scholarly journals The Grammar of Obviousness: The Palm-Up Gesture in Argument Sequences

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia H. Marrese ◽  
Chase Wesley Raymond ◽  
Barbara A. Fox ◽  
Cecilia E. Ford ◽  
Megan Pielke
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Epistemic Stance ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Verbal Utterance

This paper investigates the body’s role in grammar in argument sequences. Drawing from a database of public disputes on language use, we document the work of the palm-up gesture in action formation. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, we show how this gesture is an interactional resource that indexes a particular epistemic stance—namely to cast the proposition being advanced as obvious. In this report, we focus on instances in which participants reach what we refer to as an ‘impasse’, at which point the palm up gesture becomes a resource for reasserting and pursuing a prior position, now laminated with an embodied claim of ‘obviousness’ that is grounded in the sequentiality of the interaction. As we show, the palm up gesture appears with and in response to a variety of syntactic and grammatical structures, and moreover can also function with no accompanying verbal utterance at all. This empirical observation challenges the assumption that a focus on grammar-in-interaction should begin with, or otherwise be examined in relation to, ‘standard’ verbal-only grammatical categories (e.g., imperative, declarative). We conclude by considering the gestural practice we focus on alongside verbal grammatical resources (specifically, particles) from typologically distinct languages, which we offer as a contribution to ongoing discussions regarding an embodied conceptualization of grammar—in this case, epistemicity.

Restrictiveness, exclusivity, adversativity, and mirativity

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
English Only ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Turn Taking

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.

scholarly journals Speech Acts

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
Recursive Structures ◽  
Core Language ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Essential Insight

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.

Sinclair, pattern grammar and the question of hatred

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Teubert
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Local Grammar

The view of pattern grammar is that syntactic structures and lexical items are co-selected and that grammatical categories begin to align very closely with semantic distinctions. While this is certainly a valid position when analysing the phenomenon of collocation, it does not really solve the problem for open choice issues. Not all language use can be subsumed under the idiom principle. The noun hatred, for instance, can co-occur with any discourse object for which hatred can be expressed. It can also co-occur with other lexical items standing for various circumstantial aspects. The grammatical structure itself often does not tell us whether we find expressed the object of hatred or some circumstantial aspect, as these structures tend to have more than one reading. Lexicogrammar, or local grammar, is more than equating a syntactic structure with a semantic pattern. We have to be aware of the different functions or readings a given grammatical structure can have. The framework of valency/dependency grammar can help us to make the necessary distinctions.

scholarly journals Conversation, Construction Grammar, and cognition

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERSTIN FISCHER
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Grammar And Interaction

abstractRecent developments in grammatical theory seem to invite an integration of grammar and interaction; nevertheless, there are reservations on both sides. While some of these reservations can be traced to misconceptions, others are deeply rooted in the theoretical premises of each approach. The differences are, however, not very well understood; especially theoretical premises regarding the role of cognition in language use have been hindering a fruitful collaboration. Reinterpreting the results of Conversation Analysis (CA; cf. Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Sacks, 1992) in terms of Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Croft, 2001, Langacker, 2008) recasts the discursive practices identified in CA in terms of participants’ cognitive construals of the communicative situation, making the speaking subjects apparent in their strategies and conceptualizations of the interaction.

Richard Johnson

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 281-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anat Biletzki
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Change Characteristic

Summary The grammarians of 16th, 17th, and 18th century England were, in the main, conservative, but the elements of continuity and change characteristic of these times make for a strange blend of uniformity and variety in the grammars they produced. Of all the grammatical categories, the treatment of mood is most hesitant, variable, and problematic. Building on this confusion, and taking a cue from the modern discussion of mood which lends itself to pragmatic analysis, the paper asks about pragmatics in the treatment of mood in earlier periods. In this it is claimed that although numerous hints and inklings provide evidence of some pragmatic tendencies, only one grammarian, Richard Johnson, in the Grammatical Commentaries of 1706, comes close to an explicit rendering of moods akin to speech acts and based on language use. His theory of moods is presented and analyzed; it is seen to formulate theoretical, pragmatic principles for moods and, furthermore, to apply such principles in the detailed analysis of specific moods. Johnson emerges as unique in his time for his treatment of moods, but obviously still limited by its conceptual frameworks.

The interactional achievements of repair and correction in a Mandarin language classroom

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsui-Ping Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Instructional Activity ◽  
Epistemic Stance ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Mandarin Language

AbstractThis study examines the different interactional achievements of repair and correction in a Mandarin language classroom from a conversation analysis perspective. The sequential analysis of teacher-initiated repair and correction shows that while repair indicates participants' relative epistemic stance and makes visible the contingent process of securing intersubjectivity, correction serves to monitor students' language production and accomplish teaching. By means of various repair practices, teacher and students are able to maintain and restore a shared understanding of the instructional activity that they are doing together. This intersubjectivity is the foundation upon which a space for teaching and learning is created, maintained, and defended. In correction sequences, the practices of repetition and overlap underscore teacher and students' alignment with a pedagogical focus of linguistic accuracy and make relevant their situated institutional identities. Regardless of the distinctive achievements in interaction, repair and correction are both practical resources that enable and sustain classroom instruction.

scholarly journals Small but Multi-functional: Response Tokens in Content Language Integrated Learning Interaction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Sabria Salama Jawhar
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper is an investigation of language use inside a content language integrated learning (CLIL) classroom at Saudi tertiary level. It examines the difference in language use between teachers and students in four subject-specific classrooms in which English is used as a medium of instruction. The study is informed by corpus linguistics (CL) and uses the principles and theoretical underpinning of conversation analysis (CA). It identifies the most frequent linguistic features of CLIL and examines their diverse interactional functions in this context. Amongst the most frequent linguistic features in CLIL are short response tokens such as “yes” and “no”. Using a micro-analytic approach to conversation analysis, a closer look at the data shows the students’ ability to use small and limited linguistic resources to accomplish multiple interactional functions such as taking the floor, taking turns and, most importantly, displaying orientation to knowledge. The data reflected the relationship between frequency and meaning construction. With regard to the difference in language use between teachers and students with regard to comes to short response tokens, the study shows some common interactional uses of response tokens between teachers and students, such as agreement, acknowledgement, response to confirmation checks and yes/no questions. On the other hand, it shows some exclusive interactional use of the same token by teachers and students. Finally, the paper emphasises the relationship of language, interaction and orientation to content knowledge in CLIL classrooms. Pedagogically, the findings have implications for teachers’ language use and for increased classroom interaction.

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