic research has shown that generally the same areas of the brain are activated during language use in proficient multilinguals. It is concluded that while from traditional linguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives there are grounds to differentiate monolingual, bilingual and multilingual processing, a more dynamic perspective on language processing in which development over time is the core issue, leads to a questioning of the notion of languages as separate entities in the brain.

scholarly journals Politeness and reputation in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Mühlenbernd ◽  
Sławomir Wacewicz ◽  
Przemysław Żywiczyński
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Order Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Social Image ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Higher Order Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractPoliteness in conversation is a fascinating aspect of human interaction that directly interfaces language use and human social behavior more generally. We show how game theory, as a higher-order theory of behavior, can provide the tools to understand and model polite behavior. The recently proposed responsibility exchange theory (Chaudhry and Loewenstein in Psychol Rev 126(3):313–344, 2019) describes how the polite communications of thanking and apologizing impact two different types of an agent’s social image: (perceived) warmth and (perceived) competence. Here, we extend this approach in several ways, most importantly by adding a cultural-evolutionary dynamics that makes it possible to investigate the evolutionary stability of politeness strategies. Our analysis shows that in a society of agents who value status-related traits (such as competence) over reciprocity-related traits (such as warmth), both the less and the more polite strategies are maintained in cycles of cultural-evolutionary change.

scholarly journals Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
The Status ◽  
Language Competency ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Remedial Strategies

<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>

scholarly journals Polite speech emerges from competing social goals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica J. Yoon ◽  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
Michael Henry Tessler ◽  
Noah D. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Probabilistic Model ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Full Model ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
Social Language ◽  
Quantitative Accuracy ◽  
Polite Speech

Language is a remarkably efficient tool for transmitting information. Yet human speakers make statements that are inefficient, imprecise, or even contrary to their own beliefs, all in the service of being polite. What rational machinery underlies polite language use? Here, we show that polite speech emerges from the competition of three communicative goals: to convey information, to be kind, and to present oneself in a good light. We formalize this goal tradeoff using a probabilistic model of utterance production, which predicts human utterance choices in socially-sensitive situations with high quantitative accuracy, and we show that our full model is superior to its variants with subsets of the three goals. This utility-theoretic approach to speech acts takes a step towards explaining the richness and subtlety of social language use.

scholarly journals Kaama-taguste udmurtide sügispalvus: rituaali etnograafiline kirjeldus välitööde põhjal

2018 ◽  
pp. 102-115
Author(s):  
Eva Toulouze
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Level ◽  
Close Range ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Village ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Eastern Udmurt autumn rituals: An ethnographic description based on fieldwork There is a good amount of literature about Eastern Udmurt religious practice, particularly under its collective form of village rituals, as the Eastern Udmurt have retained much of their ethnic religion: their ancestors left their villages in the core Udmurt territory, now Udmurtia, as they wanted to go on living according to their customs, threatened by forceful Evangelisation. While many spectacular features such as the village ceremonies have drawn scholarly attention since the 19th century, the Eastern Udmurt religious practice encompasses also more modest rituals at the family level, as for example commemorations of the dead, Spring and Autumn ceremonies. Literature about the latter is quite reduced, as is it merely mentioned both in older and more recent works. This article is based on the author's fieldwork in 2017 and presents the ceremonies in three different families living in different villages of the Tatyshly district of Bashkortostan. It allows us to compare them and to understand the core of the ritual: it is implemented in the family circle, with the participation of a close range of kin, and encompasses both porridge eating and praying. It can at least give an idea of the living practice of this ritual in today's Eastern Udmurt villages. This depends widely on the age of the main organisers, on their occupations: older retired people will organise more traditional rituals than younger, employed Udmurts. Further research will ascertain how much of this tradition is still alive in other districts and in other places.

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