A formal approach to role language: sentence-final particles and the speaker-hearer link

This paper addresses sentence-final items that fall into the category of role language in Japanese and proposes an analysis from a cartographic perspective. To this end, the syntactic and semantic properties of these items are investigated, with particular attention to their distribution concerning root/embedded context and clause type. The investigation shows that the elements under consideration can be classified into three subcategories and that they are all connected to the speaker-hearer link via agreement relationship, on a par with the politeness marker -mas-. It is also argued that only one subcategory, dubbed gender particles, additionally interacts with illocutionary force and clause type of the sentence, similarly to discourse particles. From this study, it is implied that the role language can be studied within the framework of a syntax-discourse interface.

Means of expression and rendering in Ukrainian translations of assertive illocution of international legal texts

The article focuses on the analysis of assertive speech acts in international legal discourse. The main types of assertives are distinguished based on the criterion of presence or absence of markers of assertive illocutionary force. The paper has Identified the following types of acts: direct assertive, marked performative devices of assertive illocution; direct assertives that do not contain a performative verb and assertives with illocutionary force of indirect directives. The peculiarities of translation transformations used during the translation of assertives from English into Ukrainian are revealed

Speech Act Pluralism in Argumentative Polylogues

I challenge two key assumptions of speech act theory, as applied to argumentation: illocutionary monism, grounded in the idea each utterance has only one (primary) illocutionary force, and the dyadic reduction, which models interaction as a dyadic affair between only two agents (speaker-hearer, proponentopponent). I show how major contributions to speech act inspired study of argumentation adhere to these assumptions even as illocutionary pluralism in argumentative polylogues is a significant empirical fact in need of theoretical attention. I demonstrate this with two examples where arguers interacting with multiple persons convey plural, argumentatively relevant illocutionary forces. Understanding illocutionary pluralism in argumentative polylogues also affords a better account of fallacious and manipulative discourse.

Metaphorical blending in complex proverbs

Metaphor-based accounts of expressions involving a set of metaphors do not indicate how complex meaning is generated. For instance, meaning of the expression ‘this surgeon is a butcher’ is taken to arise from one metaphor: a person who performs actions with certain characteristics is a member of a profession known for those characteristics (Lakoff, 2008). But this metaphor does not explain its negative meaning. Blending Theory, in contrast, offers a convincing solution to this issue. Notwithstanding, it regards the expression as nonmetaphorical. I aim to combine Metaphor Theory and Blending Theory into a broad approach that best describes complex metaphorical expressions. I will apply it, first, to ‘this surgeon is a butcher’ and, second, to a pair of related proverbs: ‘God is in the details’ and ‘the devil is in the details’. Meanings of these proverbs will be assumed to emerge from three integration networks. Each operation uses two metaphors as inputs and yields a blend, comprising a new metaphor and a coded illocutionary force. The new metaphor structures their meanings, whereas the illocutionary force determines their conditions of use. The proverbs will be shown to behave, paradoxically, both as synonyms and antonyms.

On the illocutionary force of exclamatives and non-canonical questions in German and Italian

On the basis of evidence from German and Italian, it is argued that non-canonical wh-questions and wh-exclamatives involve the expression of surprise about an unexpected state of affairs; however, they exhibit a difference in illocutionary force: while non-canonical questions constitute directive speech acts which request the hearer to provide an explanation for the unexpected state of affairs, wh-exclamatives are more akin to assertions, since they are used to indicate the speaker’s surprise about the difference between the expected state of affairs and the actual one. These interpretive differences are syntactically codified by the presence and absence of Verb Second in German and by a difference in the final landing site of the wh-element in standard questions, non-canonical questions, and wh-exclamatives in Italian.