scholarly journals The Pragmatics of persuasive in Sesotho bride price discussion

Author(s):  
Pule Phindane

This study is based on the investigation of the pragmatics of persuasive in Sesotho bride price discussions. The study was informed by Austin’s (1962), and Searle’s (1969) speech act theory, and politeness theory. Different linguistic expressions that denote persuasion and various classes of persuasive are used to analyse some insinuations of persuasive expressions function. This is a qualitative study which utilised different methods to collect data. Ten (10) bride price discussion meetings, as well as ten (10), structured interviews from the study areas of Leribe (ButhaButhe and Hlotse) and Berea (Teyateyaneng) districts in Lesotho were conducted. The study revealed that the speakers used various linguistic expressions to reach an agreement. The expressions used were comprehensible to the people sharing the same cultural background context.

Author(s):  
Nicholas Wolterstorff

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.


1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Brown ◽  
Albert Gilman

ABSTRACTPenelope Brown and Stephen Levinson (1987) have proposed that power (P), distance (D), and the ranked extremity (R) of a face-threatening act are the universal determinants of politeness levels in dyadic discourse. This claim is tested here for Shakespeare's use of Early Modern English in Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello. The tragedies are used because: (1) dramatic texts provide the best information on colloquial speech of the period; (2) the psychological soliloquies in the tragedies provide the access to inner life that is necessary for a proper test of politeness theory; and (3) the tragedies represent the full range of society in a period of high relevance to politeness theory. The four plays are systematically searched for pairs of minimally contrasting dyads where the dimensions of contrast are power (P), distance (D), and intrinsic extremity (R). Whenever such a pair is found, there are two speeches to be scored for politeness and a prediction from theory as to which should be more polite. The results for P and for R are those predicted by theory, but the results for D are not. The two components of D, interactive closeness and affect, are not closely associated in the plays. Affect strongly influences politeness (increased liking increases politeness and decreased liking decreases politeness); interactive closeness has little or no effect on politeness. The uses of politeness for the delineation of character in the tragedies are illustrated. (Politeness theory, speech act theory, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, theory of literature, Shakespeare studies)


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Samaila Yakubu

Speech act analysis is an act of investigating how utterances not only disseminate information but perform actions as well.  Dialogues in Henshaw’s This Is Our Chance are not only employed to exchange information about animosity between the people of Koloro Village and the people of Udura Village but to take actions on matters that involved the two neighbouring villages.  The present paper seeks to explore the dialogues in the above mentioned text to see how they have been used.  The paper adopts speech act theory of J. L. Austin which was later developed by J. R. Searle.  The data for the study were analysed based on speech act theory. Components of directive speech act such as commands and questions are used extensively in the text while those like requests, advice, directives and warnings are used insignificantly; constituents of representative speech act, namely, statements and reports run throughout the text; elements of expressive speech act such as complaints and appreciations are found in the text; declaration speech acts, and constituent of commissive speech act such as promise are used scantly in the text.  The study concludes that speech act theory is the most appropriate instrument for handling civil conflict.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Rd. Januar Radhiya ◽  
Asteria Permata Martawijaya

This study investigates speech act strategies used in earthquake mitigation handbooks in Japan, and focuses on finding the type of communicative functions of the speech act strategies used. The government of Japan has provided online and printed handbooks for the people, to reduce risks to a minimum level regarding the disaster so people can prepare beforehand. The data in this study were collected from online leaflet and handbook regarding earthquake mitigation provided by 9 government city’s websites, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and by collecting actual handbook and leaflets from Indonesian lives in Japan. The data were analysed using descriptive qualitative method. Collected data then categorized into assertive and directive speech acts, negative and positive politeness based on Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, and focusing on expression of consideration (hairyo hyougen). This study found that there are 659 statements related to earthquake disaster mitigation collected from the data. Also, the findings showed that there are 179 assertive and 480 directives speech acts, with more of imperative directive speech than prohibition directive speech. Moreover, Japanese government tend to use hairyou hyougen on their leaflet and handbook disaster mitigation to show respect to the reader.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (13) ◽  
pp. 332-348
Author(s):  
د. حميد يحيى أحمد الزبيري د. حميد يحيى أحمد الزبيري

the present study aims at exploring and describing the multiple functions of the PM ‘?amaanah’ in the corpus of Yemeni spoken Arabic. A total of 174 audio-recorded data of natural conversations were analyzed as spoken corpus of Yemeni Arabic. The study is based on an eclectic analytical method whose views have been drawn from the theoretical frameworks of the speech act theory, politeness theory, model of functional systemic linguistics (the interpersonal metafunction), and relevance theory. The findings of the study show that the PM ‘?amaanah’ functions as: an expression of oath; a commitment marker to a future action on the part of the speaker and the addressee; a mitigation marker, preceding potentially face-threating speech acts; a signal introducing reprimanding; an attitude marker expressing a speaker’s attitude and emotion; an epistemic marker evaluating the subjectivity of the speaker’s propositional content; an entreaty-marker on directive act; and a displeasure marker on the part of the speaker. The study concluded with a suggestion on conducting a further research exploring the discourse functions of the marker.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Riyanti Menno

The study was aimed at examining the use of polite language (language use) in Kupang Malay speech community. There are two basic theories of this research; speech act and linguistic politeness theory. The politeness theory was combined with speech act theory, because the speech act theory investigates what to choose, while the theory of politeness investigate whether the utterances are polite or not. In speech, the BMK speaker also uses the six the principles of politeness toward the listeners. These principles are tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim, and sympathy maxim


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Larina

This paper attempts to define a culture-specific communicative style which I call communicative ethno-style and determine the factors which lead to its formation. While defining communicative ethno-style some generalizations are unavoidable and reference is made to a typical user of standard language and his/her communicative behaviour in interpersonal interaction in everyday situations. At the same time it is not possible to take a dichotomous approach in describing the communicative styles as they form a continuum and need to be viewed in comparison. In this paper I demarcate the dominant features of Russian communicative style as opposed to British and emphasize the importance of a systemized description of culture specific communicative differences through communicative ethno-styles. This is important for developing pragmatic and discourse competence necessary for intercultural communication. The study is based on empirical data obtained through questionnaires, interviews and observations and follows contextual, pragmatic, discourse analyses. The theoretical framework is based on Politeness Theory (Brown and Levinson, 1987; Leech, 1983, 2005; Watts, 2003), Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) and the Theory of Cultural Scripts (Wierzbicka, 1991/2003, 2002, 2006).


Author(s):  
Narges Masjedi ◽  
Shamala Paramasivam

Complaint is a face threatening act and it happens when a speaker reacts with anger to things which go wrong or to a speech or an action which affected him/her unfavorably. Therefore, complaints can engender social relationship breakdown. However, a complainer can use politeness when he/she aims to maintain a good relationship with complainee or to mitigate the severity of his/her complaint and face threat. This study aims to investigate the complaint speech act with regard to the strategies and structure used as well as the politeness strategies employed by Iranian learners in communication with other nationalities in the academic context of a university. Searle’s (1969) speech act theory and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory comprised the theoretical framework of the study. The data were elicited through open-ended discourse completion task questionnaire from 50 Iranian learners. The data were analyzed using pragmatics as the approach within discourse analysis. The findings show that Iranians are able to draw on a variety of strategies and structures and adapt them in a flexible manner when faced with various complaint-provoking situations. Culturally, the findings show that Iranians are indirect and exercise negative politeness as they try to minimize the face threatening act of complaining. However, when the situation demands for it, they can be direct in their manner of speech.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fareed Hameed Al-Hindawi ◽  
Mariam D. Saffah

The present study aims at presenting a thorough account of the field termed literary pragmatics which emerges in a consequence of applying the different pragmatic approaches to the study and analysis of literary genera. Additionally, it also attempts to explore and shed some light on the relationship between the two domains: pragmatics and literature in order to reveal their commonalities. There exists a strong assumption that these have something in common as they both have to do with language users and how meaning is conveyed. Despite the fact the various pragmatic approaches including speech act theory, conversational implicature, politeness theory and relevance theory are developed mainly in relation to spoken interactions, the study has revealed that they offer invaluable insights to the study of literary texts. Moreover, the process of analyzing literary texts has led to the development and the explanation of the pragmatic approaches themselves.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Melda Mahniza ◽  
Syahron Lubis ◽  
Umar Mono ◽  
Ridwan Hanafiah

<p><strong></strong><em>This paper aims to find out the types of pragmatic failures that can lead to incorrect understanding of meaning by the audience. Pragmatic failure in translation consists of two failures, namely: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failures in translation are analyzed using speech act theory proposed by Searle and deixis theory proposed by Levinson. Sociopragmatic failures in translation are analyzed using the principle of cooperation theory proposed by Grice and the principle of politeness theory proposed by Brown and Levinson. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. One hundred seventy-six pragmatic failures are found in the subtitles of Moonlight movie, which is divided into one hundred thirty-six pragmalinguistic failures and forty sociopragmatic failures. Pragmalinguistic failures that occur are the failures to transfer speech acts and deixis of oral speech into subtitles. Sociopragmatic failures that occur are the failures to transfer principle of cooperation of oral speech into subtitles.</em></p>


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