Ling%20/%20Asia%20122%20-%205%20Framework%20and%20Relevant%20Concepts

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Ling / Asia 122 - 5Framework and Relevant
Concepts

• Based on Kachru and Smith, Chapter 1
• and
• G. Tucker Childs, in The 5-Minute Linguist

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ROAD MAP

• Now that weve
• defined and identified global languages,
• briefly outlined the history of English,
• described the factors that led to the prominence
  of English as a global language, and
• seen several varieties of English from around the
  world , . . .

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ROAD MAP (contd)

• And after having taken a side trip to explore our
  linguistic heritages, . . .

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In this weeks readings and lectures, we will . .
.

• Review some facts about languages and dialects,
  and
• Explore some concepts that will help us better
  analyze what contributes to successful and less
  successful communication across cultures,
• Even when everyone is speaking the same language,
  i.e., ENGLISH

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Languages and Dialects Some things to remember

• Everyone who speaks a language speaks a dialect
• A language can be seen as a group of dialects
• Dialects can be geographic Texan, Boston, SoCal
• Dialects can be social My Fair Lady
• Dialects can be political an army and a
  navy
• Dialect differences are usually minor
• Pronunciation
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Language and dialect are loaded terms

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Critical Concepts Forming the Basis for This
Course

• Types of Information conceptual, indexical,
  interactional-management
• Speech Acts, Implicature, the Cooperative
  Principle
• Conversation Analysis Turns, Exchanges, Turn
  Relevance Places, Adjacency Pairs
• Politeness and Positive and Negative Face
• Context Setting, Participants, Ends, Acts, Key,
  Instrumentalities, Norms, Genres

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Types of Information

• Conceptual information purely factual content of
  linguistic signals.
• Indexical information information about the
  speaker / writer.
• Interactional-management information information
  that allows participants to initiate, participate
  in and terminate interactions.

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Interactional-Management Information

• What we know about day-to-day interactions
• How to open conversations
• How to hold the floor
• When and how to take yield the floor
• How to stay on topic and to change topics
• How to close a conversation

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Conversation Analysis Tools to analyze
interactional-management information

• Conversational floor the shared space in
  which a conversation takes place participants in
  a conversation share the conversational floor.
• Turn the distribution of talk across
  participants the stretch of speech of a single
  speaker bounded by the speech of another speaker.
• Turn1 - A How did you like Avatar?
• Turn 2 - B I thought it was great!

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Conversation Analysis (contd)

• Exchange Two or more sequential turns. For
  example,
• Exchange 1
• A Could you put this letter in the mailbox for
  my on your way out?
• B Sure.
• Exchange 2
• A Could I ask you a favor?
• B Sure, what is it?
• A Could you put this letter in the
• mailbox for me on your way out?
• B Sure.

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Conversation Analysis (contd)

• Adjacency pair Two successive utterances or
  turns by different speakers, where the second is
  of a type required or expected by the first.
• In the previous example, the exchange between A
  and B constitutes an adjacency pair (question and
  answer)
• Greeting -gt Greeting
• Apology -gt Minimalization
• Thanks -gt Acknowledgement
• Etc.

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Conversation Analysis (contd)

• Turn relevance point (TRP) the potential
  boundary that marks where a turn could end,
  marked by one or more of the following
• Phrase final intonation
• Grammar
• Eye contact
• Body movement
• Etc.

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Conversation Analysis (contd)

• Repair the conversational work required when a
  conversationalist fails to respond with the
  expected turn type
• 
  Example when a speaker
• fails to respond to a question
  with an answer
• Overlaps occasions when a second speaker begins
  before the first speaker has finished
• Back-channeling vocalizations by the listener
  relinquishing the floor to the current speaker
• uh-huh
• yeah
• Etc.

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Indexical Information Presenting Ones Self

• Politeness Principle (Lakoff 1973)
• Dont impose.
• Pardon me.
• I hope Im not bothering you, but .
• Give options.
• Would you mind ?
• Could you possibly ?
• May I ask you to ?
• Make your receiver feel good.
• That color really looks good on you.
• I like your new tattoo.
• Little white lies

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Indexical information (contd)

• Face (Brown Levinson 1978) the public self
  image that every adult tries to project.
• Positive face the desire of every person to be
  desirable to at least some others the positive
  consistent self-image or 'personality' claimed by
  interactants.
• Negative face the desire of every person to have
  his/her actions be unimpeded by others the basic
  claim to territories, personal preserves, rights
  to non-distractioni.e., the freedom of action
  and freedom from imposition.

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Politeness and Face

• The specific nature of face varies from society
  to society, e.g.
• Roles of parents and adult children
• Notions of privacy in the home, workspace
• The precise way of indicating
• respect for face may be culture
• specific, e.g.
• Offer of a drink and initial
• refusal
• Refusal of an invitation
• Etc.

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Speech Acts

• The acts we perform when uttering sentences
• 1955 John Austins William James Lectures at
  Harvard (How to Do Things With Words, 1962)
• An utterance can constitute an act
• I promise Ill be there on time.
• I apologize for the way I acted.

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Austins Criteria for Speech Acts

• The sentence must contain a Performative Verb a
  verb that under specified conditions when
  uttered, constitutes the performance of an act,
  e.g.,
• I promise you that I wont be late.
• Must be in the present tense
• I promised that I wouldnt be late.
• Must have a first person subject
• He promises that he wont be late.
• I hereby test
• I hereby promise that I wont be late.

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Felicity conditions conditions that must be met
for the utterance to constitute a valid act

• The person and circumstances must be appropriate
• I now pronounce you husband and wife.
• The act must be executed completely and correctly
  be all participant
• I bet you SJSU will beat Hawaii.
• The participants must have the appropriate
  intentions
• I congratulate you for your good fortune.

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Expanding the Notion of Speech Acts

• 1969 John Searles Speech Acts all
  utterances,, not just those containing
  performative verbs, constitute speech acts, thus
  distinguishing between
• Explicit Speech Acts
• I hereby christen thee The Good Ship
  Lollipop.
• I sentence you to life in prison.
• Implicit Speech Acts
• (I declare that) I ran into Bill and Tony at the
  movies last night.
• (I ask) What time did you get in?
• ( request that you) Please pass the hot sauce.

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Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

• Direct an utterance whose linguistic form
  matches its communicative purpose, e.g.,
• Form statement, Purpose declaration
• An amoeba is a one-celled animal.
• Form interrogative, Purpose question
• Whats your name?
• Form imperative, Purpose order
• Turn on the lights.
• Indirect an utterance whose linguistic form does
  not match it communicative purpose, e.g.,
• Form question, intent request
• Is that the phone?
• Form statement, intent question
• I wonder why you would say such a thing.

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How we understand indirect speech acts
Conversational Implicature

• To interpret indirect speech acts, we rely on
  implicature, our ability to understand the
  speakers intention in uttering something e.g.,
• A Is that the phone?
• Implicature A wants me to answer
• the phone.
• B Im in the bathroom.
• Implicature B wants me to know
• that B cant answer the phone.

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How we make implicatures The Cooperative
Principle

• Purpose To describe in a systematic and
  consistent way how implicature works in
  conversation (H. P. Grice)
• In conversations,
• participants cooperate
• with each other.
• (Wow!
• What does this mean????)

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Operationalizing the Cooperative Principle
Conversational Maxims

• Quantity contribution should be as informative
  as required
• Quality contribution should not be false
• Relation contribution should be relevant
• Manner contribution should be direct
• Assumptions
• We dont adhere to them strictly.
• We interpret what we hear as if it conforms to
  them.
• Where a maxim is violated, we draw implicatures.

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Violations of Maxims

• Quantity
• Letter of reference
• Bob speaks perfect English he doesnt smoke in
  the office and I have never heard him use foul
  language.
• Quality
• Reno is the capital of Nevada, isnt it?
• Yes, and London is the capital of New Jersey

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Violations of Maxims

• Relation
• What time is it?
• Well, the papers already come.
• Manner
• Lets stop and get something to eat.
• OK, but not at M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s.

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Violations of the Maxims

• "Uncle Charlie is coming over for dinner."
• "Better lock up the liquor.
• "Do you know where Kendall moved?"
• "Somewhere on the east coast.
• "How was your blind date?"
• "He had a nice pair of shoes.
• Spencer is sure he'll get that job."
• Yeah. And my pet turtle is sure it will win
  the Kentucky Derby."

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Context

• Observation The forms that social interactions
  take and the meanings they embody are dependent
  on the context in which they are uttered
• Setting Where does the interaction take place?
• Participants Whos involved?
• Ends / goals Whats the purpose of the
  interaction?
• Acts What speech acts are employed?
• Key Whats the mood / tenor of the interaction?
• Instrumentalities What modes of interaction are
  employed (e.g., phone, text message, face-to
  face, etc.)
• Norms What is the norm in this culture for this
  type of interaction?
• Genre What kinds of genres are found in this
  type of interaction

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Activity

• Kachru and Smith, Pages 28-29