Counter-expectational scalar adverbs

Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It shows that although yoppodo and kaette convey some kind of counter-expectational meaning as lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers, the way they trigger counter-expectational meaning is quite different. In an adjectival environment, yoppodo semantically intensifies degrees based on extraordinary evidence and conventionally implies that the degree is above the speaker’s expectation. By contrast, kaette reverses the scale of the gradable predicate and conventionally implies that the opposite situation is generally true. It is also proposed that there are two types of counter-expectational expressions that use scalarity: a relative type, which represents “above expectation” (e.g. yoppodo), and a reversal type, which expresses counter-expectation via polarity reversal (e.g. kaette). Comparison with wh-exclamatives, sentence exclamation, and the counter-expectational but is also discussed.

When Increasing the Strength of the Argument Becomes Counterproductive: The Role of Argumentative Markers in the Arousal of the Psychological Reactance

The rationale of this study is that by stressing the argumentative force of the message, and thus orientating its processing, scalar adverbs are likely to be processed as an attempt to influence the decision making as regards the message advocacy and consequently trigger some aversive reactions in the recipients. To support this claim, an experiment is conducted in a context of a (campus) health promotion program dealing with HIV infection. It shows that the introduction of such adverbs in an epidemiological information report increases the cognitive and affective outcomes dealing with psychological reactance, and decreases the message acceptability and the behavioral intentions. It also shows that for the affective component of psychological reactance and message acceptability, these effects occur especially when the source of the message is perceived as authoritative. The persuasiveness of such linguistic items in the context of health communication is addressed in the conclusion of the study.