Englisch (Subject) / Language in Culture and Cognition (Lesson)

This lesson was created by flimmi13.

Learn lesson

back  |  next 2 / 2

• rules for turn-taking the current speaker may select the next speaker the next speaker may self-select no 1 or 2: current speaker continues
• Adjacency pairs How do turns combine into coherent sequences? AP = basic unit of sequence organization; combination of two adjacent utterances; first and second part; first part requires the second: A: Good morning (first part) B: Good morning (second part)
• Preference organization Offer-Acceptance/Rejection A: May I offer you a drink? (first part)B: Yes, please. (preferred second part) A: May I offer you a drink? (first part)B: No, thank you. (dispreferred second part)
• Typical features of dispreferred second pair-parts delayed longer than preferred second pair-parts include hesitation markers (well, erm, uh) include downtoners (perhaps) include explanations or compensation
• Pre-sequences to make a preferred second pair-part more likely, pre-sequences can be used pre-sequences are adjacency pairs prefacing the "actual" adjacency pair 1A: hi Joey, What are you doing sunday night?2B: Nothing much really.3A: Would you like to come over? We're celebrating Laura's birthday.4B: Yeah, great. Thanks! A starts the pre-sequence to secure a pre-commitment B provides a preferred second (line 2) Dispreferred would be "Why do you want to know?"
• Culpeper's impoliteness strategies Bald on record impoliteness (direct and unambiguous impoliteness) Positive impoliteness (Attacking H's positive face) Negative impoliteness (Attacking H's negative face) Sarcasm or mock politeness (Insincere politeness: saying the opposite of what is meant) Withhold politeness (Absence of politeness (where it would be expected))
• Culpeper's impoliteness strategies Positive impolitenessIgnore the otherBe desinterested Negative impolitenessInvade the other's space Frighten
• Focus on intention: four scenarios Offence intended, offence takensuccesful impoliteness/rudeness Offence intended, offence not takenUnsuccessful impoliteness/rudeness Offence not intended, offence takenAccidental impoliteness/rudeness Offence not intended, offence perceived as unintentional and hence not takenIncidental impoliteness/rudeness
• Generational differences btw politeness theories First generation theories:  Politeness, not impoliteness Isolated utterances Inherent politeness Second generation theories: (Im)politeness and related phenomena Utterances in discourse 'Relative' politeness
• Inter-lingual pragmatic variation Differences between languages Differences between cultures
• Advertisement
• Interlanguage Learner language a dynamic concept developmental process with increasing proficiency, the interlanguage becomes more similar to the target language at the same time, the influence of the L1 decreases
• Interlanguage pragmatics Examines the mastery of speech acts in learner performance by comparing learner performance to the performance of native speakers of the target language and the learner's L1
• Pragmatic transfer Transferring pragmatic features of the L1 into the use of the foreign language German learners of English may be more direct in requesting than native speakers of English Chinese learners of English may be more modest in responding to compliments than speakers of American English
• Intra-lingual pragmatic variation Pragmatic variation in time and history pragmatic variation across social situations pragmatic variation across national, regional and social varieties of a language
• Pragmatic variation across varieties occurs due to the influence of macro-social factors such as gender and age Framework: five types of macro-social variation five levels of pragmatic analysis
• Types of macro-social variation macro-social factors (region, social class, ethnicity, gender and age) Regional variation Socio-economic variation Ethnic variation Gender variation Age variation
• Levels of pragmatic analysis Formal level (functions of discourse markers (well; you know) Actional level (realization of speech acts such as requests or insults) Interactional level (negotiating offers) Topic level (taboo topics in small talk between strangers) Organisational level (turn-taking, silence between turns, overlap)
• national differences small talk differs across national varieties of English in the same type of situation, speakers of different varieties behave in different ways distinct differences can be observed across varieties striking similarities can be observed between speakers of the same variety overall, the same types of speech acts and realisations are used, but with different frequencies and distributions most features are variety-preferential rather than variety-exclusive
• Speech acts vs text acts Speech act: communicative function of a spoken utterance speaker's intention Local level Text act: communicative function of a written text  Writer's (overall) intention global level
• Brinker's text act classes Informative (news report) Appellative (advertisement) Obligative (warranty) Contract (letter of condelence) Declaration (last will)
• Genres Members of text act classes are genresnews report, ad, warranty, last willeveryday genres vs. literary genres (novel, comedy, sonnet)names for everyday genres, like speech act names, are part of the general vocabulary of a language
• What are genres? conventional patterns of complex verbal actions typical combinations of functional, structural and contextual features theses patterns have developed historically
• contrastive rhetoric (five cultural thought patterns) English (linear) Semitic (parallel constructions) Oriental (circling topic) Romance (digressive) Russian (digressive)
• Differences between German & English German                            Anglo-saxon Content-orientation         Addressee-orientationSelf-orientation               Other-orientationAd-hoc formulation         Verbal routinesDirectness                       IndirectnessExplicitness                     Implicitness
• CMC Computer-mediated communication type of communication in the new media (texting)
• Features of CMC (computer-mediated communication) Shouting: LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!! Abbreviations: lol, OMG Emoticons :) 
• Email Analysis Four steps: Identify overall communicative function (i.e. text act) Identify communicative acts  Identify their realizations Determine politeness/appropriateness
• What do language learners need to know? Language competence uncontroversially includes: Grammar; Vocabulary= LANGUAGE SYSTEM For spoken language use: pronounciation knowledge of written discourse knowlege of spoken discourse native-speaker knowledge is needed pragmalinguistic competence=LANGUAGE USE
• pragmatic competence (definition) ability to communicate you intended message with all its nuances in any socio-cultural context and to interpret the message of your interlocutor as it was intended
• pragmalinguistics language-specific Interface with language system specific language resources for realizing a speech act E.g. how to pay a compliment in a given language or variety
• Advertisement
• sociopragmatics Culture-specific Interface with sociology specific social conditions for performing a speech act E.g. when to pay a compliment in agiven language or variety
• Pragmalinguistic competence knowing which words and constructions can be used to felicitously perform a particular speech act, e.g. a request knowing which realization strategies are available and how they differ, e.g. in terms of directness knowing which modificational devices exist and what their functions are equally relevant for production and comprehension
• sociopragmatic competence being able to judge a given social situation in terms of power and distance knowing which of the existing realization strategies and modificational devices can be used to successfully perform a particular speech act in a given situation to achieve an intended effect
• Validity of the DCTs Advantages: easily administered, "instant transcripts" systematic control of relevant variables (e.g. power, gender) sufficiently large samples of directly comparable data Disadavantages: eliciting written language to study spoken language no intonation, prosodic features, hesitation, etc. production not spontaneous, more planning and revision time
• Why is L2 pragmatic competence important? native speakers expect learners to have an accent and to make lexical and grammatical mistakes pragmatic errors on the other hand, are often interpreted as rude behaviour or attributed to personality flaws mastery of discourse conventions should be a high priority in second-language teaching metapragmatic awareness will help [learners] to adapt to whatever variety they might encounter

back  |  next 2 / 2