Aggressive Language in Literature: A Pragmatic Approach

Aggression is a negative form of an anti-social behavior. It is produced because of a particular reason, desire, want, need, or due to the psychological state of the aggressor. It injures others physically or psychologically. Aggressive behaviors in human interactions cause discomfort and disharmony among interlocutors. The paper aims to identify how aggressive language manifests itself in the data under scrutiny in terms of the pragmatic paradigm. Two British literary works are the data; namely, Look Back in Anger by John Osborne (1956), and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (1957). This paper endeavors to answer the question of how aggressive language is represented in literature pragmatically? It is hoped to be significant to linguistic and psychological studies in that it clarifies how aggression is displayed in human communications linguistically. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted to verify the findings. It ends with some concluding remarks, the most important of which are: insulting, belittling, ridiculing and threatening are prevalent speech acts; simile, hyperbole, metaphor and repetition appear due to Grice’s maxims breaching while the use of taboo words, calling names, or abusive words are the impoliteness strategies that are distinguished in the data.

Aggressive Language in Literature: A Pragmatic Approach

Aggression is a negative form of an anti-social behavior. It is produced because of a particular reason, desire, want, need, or due to the psychological state of the aggressor. It injures others physically or psychologically. Aggressive behaviors in human interactions cause discomfort and disharmony among interlocutors. The paper aims to identify how aggressive language manifests itself in the data under scrutiny in terms of the pragmatic paradigm. Two British literary works are the data; namely, Look Back in Anger by John Osborne (1956), and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (1957). This paper endeavors to answer the question of how aggressive language is represented in literature pragmatically? It is hoped to be significant to linguistic and psychological studies in that it clarifies how aggression is displayed in human communications linguistically. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted to verify the findings. It ends with some concluding remarks, the most important of which are: insulting, belittling, ridiculing and threatening are prevalent speech acts; simile, hyperbole, metaphor and repetition appear due to Grice’s maxims breaching while the use of taboo words, calling names, or abusive words are the impoliteness strategies that are distinguished in the data.

Representation of Pragmatism in Scholarly Publications on COVID-19

Pragmatism is an important resource that has helped higher education institutions (HEIs) in Lesotho and South Africa to complete the 2020 academic year even when they were affected by COVID-19. Pragmatism is a philosophy of human actions combined with experiences in order to produce outcomes or consequences, where the reality is about what works according to individual needs based on a specific situation. During the COVID-19 era, pragmatism has been represented by the use of learning management systems (LMSs) and social media sites (SMSs). The representation of pragmatism, based on ten sampled publications of this study was divided into performance- (driven by LMSs) and competence-based (driven by SMSs) curricula. The purpose and objective of this study was to explore and understand the representation of pragmatism in ten scholarly publications purposively sampled for this study on education during the COVID-19 era. Document analysis framed by pragmatic paradigm, critical discourse analysis (CDA), and community of inquiry (CoI), was used to generate data for this study. The findings concluded that pragmatism was the reason for HEIs saving the 2020 academic year: pragmatism harmonised the tension between LMSs and SMSs which existed even before the COVID-19 era. Consequently, this study recommends the application of pragmatism in any uncertainty/novelty situation in education, in order to address individual needs before professional and societal needs.

Cognitive & Pragmatic Approach to the Phraseological Intensifiers of Political Discourse

The present paper reports on a study that aims to explore the cognitive and pragmatic potential of leveraging phraseological intensifiers in English political discourse. The authors argue that the phraseological intensifiers of political discourse could not be discussed without any contribution to the extra-linguistic context. Therefore, the present study works with a cognitive linguistic explanation of the phraseological intensifiers used by English politicians and journalists as well as performed pragmatic impact that aimed to foster the relevant conceptualization process. The suggestion of phraseological intensifiers depends on context linguistic meaning in the employed by the authors cognitive-pragmatic paradigm. This paper also denotes a wide range of relative to intensity categories, which should be distinguished from it. Such an analysis allows the authors to account for the wide distribution of intensifiers and their co-occurrence with categories that do not encode degree variables. The results of the study show that phraseological intensifiers significantly outperformed in the degree of pragmatic suggestion in political discourse and made use of them in a more appropriate way.

From subjective perspective to subjective text navigation

This article considers description as a functional and semantic type of speech from the point of view of the receptive-pragmatic paradigm of research. The authors turn to pragmatic syntax in order to reconstruct the receptive space of the speech subject, their cognitive sphere based on pragmatically (connotatively) «charged» signs and to actualize the implicitly expressed meaning of the statement with their help. The methodological basis of the study is the referential analysis, which helps to reconstruct a set of initial situations (referential space), and contextual analysis, through which the pragmatic information and personal meanings belonging to the cognitive sphere of the speech subject (receptive space) are explicated. Special attention is paid to the triadic opposition «figure – micro-context – referential space» – «background – macro-context – receptive space». The conceptual triad «figure – micro-context – referential space» is related to the material world and its representations in the text, and in this respect belongs to the conceptual field of semantic syntax. On the contrary, the conceptual triad «background – macro-context – receptive space» enables to reconstruct the cognitive sphere of the speech subject and its representation in speech, in particular, the attitude of the speech subject to what they see, feel and think, how their ideas about the original (referent) situation develop, and refer to the material sphere and conceptual field of pragmatic syntax. This triadic opposition helps to consider the subjective navigation of the text as a modification of its subjective perspective. Subjective text navigation represents implicit (not clearly expressed) ways of orientation in the cognitive sphere of the speech subject and is designed to direct the reader's attention, their perception of different levels of explicitly and implicitly expressed meanings through pragmatic localizers of the speech subject's discourse intention.

Inscriptions on clothing as an object of linguistic studies

Clothing performs not only the typical protective and utilitarian functions, but also becomes a means of communication. This position is particularly evident in garment with inscriptions and prints. The growing popularity of such textile fabrics causes the study of the typology of inscriptions on clothing from a linguistic standpoint. The purpose of the work is to determine the main approaches to the study of inscriptions on clothing in modern science in general and linguistics in particular. It has been determined that within the framework of linguistics, inscriptions on clothing are considered in the context of the communicative-pragmatic paradigm. However, there is no unified approach to the interpretation of this linguistic phenomenon, some researchers define it as a separate genre or subgenre of a particular discourse, others – as a new type of media. As a result of the study, it has been established that inscriptions on clothing are characterized by certain linguistic features (use of abbreviations and numbers, prevalence of simple sentences and elliptical constructions, use of colloquialisms, youth slang and puns, specific style of writing, use of imperatives and intertextuality) and perform various functions (communicative, regulatory, informative-representative, expressive-pragmatic, epistemological, aesthetic). Though most modern linguists agree that inscriptions on clothing function as a means of communication, the problems of using the appropriate term (inscription, slogan, message) and studying inscriptions not only on T-shirts, but also on other types of clothing remain unsolved.

PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION SOURCES IN MEETING INFORMATION NEEDS OF RICE GROWERS IN NEPAL

A study was done to assess the effectiveness of different information sources in meeting information needs and utilization behavior of rice growers in western midhills of Nepal, taking 101 sample households. Survey design with a structured questionnaire was used for data collection under the pragmatic paradigm of social research. The study showed that 30 percent of farmers were high information seekers while about 59 percent were utilizing information highly implying that most farmers were using the information highly though they don't seek information by themselves. Input management and climatic information were highly sought and utilized. Though fellow and contact farmers were the more used source of information, however, respondents felt that extension personnel and agro-vets were more credible. An assessment of the effective index showed that fellow farmers were highly effective followed by extension personnel and agro-vets while social media and ICTs were least effective. There was a significant positive correlation between information variables and education, ethnicity, number of crops grown and accessibility to information sources. However, poor accessibility of farmers to these sources was a major problem. Thus, a suitable information delivery system accessible to most farmers according to their time and needs should be designed regarding rice cultivation.

Exploring Strategic CSR paradigm: A Review of Strategy – CSR linkages

This study explores the contentious linkages between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Strategy by reviewing the CSR and strategy literature. Further, the study investigates how the changing paradigms of CSR approach strategy. A critical review of existing literature unfolds ‘Strategic CSR’ as a sustainable and pragmatic paradigm as it delivers competitive advantage for a firm. Further, stakeholder engagement and market orientation were identified as the dominant linking themes whereas the latter is also identified as a core construct of Strategic CSR. Market orientation is an antecedent while competitive advantage delivered by strategic CSR can be measured through customer loyalty ,stakeholder commitment and reputation. Besides, this process is found to be mediated by social opportunity orientation and social co-creation. This exploratory study also suggests future direction of research for further insights and validation.