Request Patterns in Chinese and German

A Cross-cultural Study

Wei Hong
Purdue University

The main objective of this book is to study request patterns of Chinese and German with respect to various cultural and social values. The data collected from Chinese and German native speakers were used to study similarities and differences in realization patterns of requests across Chinese and German under relatively similar social constraints. The effects of social variables such as distance, power and familiarity on the realization patterns of requests within Chinese and German were also examined and evaluated. The research was conducted by applying speech act theory as well as pragmatic and sociolinguistic analyses to request patterns in Chinese and German.

The most general finding is that German requests have higher levels of directness and lower levels of politeness, and Chinese ones have lower levels of directness and higher levels of politeness. A comparison of the data obtained from the questionnaire with those from previous studies shows a minor difference in stressing what factors are among the most significant ones in affecting people's rpequest patterns. It is suggested in this research that CULTURE be stressed as equally important as social distance and power, since many differences in request patterns are due to cultural factors. This research found as well that within German and Chinese, social and situational factors are among the most important factors in determining one's choice of request patterns. The findings of this study contribute directly to the analysis of request patterns in pragmatics. Furthermore, the results will enrich the cross-cultural study on requests by adding the Chinese language, which has not been studied by most of the major cross-cultural studies.

ISBN 9783929075991. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 01. 1998.

Discourse in Professional Contexts

R. Geluykens & K. Pelsmaekers, eds.


The papers in this collection are all concerned with a rather special type of discourse: they deal with either spoken or written language which was produced in what could be called an "institutional", professional context.

Despite the growing interest within discourse pragmatics for language produced within an institutional framework, existing publications tend to concentrate either on one specific type of institutional setting (e.g. business negotiations) or on one specific research tradition (e.g. conversation analysis).

The present book is rather different in concept, in that the subject matter is approached from a variety of functional research traditions and methods, and in doing so cuts right across the spoken-written distinction. First of all, the contributors scrutinize a variety of discourse types, such as business interaction, business letters, classroom talk, political interviews, press releases, and pharmacist-patient interaction. Secondly, they show a variety of research traditions and methods at work, including systemic-functional linguistics, conversation analysis, social semiotics, ethnography, and cognitive grammar. Thirdly, since institutional communication takes place in various modes of speaking and writing, the present collection includes work on discourse in such varied modes as face-to-face interaction, media interviews, group interaction, news reports, and letters.

This collection also offers an introductory overview of the field, as well as a selective bibliography of past research on institutional discourse, subdivided into seven major categories: business, medical, legal, classroom, media, political, and scientific/acedemic. Elements of all seven domains can, in various forms, be found in the present volume.

ISBN 9783895866135. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 03. 300pp. 1999.

 Interlanguage Pragmatics

Compliment Reponses by Learners of Japanese and English as a Second Language

Junko Baba
University of South Carolina, Columbia

The purpose of this study is to identify what sociolinguistic variables are problematic for learners of Japanese and English as second languages and how those variables may affect the types of Compliment Responses (Crs) the learners choose in conversation.

To investigate interlanguage CRs, this study compares the learner data with baseline data taken from native Japanese and American English speakers. The sociolinguistic variables studied were the targets (Family versus Self) and topics (External versus Internal) of compliments. The variables were combined into four target-topic categories: Family External, Family Internal, Self External, and Self Internal.

A total of 60 informants participated in the study, of which 12 were American native speakers of English (AAs), 17 were native speakers of Japanese (JJs), 14 were Japanese learners of English (ESLs); and 17 were American learners of Japanese (JSLs). Each informants had a 30- to 60-minute conversation session with a female friend, or conversation leader, who was a native speaker of the language in which the conversation was conducted. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. All data was tape-recorded, narrowly transcribed, and coded by politeness type. The politeness types are those from Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness: Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, Off-Record, and Do-not-Do-FTA (Face Threatening Act). In politeness type, the compliment responses of the learners were found to approximate those of the native speakers of the target languages. A detailed examination of the sociolinguistic variables of CRs and the dispreferredness of certain discourse structures, however, revealed that the learners use pragmatic transfer from their L1 and overgeneralize politeness types of their L2. The result of a chi-square test revealed that the use of Negative Politeness in Family External CRs was most significantly different across groups, whereas its use in Self External CRs was found to be the most similar across groups. The family variable in CRs was the most difficult for the learner groups, especially for the JSLs, who are not familiar with using Negative Politeness when responding to compliments about their family members.

The study also investigated the correlation between politeness type and the intensity of the compliments and the correlation between politeness type and the different sequences of complements and their responses. Only among AAs did Positive Politeness CRs correlate with the intensity of the compliments, while ESLs seemed to be bothered by increased intensity.

ISBN 9783895866227. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 04. 330pp. 1999.

Actos de habla y cortesía en español

María E. Placencia y Diana Bravo (editoras)
Birkbeck College / Universidad de Estocolmo

Actos de habla y cortesía en español es una recopilación de trabajos recientes que tratan de diferentes actos de habla en español y la relación que su realización lingüística tiene con las normas de cortesía vigentes en las comunidades en estudio. Los actos de habla que se examinan, desde diferentes perspectivas teóricas y metodológicas –la pragmática, el análisis (crítico) del discurso, la antropología lingüística y el análisis de la conversación- incluyen, entre otros, ofertas, peticiones, piropos, y reclamos. Están representadas comunidades de habla de Argentina, Bolivia, España, México, Venezuela y Uruguay. Estudios como los que se presentan aquí no han alcanzado en el español el grado de interés y de difusión que han tenido en otras lenguas. Así, este volumen intenta llenar un vacío en publicaciones en el área y constituye un paso adelante hacia un registro que abarque a las diferentes comunidades hispanohablantes.

Panorámica sobre el estudio de actos de habla y la cortesía verbal. María E. Placencia y Diana Bravo

La expresión de camaradería y solidaridad: Cómo los venezolanos solicitan un servicio y responden a una solicitud de un servicio. Carmen García

Estrategias de cortesía en el español hablado en Montevideo. Rosina Márquez-Reiter

Modo imperativo, negación y diminutivos en la expresión de la cortesía en español: el contraste entre México y España. Carmen Curcó y Anna de Fina

Las ofertas y la cortesía en español peninsular. Mariana Chodorowska

Actos asertivos y cortesía: Imagen del rol en el discurso académico argentino. Diana Bravo

Los reclamos como actos de habla en el español de Venezuela. Adriana Bolívar

Piropos: Cambios en la valoracion del grado de cortesía de una práctica discursiva. Mariana Achugar

"Deja tu mensaje después de la señal". Jesús Valeiras Viso

ISBN 9783895863370. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 05. 200pp. 2002.

The Computing of Discourse Focus

Wei Zuo and Yan Zuo
Tilburg University, University of Rochester

This dissertation is a comprehensive and in-depth study of the notion of focus with two of its salient characteristics being the interdisciplinary approach adopted and the range of query covered. The research is largely motivated by the realization that focus is a notion figuring crucially in both core linguistic studies such as phonetics/phonology, syntax, semantics, and discourse analysis, and peripheral linguistic areas such as psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics and in particular computational linguistics.

The major contributions of the study can be summarized as follows. Firstly after a critical review of the various previous definitional accounts, it is concluded that the notion of focus is best defined as a cognito-pragmatic one and accordingly the constructs of knowledge store and discourse model are postulated before a working definition of focus is proposed. Secondly, on the basis of this definition, the process of focus determination in discourse is captured in the form of a formal algorithm, namely, Focus Determination Algorithm (FDA), which, being programmable and operationable, can be integrated into the discourse modeling system. This formalization is enabled by the constructs of knowledge store and discourse model introduced before and substantiated by research findings from social psychology and neuropsychology. Thirdly, the linguistic, in particular the prosodic, means of realizing focus is discussed and for this purpose data from a range of languages are cited. Similar to the determination of focus, the process of how accent is assigned on the basis of focus is also captured in a semi-formalized manner by virtue of a procedural algorithm, namely, an Accent Determination Procedure (ADP).

As just mentioned, the research is marked by its interdisciplinary perspective; it incorporates impetuses, insights and inputs from core linguistics (specifically phonology and discourse analysis), computational linguistics, social psychology, and neuropsychology. What is particularly noteworthy is its orientation towards and potential significance for natural language processing, especially the generation of natural speech by enabling the integration of discourse-level information such as focus into the prosody generation model.

Key Words: focus; cognito-pragmatic; discourse generation; accentuation; natural language.

ISBN 9783895866173. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 06. 180pp. 2001.

Against essentialism: toward language awareness

Karol Janicki
University of Bergen

The major point made in this book is that the philosophical position called 'essentialism' engenders a very unrewarding set of beliefs. These beliefs are reflected in how people view language and in all the possible walks of life which involve the use of language. A critical stance toward philosophical essentialism is the idea which permeates and thus unites all the eight dialogues in the book.

After a short introductory dialogue (1) concerning the use of incomprehensible language, the book treats the following issues: (2) the importance of philosophical knowledge both for the professional linguist and for the average language user; (3) the importance that language users attribute to words; (4) the relationship between cognitive linguistics and non-essentialism (including a discussion of imprecision, creativity, fuzziness, metaphor); (5) the omni-presence of misunderstanding; (6) conflict (including a discussion of intolerance, dogmatism, infallability, conceit, authoritarian argumentation); (7) the political correctness debate; and (8) ways in which essentialism can be counteracted (including encouragement of a tolerant attitude to language use and of new coinages).

This book is intended primarily for undergraduate and graduate students of linguistics; but, given the informal style and the main claims of the book, which go significantly beyond linguistics, it may appeal to a much broader audience.

ISBN 9783895866210. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 07. 260pp. 2nd edition. 2002.

Speaking of Power

Japanese Professional Women and Their Speeches

Hideko Abe
Western Michigan University

There are three issues in the speech of Japanese women which need reevaluation: women's speech as categorical, as powerless, and as marked. Previous studies on Japanese women's speech characterized it "polite", "soft", or "less assertive"; however, the author challenges these assertions and examines how women "control" their speech in interaction. There are pressing questions as to what it is to obtain communicative competence as Japanese women, how women obtain what they want, how women manipulate their speech to satisfy their goals, and how women's role and/or status affects how they speak. In order to answer these questions, the author looks to various immediate speech contexts in which frequent inguistic shifts are observed.

For instance, native speakers of Japanese associate sentence-final particles with gender, so by looking at these (with the combination of distal and direct styles of predicates), the author analyzes how women navigate "masculinity" or "femininity" in speech in order to negotiate power. While some women prefer using so-called "masculine" sentence-final particles in business negotiation, others prefer "feminine" ones. The author finds that urban professional Japanese women are aware of the distinction between the "femininity" and "masculinity" attached to a sentence-final particle. That difference is distinguishable, but it is generally idealized along the lines of dominant gender stereotypes: men's language=strong /women's language=weak.

Significantly, female consultants consistently use both. In other words, they can successfully negotiate both "masculinity" and "femininity" without being constrained by either. Some consultants appropriate men's language while struggling for power, turning the stereotype to their own advantage. Other consultants who have established their power use feminine forms in just as powerful ways. The status of position outweighs the weakness implied by the stereotype.

2nd edition
ISBN 9783895868900. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 10. 250pp. 2000.

Silence in Spontaneous Dyadic English Conversation

Structures, Meanings and Functions

Yan Zuo
Tilburg University

This research attempts at an exploration into the silence phenomenon as it occurs in dyadic English conversations. The fundamental position assumed throughout is that silence is far more than a mere absence of speech; rather it is a linguistically significant category constituting an integral part of the communicative framework of conversation. Accordingly, it is argued that as such, three dimensions might be identified for silence, namely, structure, meaning and function.

Stemming from this assumption and based on a quick literature review as well as a critical examination of the preliminaries concerning both the structure and organization of the conversation (such as the concept of turn, turn-constructional unit etc.), a theoretical construct is proposed, developed and finally illustrated with two case studies. Broadly speaking, this construct comprises three components, i.e. a classification scheme, a descriptive/explanatory framework, and an analytic model.

To begin with, it is contended that silence in conversation is classifiable and that it can most aptly be classified according to its location within the overall conversational structure. Two general categories are first distinguished at the primary level, respectively referred to as within-turn and between-turn silence, with the turn serving as the reference unit. Within each category, subdivisions are further made, still b the location criterion: under the rubric of within-turn silence are differentiated within-unit and between-unit silences with the turn-constructional unit as the reference unit, whilst under that of between-turn silence are distinguished Sequence-internal and Sequence-external silences with the reference unit being the carefully defined unit of Sequence.

Next, the categories and subcategories thus identified are discussed in great detail in terms of the three dimensions of structure, meaning and function, thereby developing a descriptive and explanatory model. Under the heading of structure, three parameters are identified, i.e., location, duration and frequency, which are respectively dealt with for each (sub)category. The meanings of silence are likewise treated by dividing them into the two broad aspects of connotative and denotative ones on the latter of which is placed greater emphasis by postulating the mechanism entailed by the interpretation of such meanings. With regard to the dimension of functions, it is argued that occurring within the context of conversation which is characterized by the simultaneous presence of cognitive planning and dynamic interaction between participants, silence in conversation may acquire both cognitive and interactional functions (in the case of between-unit silences, a linguistic function is also involved). Furthermore, there exists some degree of interaction between the multiple functions thus identified.

It is further pointed out that conversation is also featured as being simultaneously a process as well as a product, based on which, different perspectives may be adopted in examining the silence phenomenon occurring within. An analytic model is therefore developed by viewing conversation more as an ongoing process than as an accomplished product where the relationship between various categories and subcategories, with its nature being identified as actualization, is explored.

Thereafter, two case studies of spontaneous conversation excerpts are provided in order to both testify the validity of the theoretical construct thus developed and demonstrate its operationality.

Finally, it is noted that this research may have a number of significant implications, not only to linguistic studies proper, in particular, pragmatics and discourse analysis, but also to some other disciplines such as cognitive science, psychopathology and artificial intelligence. It is believed, therefore, that the present research, by investigating one of the integral, albeit long-neglected, component of conversation, will eventually prove to fill a critical gap in the study of, in a narrow sense, conversation, and in a broad sense, the overall human communicative network; and in an even wider perspective, it might as well turn out to be conducive to the advancement of a number of pertaining disciplines.

ISBN 9783895866760. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 11. 190pp. 2002.

Discurso, Sociedad y Lenguaje

Una anamorfósis en el nuevo milenio

Bob Hodge, Rose Lema, Hans Saettele (editores)


El libro reune veintiun contribuciones de investigadores del ámbito académico mexicano que han tenido una incidencia sobre la reflexión acerca de la relación entre lo discursivo y lo social. Está estructurado en cuatro capítulos. En el capítulo "Discurso y Postmodernidad” se abordan los retos que plantean a la investigación de la discursividad las cuestiones metodológicas y políticas de la actualidad: el diálogo como propuesta para la solución de los conflictos, el corpus, la microhistoria, el empirismo, el hipertexto, los géneros. En el capítulo "Diálogo y Etica” se refleja la discursión actual sobre la ética que se inspira por un lado en la tradición hermenéutica alemana (Gadamer, Habermas) y por otro lado en el desconstructivismo (De Man, Derrida). En el capítulo "Medios e identidad” se presentan resultados de análisis discursivos de la compleja situación política-discursiva generada por diferentes procesos sociales, en particular el surgimiento de la voz de los pueblos indios, con especial atención a su última manifestación mexicana, el zapatismo. En el capítulo "Pedagogía crítica” se reunen trabajos que testimonian de la intensa labor de investigación que se ha dado en México acerca de la educación y del lenguaje, tanto bajo el aspecto del bilingüismo como bajo el aspecto de la diferenciación social del habla. En la introducción, los editores sitúan los trabajos reunidos en el libro desde el punto de vista de las continuidades y discontinuidades epistemológicas que se pueden postular en el campo circunscrito por el título del libro, recurriendo entre otros al concepto de "anamorfosis” para dar cuenta del súbito cambio de perspectivas sobre el campo que parece ser una de sus características en este cambio de siglo.

ISBN 9783895863684. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 12. 536pp. 2002.