Search results for " pragmatics"

What is an indirect speech act?

2019

Abstract The notion of an indirect speech act is at the very heart of cognitive pragmatics, yet, after nearly 50 years of orthodox (Searlean) speech act theory, it remains largely unclear how this notion can be explicated in a proper way. In recent years, two debates about indirect speech acts have stood out. First, a debate about the Searlean idea that indirect speech acts constitute a simultaneous realization of a secondary and a primary act. Second, a debate about the reasons for the use of indirect speech acts, in particular about whether this reason is to be seen in strategic advantages and/or observation of politeness demands. In these debates, the original pragmatic conception of sen…

ABDUCTIVE INFERENCES IN PRAGMATIC PROCESSES

2018

Abstract In pragmatic theories, the notion of inference plays a central role, together with the communicative act in which it is activated. Although some scholars, such as Levinson, Sperber and Wilson, propose detailed and accurate analyses of this notion, we will maintain that these analyses can be better systematized if seen through Peirce’s notion of abduction. We will try to maintain that the variety of inferential processes in play in a linguistic act is mostly of an abductive nature. Moreover, we will maintain that the typological tripartition of abductions discussed by Eco (1981) allows to account for a signi cant part of the mechanisms involved in the comprehension of an utterance, …

An approximation to the diachronic analysis of mitigation and face in dialogues between mother and child in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

2018

Este artículo aborda la evolución del uso de la atenuación en los diálogos madre-hijo y sus efectos en la imagen sociocultural en los siglos XIX y XX. Para ello, utilizando como corpus cuatro obras de teatro de este periodo, se analiza cualitativa y cuantitativamente el empleo de la atenuación como estrategia pragmática en los actos directivos realizados en la proyección de estas relaciones. Los resultados de este estudio apuntan a que se ha producido una evolución desde la jerarquía hacia una progresiva solidaridad. This paper aims to analyse the evolution of the use of mitigation in dialogues between mother and child and their effects on sociocultural face in the nineteenth and twentieth …

Neural-level associations of non-verbal pragmatic comprehension in young Finnish autistic adults

2021

This video-based study examines the pragmatic non-verbal comprehension skills and corresponding neural-level findings in young Finnish autistic adults, and controls. Items from the Assessment Battery of Communication (ABaCo) were chosen to evaluate the comprehension of non-verbal communication. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) analysis of the functional magnetic resonance imaging data was used to reveal the synchrony of brain activation across participants during the viewing of pragmatically complex scenes of ABaCo videos. The results showed a significant difference between the ISC maps of the autistic and control groups in tasks involving the comprehension of non-verbal communication, there…

Evolución de la competencia comunicativa mediante intervención pragmática en retraso del lenguaje: estudio de caso

2021

En el presente trabajo se describe la eficacia de la evaluación e intervención pragmática en un caso de retraso del lenguaje secundario a daño cerebral infantil. La intervención logopédica adoptó un marco teórico de psicolingüística cognitiva funcional y se centró en potenciar las habilidades pragmáticas comunicativas mediante la estimulación de las categorías pragmáticas interactivas en contextos conversacionales naturales. Mediante el PREP-R (Protocolo Rápido de Evaluación Pragmática Revisado) se ha hecho un seguimiento de la orientación comunicativa de los turnos, la predictibilidad, la eficacia comunicativa, la habilidad pragmática (general, específica y gramatical) y los elementos que …

Cognitive Pragmatics. The Mental Processes of Communication

2012

Default Semantics and the architecture of the mind

2011

In this paper, I explore the relationship between Relevance Theory and Jaszczolt's Default Semantics, framing this debate within the picture of massive modularity tempered by the idea of brain plasticity (Perkins, 2007). While Relevance Theory focuses on processing (see cognitive efforts and contextual effects interplay), Default Semantics focuses on types of sources from which addressees draw information and types of processes that interact in providing it. In particular, I argue that Relevance Theory interacts with default semantics by standardizing inferences which are ultimately compressed (to use a term by Bach, 1998) into a default semantics. I briefly discuss potential obstacles to t…

Dalla parte dell'ascoltatore. Un approccio pragma-retorico alla comprensione

2019

L’intento principale del saggio è mostrare quanto possa essere vantaggioso guardare al fenomeno della comprensione linguistica utilizzando l’apparato concettuale della retorica classica, messo in fruttuoso dialogo con la pragmatica contemporanea. La legittimità di tale operazione si fonda sulla convinzione che sia proficuo estendere lo specifico punto di vista della retorica al discorso ordinario nel suo complesso. Tale estensione non implica in alcun modo negare la specificità del punto di vista retorico sul linguaggio ma mira anzi a sfruttarla, per fare emergere aspetti altrimenti poco valorizzati. È vero, infatti, che la retorica si occupa tradizionalmente di un tipo particolare di disco…

Early ERP Evidence for Children’s and Adult’s Sensitivity to Scalar Implicatures Triggered by Existential Quantifiers (Some)

2021

How quickly do children and adults interpret scalar lexical items in speech processing? The current study examined interpretation of the scalar terms some vs. all in contexts where either the stronger (some = not all) or the weaker interpretation was permissible (some allows all). Children and adults showed increased negative deflections in brain activity following the word some in some-infelicitous versus some-felicitous contexts. This effect was found as early as 100 ms across central electrode sites (in children), and 300–500 ms across left frontal, fronto-central, and centro-parietal electrode sites (in children and adults). These results strongly suggest that young children (aged betwe…

Habermas’ Universal Pragmatics: Theory of Language and Social Theory

2013

Although Habermas’ universal pragmatics has played a marginal role in studies on pragmatics, it can still make an important and meaningful contribution, precisely because it highlights the system of validity claims that lie in speech acts. This type of analysis allows one to consider the dialogic dynamics that engage speakers in the activity of reciprocal giving and asking for reasons for saying and doing things. The reasons why a speaker knows he or she can say what he or she says in the presence of other speakers constitute an essential element of the production of meaning; and reciprocally identification of the speaker’s reasons by the listener is an indispensable condition of the activi…