The Pragmatics of persuasive in Sesotho bride price discussion

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.

EXPLORING BROWN AND LEVINSON’S POLITENESS THEORY AND THE FORM-FUNCTION FIT IN REQUESTS IN JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE FROM A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC, CONSTRUCTIONIST, AND CONTRASTIVE PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this work is to demonstrate and illustrate the pervasive existence of points of convergence between literature and language in general and form and meaning in particular. Specifically, the connection between language and literature is explored with specific reference to one of the germinal works of English literature, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the light of the principles and taxonomies of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, with special focus on requests. A further twist added to the analysis presented in this work comes from a relatively fine-nuanced contrastive (English-Spanish) analysis of requests strategies using as the database of analysis a Spanish translation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Rodríguez, 2018).

How to promote the pragmatic awareness and avoid the fossilization phenomenon through a role play activity in English as a foreign language classes

Many people, even after spending a lifetime studying a foreign language are prone to get stuck in a certain grammatical domain no matter the efforts made and the amount of the target language input offered in the classroom. Unfortunately, the great majority who pursuits their dreams to be the closest possible to a native like speaker, the lack of ability to analyze and synthesize linguistic elements makes them persist in the same errors, establishing a phenomenon known as Fossilization in their learning process. In fact, Fossilization can occur in all learning process levels: phonological, grammatical, lexical and pragmatic and the errors made seem to be similar from individual to individual. In an attempt to avoid this Fossilization process concerning the pragmatically ability to communicate, this article aims to present a suggestion of a role-play activity involving strategies to enhance pragmatic awareness related to politeness theory.

Analysis on the use of politeness strategies in a scene of The Crown

This article aims to analyze the positive and negative politeness strategies speakers employ to avoid threatening the addresses’ face in the series The Crown (2017) in season 02, episode 08 entitled Dear Mrs. Kennedy. The analysis is held in light of the Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson (1987, first published in 1978). It could be observed through a qualitative analysis that when there is a relation of power between the speaker and the hearer, the speaker tends to use bald on record expressions, whereas when the speaker is the subordinate, he/she tends to utter negative strategies and hedges to mitigate the threat to the hearer’s face.

Authentic Discourse and Model Exemplars in Japanese Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Apologies and Requests

<p>In recent years, the communicative approach has prevailed in second language teaching, such that model dialogues are presented in textbooks for language learners. However, there has been little research on the extent to which such exemplars reflect authentic discourse in Japanese. This thesis, therefore, explores the speech acts of Japanese language native speakers (NSs), non-native speakers who are learning Japanese (NNSs), and discourse model examples presented in Japanese language textbooks (TXs) in order to investigate their similarities and differences, and thereby enhance the contents of textbooks. In particular, this thesis focuses on the discourse structure and expressions. The study takes a quantitative approach to the data analysis, using two different scenarios in settings of apology and requests. NSs pairs and NNSs pairs were requested to perform role-plays of two different scenarios in Japanese. The conversational data of the role-plays were transcribed, and the model exemplars of apology and request presented in the selected Japanese language textbooks were also analysed. The analysis employs the framework of cross-cultural speech act realisation patterns (CCSARP) of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) to categorise utterances based on the intentions of the speakers into two parts, namely: Head Acts (HAs) and Supportive Moves (SMs). Once the data were classified by the CCSARP, individual HAs and SMs were sorted according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987), which divides politeness strategies into four types: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. By adopting both CCSARP and politeness theory, the characteristics of the discourse strategies and expressions of the three groups analysed in this thesis can be grasped. The analysis produces several new findings by identifying various ways in which the model dialogues in Japanese language textbooks fail to reflect the natural discourse of Japanese native speakers. The thesis presents suggestions for improvement for the benefit of textbook authors in future.</p>

Authentic Discourse and Model Exemplars in Japanese Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Apologies and Requests

<p>In recent years, the communicative approach has prevailed in second language teaching, such that model dialogues are presented in textbooks for language learners. However, there has been little research on the extent to which such exemplars reflect authentic discourse in Japanese. This thesis, therefore, explores the speech acts of Japanese language native speakers (NSs), non-native speakers who are learning Japanese (NNSs), and discourse model examples presented in Japanese language textbooks (TXs) in order to investigate their similarities and differences, and thereby enhance the contents of textbooks. In particular, this thesis focuses on the discourse structure and expressions. The study takes a quantitative approach to the data analysis, using two different scenarios in settings of apology and requests. NSs pairs and NNSs pairs were requested to perform role-plays of two different scenarios in Japanese. The conversational data of the role-plays were transcribed, and the model exemplars of apology and request presented in the selected Japanese language textbooks were also analysed. The analysis employs the framework of cross-cultural speech act realisation patterns (CCSARP) of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) to categorise utterances based on the intentions of the speakers into two parts, namely: Head Acts (HAs) and Supportive Moves (SMs). Once the data were classified by the CCSARP, individual HAs and SMs were sorted according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987), which divides politeness strategies into four types: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. By adopting both CCSARP and politeness theory, the characteristics of the discourse strategies and expressions of the three groups analysed in this thesis can be grasped. The analysis produces several new findings by identifying various ways in which the model dialogues in Japanese language textbooks fail to reflect the natural discourse of Japanese native speakers. The thesis presents suggestions for improvement for the benefit of textbook authors in future.</p>

The Role of /Overlaps\ in Intercultural Workplace Interaction

<p>The field of workplace communication continues to grow, and globalisation has encouraged researchers to focus on the phenomenon of intercultural interaction in multi-cultural workplaces. Usually, but not exclusively, framed within the constructs of Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, intercultural studies have typically concentrated on instances of miscommunication taking a partial, one-sided account of intercultural workplace interaction. Differing social norms for what constitutes politeness have been a major focus of debate into the merits of politeness theory. Overlapping speech, in particular, is one aspect of workplace interaction that has been long neglected in the field of intercultural workplace interaction research. Moving away from the traditional views in the field, the present study takes a positive stance on the study of the interplay of interactional norms of politeness in intercultural face-to-face workplace interaction and investigates how people from different ethnic backgrounds undertake relational work in naturally-occurring workplace exchanges. As the analytic framework, rapport management (developed by Spencer-Oatey) provides a useful reconceptualisation of linguistic politeness with a greater focus on negotiated interaction. The analysis focuses on the role of overlapping speech in this context of interaction guided by two research questions: 1) how does overlapping speech function in workplace interactions in New Zealand? and 2) how are these overlaps intended and 'perceived' by culturally different interactants? To this end, the data for the present study were drawn from two meetings in a large educational institution in New Zealand. In the first phase of data collection, two meetings were video and audio recorded, from which representative extracts containing overlaps were chosen for analysis. In the second phase, individual stimulated recall interviews were held with the participants with the purpose of eliciting participants' intentions and perceptions regarding the use of overlaps. The findings suggest that this group of instructors operate as a Community of Practice (CofP) rather than as ethnic individualities with shared assumptions and expectations regarding the appropriate use of overlaps to cooperatively construct meaning in interaction. This CofP, it was noted, is also strongly oriented towards the maintenance and enhancement of social harmony in their workplace interaction, which influences the use of overlapping speech as a communicative strategy employed to this end. Overall, the study demonstrates that considering intercultural communication from the perspective of rapport management can provide positive insights into how people from different ethnic backgrounds do relational work as they construct meaning in interaction.</p>

The Role of /Overlaps\ in Intercultural Workplace Interaction

<p>The field of workplace communication continues to grow, and globalisation has encouraged researchers to focus on the phenomenon of intercultural interaction in multi-cultural workplaces. Usually, but not exclusively, framed within the constructs of Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, intercultural studies have typically concentrated on instances of miscommunication taking a partial, one-sided account of intercultural workplace interaction. Differing social norms for what constitutes politeness have been a major focus of debate into the merits of politeness theory. Overlapping speech, in particular, is one aspect of workplace interaction that has been long neglected in the field of intercultural workplace interaction research. Moving away from the traditional views in the field, the present study takes a positive stance on the study of the interplay of interactional norms of politeness in intercultural face-to-face workplace interaction and investigates how people from different ethnic backgrounds undertake relational work in naturally-occurring workplace exchanges. As the analytic framework, rapport management (developed by Spencer-Oatey) provides a useful reconceptualisation of linguistic politeness with a greater focus on negotiated interaction. The analysis focuses on the role of overlapping speech in this context of interaction guided by two research questions: 1) how does overlapping speech function in workplace interactions in New Zealand? and 2) how are these overlaps intended and 'perceived' by culturally different interactants? To this end, the data for the present study were drawn from two meetings in a large educational institution in New Zealand. In the first phase of data collection, two meetings were video and audio recorded, from which representative extracts containing overlaps were chosen for analysis. In the second phase, individual stimulated recall interviews were held with the participants with the purpose of eliciting participants' intentions and perceptions regarding the use of overlaps. The findings suggest that this group of instructors operate as a Community of Practice (CofP) rather than as ethnic individualities with shared assumptions and expectations regarding the appropriate use of overlaps to cooperatively construct meaning in interaction. This CofP, it was noted, is also strongly oriented towards the maintenance and enhancement of social harmony in their workplace interaction, which influences the use of overlapping speech as a communicative strategy employed to this end. Overall, the study demonstrates that considering intercultural communication from the perspective of rapport management can provide positive insights into how people from different ethnic backgrounds do relational work as they construct meaning in interaction.</p>

Compliments and compliment responses in Egyptian and Saudi Arabic

The current study reports on a variational pragmatic comparison of compliments and compliment responses between Egyptian and Saudi Arabic. Data were collected by using Discourse Completion Tasks from 443 Egyptian and 428 Saudi undergraduates, and were analyzed using adaptations of Yuan’s (2002) and Herbert’s (1986) models. The results reveal significant differences in politeness management between Egyptian and Saudi youth, particularly with Egyptians producing more explicit compliment strategies and Saudis showing stronger preference for implicit compliment strategies and combination patterns. Less difference is noted in compliment responses with only Egyptians exhibiting higher use of additional strategies. The findings are interpreted in light of politeness theory and the interplay between cultural values and linguistic behavior.