Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 6 Issue 4

Issue of Intercultural Pragmatics

Contents
Journal Overview

December 14, 2009

Variational pragmatics: Studying the impact of social factors on language use in interaction

Anne Barron, Klaus P. Schneider

Page range: 425-442

December 14, 2009

Intra-lingual pragmatic variation in the performance of reprimanding

Carmen García

Page range: 443-472

Abstract

Using Spencer-Oatey's rapport management framework (Journal of Politeness Research 1: 95–119, 2005), this paper looks at regional pragmatic variation in Spanish by examining Peruvian, Venezuelan and Argentinean subjects when reprimanding. Results show that although the three groups favored the satisfaction of their transactional wants, there were differences between the three groups in terms of their behavioral expectations and respect/threat to their own and/or the interlocutor's identity face. Peruvians and Venezuelans exhibited a rapport-challenging orientation, while Argentineans preferred a rapport maintenance orientation. In addition, although Peruvians preferred an independent posture and were not interested in either protecting or threatening their own identity face, Venezuelans and Argentineans revealed a preference for interdependent self-construals and an interest, albeit weak, in protecting their identity face. Possible miscommunication in a hypothetical intra-lingual interchange between members of these three different cultural groups is noted.

December 14, 2009

Pragmatic variation across Spanish(es): Requesting in Mexican, Costa Rican and Dominican Spanish

J. César Félix-Brasdefer

Page range: 473-515

Abstract

The current study focuses on pragmatic variation at the regional level and examines the similarities and differences in the realization of requests in three varieties of Latin American Spanish: Mexico (Oaxaca), Costa Rica (San José) and the Dominican Republic (Santiago) in three symmetric situations (–Power) with different degrees of distance (+/–Distance). Experimental data of 54 male participants (18 participants per group) were collected in comparable situations in situ. The 162 interactions were classified according to the request head act: direct, conventionally indirect (CI), and non-conventionally indirect (NCI) strategies. Request head acts were analyzed across the interaction. Specifically, the data were analyzed for initial (first) and post-initial requests, as well as for three types of downgraders, namely lexical, syntactic and prosodic downgraders. The results showed a preference for conventional indirectness in the first request and a preference for impositives in post-initial requests. Lexical and syntactic modification of the request varied in type and frequency across the three groups. Prosodic downgraders (intonation, tempo, loudness, and rate of delivery) were factors that influenced the polite interpretation of the request and varied across the groups. The results are discussed in light of research on variational pragmatics and across varieties of Spanish at both the national and subnational levels.

December 14, 2009

The pragmatics of the be + after + V-ing construction in Irish English

Anne O'Keeffe, Carolina P. Amador Moreno

Page range: 517-534

Abstract

This paper looks at a well-documented form in Irish English, ‘be after + Verb -ing’ (e.g. ‘He's after forgetting to pay her’) which roughly equates to the present perfect aspect in Standard English. The structure, a calque on an Irish form, has been used in the past in literature and cartoons to both characterize and stigmatize Irish English. This paper tests the hypothesis that this structure is still widely used in Irish English today because it has acquired pragmatic specializations which do not have an equivalent in the Standard English form. This paper draws on one million words of Irish English recorded in different parts of Ireland to form the Limerick Corpus of Irish English, recorded between 2001 and 2005. All of the occurrences of the form in the corpus were isolated and analyzed in context. A number of pragmatically specialized functions were identified and discussed. The distribution of the form across gender and particularly across a range of age groups, especially among young adult speakers, suggests that the form is robustly placed within Irish English. It is concluded that because its pragmatically specialized functions do not have an adequate equivalent in Standard English, it has and will remain as part of the core grammar of Irish English.

December 14, 2009

Religious references in contemporary Irish English: ‘for the love of God almighty. . . . I'm a holy terror for turf’

Fiona Farr, Bróna Murphy

Page range: 535-559

Abstract

This article examines the nature and use of religious references across a range of contexts, and also age and gender groups to establish their patterning and functioning in contemporary English, with particular reference to Irish English. The examination is carried out by using quantitative and qualitative corpus-based tools and methodologies, such as relative frequency lists and concordances, as well as details of formulaic strings, including significant clusters. The paper highlights that religious references are high frequency items in informal spoken discourse and that they are predominantly used in non-religious contexts. In terms of age, their use seems to be characteristic of the discourse of the older speakers, while a gender-based analysis underlines their elevated use by male speakers. The analyses conclude that religious references are so commonplace in Irish English that their use, as a means of emotional expression, now seems almost ubiquitously acceptable among the represented groups, and when used, these items do not seem to cause offense.

December 14, 2009

The functional and social reality of discourse variants in a northern English dialect: I DON'T KNOW and I DON'T THINK compared

Heike Pichler

Page range: 561-596

Abstract

This paper explores the functional and social meanings of the formal variants of the expressions i don't know and i don't think . The qualitative analysis of the data shows that i don't know and i don't think are highly routinized discourse formulae that perform multiple interpersonal and textual functions. The quantification of their phonetic and grammatical variants across function, age and gender reveals that the occurrence of non-localized and localized variants of i don't know and i don't think is conditioned by different parameters. Non-localized variants show function-specific patterning: variants of i don't know pattern with broad functional categories; variants of i don't think reflect fine-grained functional differences at a micro-level of analysis. Localized variants, by contrast, do not carry a functional load but evince orderly social heterogeneity. The results demonstrate that social variation in discourse extends beyond differential frequencies and strategic uses of discourse markers (DMs) to their formal encoding, and that function plays an important role in accounting for patterns of formal variation in discourse. The paper argues for a fuller integration of qualitative methods in the study of language variation and change in discourse, and calls for the form and function of discourse variables to be studied in greater detail.

December 14, 2009

Adolescents and identity

Ronald K. S. Macaulay

Page range: 597-612

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of experimentation in many kinds of behavior. The examples in the present paper come from recordings of working-class adolescents made in Glasgow in 1997, 2003, and 2004. They show that these adolescents are adopting new forms of speech including new discourse features that seem to have developed locally, rather than having been imported from outside. This paper examines two areas in which the adolescents employ innovative forms: non-traditional intensifiers and quotatives. Previous studies had shown that Scottish working-class speakers make limited use of the intensifiers ‘very’ and ‘really’. The Glasgow adolescents in 1997 used ‘pure’ and ‘dead’ as their main intensifiers. By 2003 ‘dead’ was used much less frequently but ‘pure’ continued to be used in many contexts, and this continued in 2004, though ‘so’ was beginning to be used in certain contexts. Three new intensifiers, ‘healthy’, ‘heavy’ and ‘mad’ were becoming more popular in 2004. Non-traditional quotatives, such as ‘go’, ‘be like’ and ‘be all’, have been spreading quickly among younger speakers. In Glasgow working-class adolescents in 1997 preferred two variants, ‘be like that’ and ‘go like that’, but by 2004 ‘be like’ was used almost as frequently and a new form ‘done (that)’ was gaining ground.

December 14, 2009

Contributors to this issue

Page range: 613-615

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

Participate in the next Journal Conference!
10th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication
May 29-31, 2024
University of Pisa, Italy