The development of interlanguage pragmatic markers in alignment with role relationships

Studies on the development of interlanguage pragmatic markers (PMs) have attracted increasing interest recently. However, little research is available on the PM dynamic development in alignment with English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom contexts. Given the lacuna, this article, based on the Complexity and the Alignment theories, investigates how PMs develop and how aligning with film-situated un/equal role relationships influences development. The study with eight data collection points tracks 28 EFL learners’ PM production over around 1.5 year. Results revealed: (1) the employed PM functions fluctuated but developed from singular to multiple, with the interpersonal function use being regressive and the structural and the cognitive, progressive; (2) the PM development manifested a significant gain in aligning with the equal role relationships; and (3) different proficiency learners had dissimilar PM development. These findings corroborate the view of context-dependent dynamic development and provide strong evidence for aligning EFL learning with various role relationships.

Ruolo del transfer e strategie di rifiuto in apprendenti ispanofoni di italiano L2 Uno studio esplorativo

This exploratory study examines strategies of refusals in two groups of peninsular and Ecuadorian Spanish learners of Italian, attending university courses in Italy. The aim of the investigation is to explore the type, the order and the frequency of refusals and the role of transfer in situations characterized by different role relationships among interactants. Data was collected using a Discourse Completion Task and a retrospective interview. Results show that Ecuadorian learners sometimes transfer their L1 patterns into the L2. Outcomes are discussed in light of studies on Politeness Theory.

How Do Technologies Change Organizations?

This chapter proposes a model of when and how new technologies will bring about changes in organizational structures and cultures. It argues that the key to such transformations lies in whether technologies alter roles and role relationships. Unless both roles and role relations change, new technologies are unlikely to have a significant effect on how organizations are structured. To determine whether roles and role relations have changed, it is useful to adopt a dramaturgical approach to analyzing encounters. Specifying the scripts that characterize encounters typical of the setting under investigation is central to such an analysis. The approach is illustrated by means of case studies of medical imaging and of how the Internet has begun to change the way car salesmen related interact with customers.

Responsibility and the Problem of So-Called Marginal Agents

Philosophical views of responsibility often identify responsible agency with capacities such as rationality and self-control. Yet in ordinary life, we frequently hold individuals responsible who are deficient in these capacities, such as children or people with mental illness. The existing literature that addresses these cases has suggested that we merely pretend to hold these agents responsible or that they are responsible to a diminished degree. In this paper, I demonstrate that neither of these approaches is satisfactory, and I offer an alternative focused on the role relationships play in determining whether it is appropriate to hold someone responsible. I argue that relationships are sources of normative expectations about how parties in that relationship ought to behave and that we can be responsible in virtue of being subject to these norms. This is so not only for those who are impaired or immature, but for all of us.

The Interplay between Social Contexts of Power and Aggravation Strategies: Identity- specific Perspectives in Fictional Discourse

This paper attempts a pragmatic analysis of the interplay between social contexts of power and sociolinguistic device of aggravation strategies concerning dialogic discourses in Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy (ASB) (1993). The paper attempts to validate that aggravation strategies have been an integral part of human discourse. It demonstrates how people use aggravation strategies to exercise power over others in different communicative contexts. It also exemplifies how power is vested in specific identities, and their role relationships in different power structures existing in the society based on their caste, age, sex, social standing, political or official identity, and how the power is exerted in the context of their social identities. The paper defines various aspects of aggravation, explains the dominant participatory identities, namely master identities, situated identities, and discourse identities and analyses how these social identities exercise power through aggravation strategies in the dialogic discourses in ASB.

Passing on the good vibes: Entrepreneurs’ social support

This study investigates whether the emotional support individuals have available from their social network influences the likelihood that they in turn provide instrumental support to entrepreneurs they know: if they pass on the good vibes. Hypotheses are tested on a Danish data set consisting of individuals who know a nascent entrepreneur ( N = 392). The article demonstrates how emotional support made available to individuals from their social network impacts the likelihood of them providing entrepreneurs with instrumental support. Furthermore, findings show how the relation between available emotional support and the provision of instrumental support depends on culturally defined norms associated with various role-relationships and gender. The study contributes to existing theory by changing the perspective from focusing only on differences in characteristics between entrepreneurs to how the individuals in entrepreneurs’ social networks differ in characteristics and how this affects their social support to entrepreneurs. Furthermore, a significant contribution is the demonstration of how the provision of social support to entrepreneurs is contingent on different role-relationships.