Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 12 Issue 4 -

Issue of Intercultural Pragmatics

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available November 10, 2015

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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November 10, 2015

Influence of fellow L2 learners on pragmatic development during study abroad

Tim Hassall

Page range: 415-442

Abstract

This is an initial exploratory study of how study-abroad learners influence each other’s pragmatic development in naturalistic settings. It focuses on a cohort of 12 Australian learners of Indonesian during a short summer course and uses a multimethod approach, including a pretest/posttest instrument, diary entries, and regular interviews. Findings revealed a variety of influences on each other’s development. Learners noticed pragmatic features in talk produced by fellow learners that was addressed to native speakers of the target language. They also sometimes noticed features in talk by native speakers that was addressed to their fellow learners, or in talk between fellow learners. They reflected on the relevant features and often modified their knowledge about them. The learners also talked with each other about the pragmatics of the L2 in various ways, such as through explicit discussion, correction of each other’s performance, or the telling of personal anecdotes. That talk too prompted the learners to reflect on pragmatic features and modify their knowledge about them. The learners also planned complex pragmatic action together and performed it together, which can affect pragmatic development in myriad ways. To sum up, the study changes our perceptions of how learners learn pragmatics during study abroad by showing how time spent with fellow learners can stimulate that learning.

November 10, 2015

“Can I very please borrow it?”: Request development in young Norwegian EFL learners

Milica Savić

Page range: 443-480

Abstract

With the introduction of the notion of communicative competence to second-language learning and teaching (Canale and Swain 1980), and the recognition of the role of pragmatic competence within it (Bachman 1990; Bachman and Palmer 1996), interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) research has gained in popularity. However, with a few notable exceptions (Achiba 2002; Barón Parés 2012; Ellis 1992; Rose 2000 and Rose 2009), ILP research has focused almost exclusively on adult learners, and even with that learner group, studies of pragmatic development have been comparatively rare (Kasper and Rose 2002). The present study set out to address a generally neglected area in ILP research: developmental patterns in speech acts – more specifically, the development of requests in young Norwegian EFL learners. The aims of the study were to identify specific request strategies that emerge at different stages of development and to explore learners’ sensitivity to social power as a contextual factor. Three age groups of pupils (8, 10, and 12 years old) participated in this cross-sectional study. The data were collected through a short structured interview and role plays and analyzed in terms of the level of directness, the types of head acts, and their internal and external modification (Blum-Kulka et al. 1989). While the results revealed clear patterns of pragmalinguistic development with regard to the complexity of head acts and the use of alerters, supportive moves, and downgraders, little evidence of sociopragmatic development was found in the data. This exploratory study opens a number of avenues for further exploration of pragmatic development in young EFL learners.

November 10, 2015

Facilitating active engagement in intercultural teleconferences: A pragmalinguistic study of Russian and Irish participation frameworks

Lindy B. Comstock

Page range: 481-514

Abstract

Taking the Russian and Irish teleconference team of a multinational IT company as the subject of analysis, this paper problematizes the assumption that a community of practice (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1992) will converge on a set of conventions through prolonged, recurrent interaction. Although the teleconference team successfully achieves a level of communication sufficient to carry out their task, key pragmalinguistic conventions remain resistant to passive assimilation, affecting the level of engagement expressed by team members. Thus the study of participation frameworks (Goffman 1981) can reveal how participant engagement is established and sustained, as well as where crosslinguistic transfer of pragmalinguistic norms may hinder participation. By means of discourse analysis, CA analysis, and deviant case analysis, normative discourse practices and linguistic strategies in the intra- and intercultural data are identified in terms of their pragmatic function and the participation frameworks they elicit. Attempts to facilitate engagement are analyzed, and general recommendations are made for why the study of culturally specific participation frameworks may have particular relevance for high-level nonnative speakers.

November 10, 2015

Manipulation in Spanish and American pre-election political debates: The Rajoy–Rubalcaba vs. Obama–McCain debates

Ana B. Cabrejas-Peñuelas

Page range: 515-546

Abstract

In this paper, we make a comparative analysis of two pre-electoral debates belonging to two different traditions – the 2011 Rajoy–Rubalcaba debate and the first 2008 Obama–McCain debate – in terms of the manipulative processes used. For that purpose, we compare the similarities and differences in the use of the genre contributing to manipulation in the two debate traditions. Also, we identify the manipulative devices employed following Rigotti’s (2005) coding scheme, which is complemented with those fallacies often encountered in the field of politics (van Eemeren et al. 2009; Pirie 2006; Tindale 2007). Various similarities in the use of the genre between the two debate traditions have been identified, such as in the use of strategies of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation that are inherently manipulative and that entail (de-)emphasizing Our/Their positive and Their/Our negative aspects (van Dijk 2006). The differences are related to the discursive strategies preferred, the role of the moderator in the debates, and the candidates’ physical position in the confrontation, all of which may contribute to manipulation. Similarly, there are also similarities and differences in the candidates’ use of manipulative processes as their strategy for winning the elections and a different preference for personal attacks and the dialectical battle.

Forum

November 10, 2015

The communication of certainty and its perlocutionary effect

Thanh Nyan

Page range: 547-567

Abstract

If one takes the view that utterance meaning is the product of interactional processes, then intended perlocutionary effects should be receiving more attention; indeed, their occurrence (or nonoccurrence, for that matter) has a direct influence on the circumstances that determine the range of possible language choices for both speaker and hearer. Verschueren 1999: 68. Building on this assumption, this article is concerned with the process whereby the communication of certainty can lead to the intended perlocutionary effect. Using Damasio’s convergence-divergence zone framework, which presupposes an adaptive perspective, I argue that such effects are more likely to come about if certainty is communicated without evidential markers than when such marking is employed. The presumed effectiveness of this mode of communication would be due to the automatic nature of the mechanism involved, which mechanism relies on an interpretive process that may be seen as a simulation of recall.

Book Reviews

November 10, 2015

Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli: Coordinating participation in dialogue interpreting

Margarita Borreguero Zuloaga

Page range: 569-575

November 10, 2015

Leonor Ruiz Gurillo and M. Belén Alvarado Ortega: Irony and humor: From pragmatics to discourse

Li Chengtuan

Page range: 577-582

About this journal

Objective
Intercultural Pragmatics is a fully peer-reviewed forum for theoretical and applied pragmatics research. The goal of the journal is to promote the development and understanding of pragmatic theory and intercultural competence by publishing research that focuses on general theoretical issues, more than one language and culture, or varieties of one language.

Intercultural Pragmatics encourages ‘interculturality’ both within the discipline and in pragmatic research. It supports interaction and scholarly debate between researchers representing different subfields of pragmatics including the linguistic, cognitive, social, and interlanguage paradigms.

The intercultural perspective is relevant not only to each line of research within pragmatics but also extends to several other disciplines such as anthropology, theoretical and applied linguistics, psychology, communication, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and bi- and multilingualism. Intercultural Pragmatics makes a special effort to cross disciplinary boundaries.

What we primarily look for is innovative approaches and ideas that do not always fit into existing paradigms, and lead to new ways of thinking about language.

Intercultural Pragmatics has always encouraged the publication of theoretical papers including linguistic and philosophical pragmatics that are very important for research in intercultural pragmatics. As a result of this endeavor "Thematic Issue: Pragmatics and Philosophy" (TIPP) has been created. This new issue (from 2018) collects the very best submissions on the topic each year under the editorship of Professor Alessandro Capone (University of Messina, Italy) who will work together with Istvan Kecskes, the Editor-in-Chief to ensure that TIPP publishes innovative and intriguing scholarship in the field.

Topics

pragmatics
intercultural communication
language acquisition and use
multilingualism
semantics

Article formats
Original research articles, Research Statements, Interviews, Rebuttals, Debates, Book reviews

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10th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication
May 29-31, 2024
University of Pisa, Italy