Pragmatics of Social Media


Book Description

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the pragmatics of social media, i.e. of digitally mediated and Internet-based platforms which are interactively used to share and edit self- and other-generated textual and audio-visual messages. Its five parts offer state-of-the-art reviews and critical evaluations in the light of on-going developments: Part I The Nature of Social Media sets up the conceptual groundwork as it explores key concept such as social media, participation, privacy/publicness. Part II Social Media Platforms focuses on the pragmatics of single platforms such as YouTube, Facebook. Part III Social Media and Discourse covers the micro-and macro-level organization of social media discourse, while Part IV Social Media and Identity reveals the multifarious ways in which users collectively (re-)construct aspects of their identities. Part V Social Media and Functions/Speech Acts surveys pragmatic studies on speech act functions such as disagreeing, complimenting, requesting. Each contribution provides a state-of-the-art review together with a critical evaluation of the existing research.




Compliments and Compliment Responses


Book Description

This book analyzes compliments and compliment responses in naturally occurring talk-in-interaction in German. Using Conversation Analytic methodology, it views complimenting and responding to compliments as social actions which are co-produced and negotiated among interactants. This study is the first to analyze the entire complimenting sequence within the larger interactional context, thereby demonstrating the interconnectedness of sequence organization, turn-design, and (varying) function(s) of a turn. In this regard, the present study makes a novel contribution to the study of talk-in-interaction beyond German. The book adds to existing work on interaction and grammar by closely analyzing the functions of linguistic resources used to design compliment turns and compliment responses. Here, the study extends previous Conversation Analytic work on person reference by including an analysis of inanimate object reference. Lastly, the book discusses the use and function of various particles and demonstrates how speaker alignments and misalignments are accomplished through various grammatical forms.




Compliments and Compliment Responses


Book Description

This book analyzes compliments and compliment responses in naturally occurring talk-in-interaction in German. Using Conversation Analytic methodology, it views complimenting and responding to compliments as social actions which are co-produced and negotiated among interactants. This study is the first to analyze the entire complimenting sequence within the larger interactional context, thereby demonstrating the interconnectedness of sequence organization, turn-design, and (varying) function(s) of a turn. In this regard, the present study makes a novel contribution to the study of talk-in-interaction beyond German. The book adds to existing work on interaction and grammar by closely analyzing the functions of linguistic resources used to design compliment turns and compliment responses. Here, the study extends previous Conversation Analytic work on person reference by including an analysis of inanimate object reference. Lastly, the book discusses the use and function of various particles and demonstrates how speaker alignments and misalignments are accomplished through various grammatical forms.




Studies in Interactional Linguistics


Book Description

Current interactional linguistic research appears to be crystallizing around systematic themes, which are all represented in this collection of papers. In the first section, where the relation between language and interaction is viewed from the perspective of language structure, several articles deal with the potential of a single structure for both turn and sequence construction, revealing a play-off between planned and occasioned syntax with potentially far-reaching consequences for language development. Other articles deal with lexical expressions as resources for the conduct of interaction, showing how they are heavily dependent on turn position and sequential context for their meaning potential. In the second section, with a view from the perspective of the interactional order, a systematic focus of interest lies on three different conversational tasks: projecting turn and turn-unit completion, starting up turns with 'non-beginnings' and self-repairing. The cross-linguistic studies here all agree that common interactional tasks may well be carried out by quite different linguistic practices and that these practices are dependent to a certain extent on language features which are typologically distinct.







Advanced Japanese


Book Description

This innovative advanced level course in Japanese teaches appropriate language use in real life situations. With an emphasis on listening and speaking skills, the course takes a descriptive approach, demonstrating the variations that exist among Japanese speakers. Authentic sample dialogues demonstrate a range of generally preferred language uses, giving the student the tools to communicate in an effective and culturally appropriate manner. Organized according to frequently used functions of speech, such as requesting, apologizing, refusing and thanking and complimenting, Advanced Japanese presents commonly-used expressions and typical speech routines, providing the learner with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their usage within the social context. Advanced Japanese: Communication in Context not only introduces commonly-used formulaic expressions, but also teaches learners how Japanese speakers assess crucial contextual factors such as relative social status, level of familiarity, and content of speech as they interpret a message and use language to convey their intentions. Key features of the textbook include: exercises throughout, including ‘core’ and ‘optional’ activities self-assessment section in each chapter unit summaries, grammar notes and role-play activities a separate Teacher’s Guide which fully supports the textbook featuring extensive notes and guidance also available through the companion website. Key features of the companion website include: complete audio files to accompany all dialogues within the textbook optional extra activities for students wishing to progress beyond the textbook teacher's guide – downloadable in both Japanese and English. Advanced Japanese: Communication in Context is the ideal resource for all intermediate to advanced learners of Japanese. The course is also an invaluable tool for anyone involved in the teaching of Japanese language. Noriko Ishihara is Associate Professor of EFL/TESOL at Hosei University, Japan. Magara Maeda teaches Japanese at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, USA.




Compliments and Positive Assessments


Book Description

Compliments are among the most widely studied speech acts in pragmatics. The present study takes a new sequential approach by investigating compliments in context, considering compliment form, as part of a Positive Remark continuum, with the respective Response Strategy uttered in response. Analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in multi-party conversations of the Santa Barbara Corpus of American English, the sequences suggest a connection between the address and reference terms in the Positive Remarks and the strategies chosen as a response.




Contrastive Pragmatics


Book Description

We have recently seen a broadening of pragmatics to new areas and to the study of more than one language. This is illustrated by the present volume on Contrastive Pragmatics which brings together a number of articles originally presented at the 10th International Pragmatics Conference in Göteborg in 2007. The contributions deal with pragmatic phenomena such as speech acts, discourse markers and modality in different language pairs using theoretical approaches such as politeness theory, Conversation Analysis, Appraisal Theory, grammaticalization and cultural textology. Also discourse practices and genres may differ across cultures as illustrated by the study of TV news shows in different countries. Contrastive pragmatics also includes the comparative study of pragmatic phenomena from a foreign language perspective, a new area with implications for language teaching and intercultural communication. The contributions to this volume were originally published in Languages in Contrast 9:1 (2009).




Speech Acts Across Cultures


Book Description

This book investigates the notion of Speech Act from a cross-cultural perspective. The starting point for this book is the assumption that speech acts are realized from culture to culture in different ways and that these differences may result in communication difficulties that range from the humorous to the serious. Importantly, a recurring theme in this volume has to do with the need to verify the form, the function and the constraining variables of speech acts as a prerequisite for dealing with them in the classroom. The book deals with three major areas of Speech Act research: 1) Methodological Issues, 2) Speech Acts in a second language, and 3) Applications. In the first section authors discuss general issues of methodology and present data in an effort to detail the efficacy of different methodologies. Research clearly shows the effect of methodology on the results. This section is followed by a discussion of specific speech acts, including speech acts and strategy use that have as their goal the creation and maintenace of solidarity (i.e. greetings, compliments, apologies) and speech acts that involve face-threatening acts (i.e.complaints, favor-asking, suggestions). In the final section, authors consider applications of speech act research within the context of advertising and business relationships.




Semantics of Natural Language


Book Description

"The idea that prompted the conferenee for which many of these papers were written, and that inspired this book, is stated in the Editorial Introduction reprinted below from Volume 21 of Synthese. The present volume contains the artieles in Synthese 21, Numbers 3-4 and Synthese 22, Numbers 1-2. In addition, it ineludes new papers by Saul Kripke, James McCawley, John R. Ross, and Paul Ziff, and reprints 'Grammar and Philosophy' by P. F. Strawson. Strawson's artiele first appeared in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 70, and is reprinted with the kind permission of the author and the Aristotelian Society. We also repeat our thanks to the Olivetti Companyand Edizione di Comunita of Milan for permission to inelude the paper by Dana Scott; it also appeared in Synthese 21. DONALO DAVIDSON GILBERT HARMAN EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION The success of linguistics in treating naturallanguages as formal syntactic systems has aroused the interest of a number of linguists in a paralleI or related development of semantics. For the most part quite independ ently, many philosophers and logicians have reeently been applying formai semantic methods to structures increasingly like naturallanguages. While differenees in training, method and vocabulary tend to veil the fact, philosophers and linguists are converging, it seerns, on a common set of interrelated probiems. Sinee philosophers and linguists are working on the same, or very similar, probiems, it would obviously be instructive to compare notes." --