Testing pragmatic inferences: The impact of language and culture

Pragmatic inferences are one way to study false memories in real-world situations. We aimed to investigate variances in responses to pragmatic implication sentences between Portuguese and American data, presenting, for the first time, normative data of cued recall and recognition for pragmatic implication sentences in Portuguese. In Study 1 we analyzed cued-recall data for Portuguese pragmatic sentences. The proportions of cued- recall for correct and inference responses of each sentence did not significantly correlate with the values of American normative data. In Studies 2a and 2b we analysed forced-recognition data for pragmatic sentences, one with American participants and English sentences (Study 2a) and the other with Portuguese participants and Portuguese sentences (Study 2b). Moreover, two conditions of sentences presentations were applied to eventually detect an influence of the sentences’ format, which was not find in both studies. The levels of recognition for correct and inferences were very similar between those two studies but the correlation, sentence by sentence, was low. Together, these results suggest an important recommendation for further studies - normed material for a specific language/culture is a crucial factor to be considered when conducting research on pragmatic inferences.

Impoverished pragmatics? The semantics-pragmatics interface from an intercultural perspective

The semantic-pragmatic interface debate is about how much actual situational context the linguistic signs need in order for them to be meaningful in the communicative process. There is evidence that interlocutors in intercultural interactions rely more Some of the ideas in the paper are based on chapter six in Kecskes (2019). on the compositional meaning of linguistic signs (semantics) than contextually supported meaning (pragmatics) because actual situational context cannot help pragmatic implication and interpretation the way it does in L1 communication. At the same time in pragmatic theory there seems to be an agreement between the neo-Gricean account and the post-Gricean account on the fact that the process of implicature retrieval is context-dependent. But will this L1-based contextualism work in intercultural interactions? Is pragmatics impoverished if interlocutors can only partly rely on pragmatic enrichment coming from context and the target language? The paper argues that in fact pragmatics is invigorated rather than impoverished in intercultural communication. A new type of synchronic events-based pragmatics is co-constructed by interlocutors. Instead of relying on the existing conventions, norms and frames of the target language interlocutors create their own temporary frames, formulas and norms. There is pragmaticization of semantics which is a synchronic, (usually) one-off phenomenon in which coded meaning, sometimes without any specific pragmatic enrichment coming from the target language, obtains temporary pragmatic status. This pragmatic enrichment happens as a result of interlocutors’ blending their dictionary knowledge of the linguistic code (semantics) with their basic interpersonal communicative skills and sometimes unusual, not necessarily target language-based pragmatic strategies that suit them very well in their attempt to achieve their communicative goals.

Evidentiality in adverbs of manner of perceivability

This paper presents an analysis of the expression of evidentiality by the English adverbs manifestly, noticeably, patently and visibly (MNP&V). I propose that the adverbs have a meaning of manner and an evidential meaning, and that both meanings often coexist, in which case evidentiality is shown to be a pragmatic implication of the meaning of manner. An account is provided of the factors of the linguistic context that trigger MNP&V’s evidential meaning, as a single meaning or as an implication: propositional scope, realis assertion, no premodification by degree adverbs mapping on to a construal of totality and no coordination with adverbs of manner. Position is also shown to strengthen or weaken the evidential implication when MNP&V have syntactic clausal scope. The evidentiality expressed by MNP&V is also characterised according to mode of access, domain, subjectivity and reliability. The adverbs have been submitted to a quantitative analysis of all their occurrences in the British National Corpus; the results show that MNP&V are evidential by implication in most cases, and also uncover individual differences in features such as position and domain of evidence and in the extent to which each adverb can be considered as an evidential expression.

The mechanisms of minimization: How interrogation tactics suggest lenient sentencing through pragmatic implication

Objective: Minimization is a legal interrogation tactic in which an interrogator attempts to decrease a suspect's resistance to confessing by, for example, downplaying the seriousness of the crime. These studies examined the extent to which minimization pragmatically implies that a suspect will receive a more lenient sentence in exchange for a confession. Hypotheses: Generally, we predicted that participants who read an interrogation with a minimization theme or a direct promise of leniency would mistakenly expect more lenient sentences compared to a control condition if the suspect confessed to the crime. Hypotheses were preregistered prior to conducting each experiment.Method: In six experiments (Ns=413, 574, 496, 552, 489, 839), MTurkers read an interrogation transcript in which the suspect was (1) promised leniency, (2) subjected to minimization, or (3) questioned about the evidence (control). We tested whether warnings about direct promises and minimization induced people to adjust their expectations of sentence severity.Results: Warnings about leniency repaired sentencing expectations when participants read an interrogation with a direct promise, but were ineffective when an interrogator used minimization. Moral minimization techniques decreased sentencing expectations after a confession (d = 0.34), by influencing the perceived severity of the crime (d = .40). Honesty themes, like illegal direct promises, led participants to infer that leniency would be forthcoming in exchange for a confession (d = .60).Conclusions: Contrary to the beliefs of American courts, which have allowed minimization but not direct promises to be used in interrogations, minimization does indeed impact sentencing expectations. There may be cause to review the legality of such tactics.

Typography, Morphology, and Syntax Characteristics of Texting

The main purpose of this research was to investigate Indonesian, English, and Japanese linguistic characteristics of Short Text Messages (SMS) performed by students. In particular, this research tried to seek linguistic characteristics in terms of typography, morphology, and syntax. Furthermore, the long term purpose of this research was to find out the difference of linguistic characteristics of those languages as well as its socio-pragmatic implication of the short text messages. This research applied content analysis for its method which made use of records or document as the main source of data in terms of recording, official records, text book, reference, letter, autobiography, pictures, movies, cartoon, etc. Meanwhile, technique of analysis included several stages such as defining text, categorizing text, verifying text category, assessing the accuracy of text coding, revising the criteria of text coding, reassessing the category of text coding, coding entire texts, and finally reassessing the accuracy of coding. The identical language characteristics between SMS used by the student to communicate with their lecturers and universal language charateristics are found in this research. The research expectedly provides the main resource for improvement of language learning that enables students to use language appropriately.

Who Are You Re? The Pragmatic Implication of Fela Kuti's Question

The paper adopts a pragmatic approach to the understanding of a question posed by the late Fela Anilulapo-Kuti in one of his evergreen musical compositions. The underlying meaning of a borrowed word in the expression is systematically investigated with a view to determining its actual purpose and comprehension with respect to the peculiar Nigerian linguistic environment. The finding is that the word conveys an underlying meaning sensitive only to its contextual occurrence. The paper concludes that more attention be paid to the infusion of foreign words in the contextual use of language.