Browsing by Subject "Pragmatics"
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Item The aquisition of pragmatic competence in an L2 classroom: giving advice in Spanish(2005) Mwinyelle, Jerome Banaya; Koike, Dale AprilThis dissertation investigates the effect of instructional video, metapragmatic discussion and explicit pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of the advice speech act (SA) by second language (L2) learners in fourth-semester Spanish courses at the university level. Though universals of pragmatics may facilitate the development of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) (Kasper and Schmidt, 1996), L2 learners display a noticeably different L2 pragmatic system in both production and comprehension than native speakers (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper, 1997). ILP research has shown that even among advanced L2 learners, L2 pragmatic competence is lacking (Kasper & Schmidt, 1996; Kasper & Rose, 1999). In response to this problem, the investigation proposes an appropriate and effective way to facilitate the acquisition of L2 pragmatic knowledge. The study adopted a design including pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest with three groups, incorporating video, metapragmatic discussion, and pragmatic instruction into its treatments in order to teach sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic components of the Spanish advice SA. The data used for the study were collected from the learners by means of role-play and were transcribed and quantitatively analyzed. The learners’ advice realizations were analyzed for the following: (a) advice head act; (b) typical linguistic items; (c) amount of speech; (d) level of formality; (e) level of directness; and (f) politeness. Also, assessments from instructors and learners about the treatments and the teaching of Spanish pragmatics were collected and analyzed. The findings of the investigation indicate that the instructional approach that included the use of video, metapragmatic discussion and pragmatic instruction, enabled the learners in this particular group to perform better than the other two groups in acquiring L2 pragmatic competence of the Spanish advice SA. These results imply that the L2 instructional techniques and opportunities for meaningful language practice in the classroom used here may result in gains of L2 pragmatic development.Item Dancing with Spanish words : teaching pragmatic awareness through speech acts(2013-05) Sallee, Ashley Nicole; Sardegna, Veronica G.This Report answers three questions: (a) Why is teaching pragmatic competence important? (b) What are the approaches to teaching pragmatic awareness? Specifically how do instructors teach Spanish requests?, and (c) What role does technology play in pragmatic awareness instruction? The first chapter explains why I chose to write my Report on developing pragmatic awareness through speech act instruction. Chapter two discusses development of pragmatic awareness. Chapter three and four address approaches to teaching pragmatic knowledge and technology’s role in pragmatic instruction. Chapter five proposes a lesson for an intermediate university Spanish class grounded on speech act theory. Materials and a rubric for classroom use accompany the lesson (Appendices A-C). The chapter concludes with a discussion of pedagogical challenges as well as pedagogical recommendations for teachers. Chapter six concludes the Report by answering my guiding questions succinctly, summarizing the pedagogical lesson proposed, and explaining the reasons why I think the lesson is a useful resource for teachers.Item Effects of naturalistic and peer mediated conversation skills training for young adults with ASD(2015-05) Fowler, Meaghan Meredith; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Franco, Jessica HetlingerPurpose: This pilot study sought to examine the efficacy of a naturalistic and peer-supported group language and social skills intervention program called Training for Adults in Language and Other Key Skills (TALKS). This group therapy is offered at the University of Texas at Austin Speech and Hearing Center each semester. The researcher hypothesized that individuals participating in the program would present with increased production of total utterances and decreased productions of off-topic comments and questions during conversations. Methods: Two adult English-speaking males diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in weekly 10-minute Skype conversations both before and during participation in the group therapy. Each 10-minute Skype conversation was recorded and coded to determine ratio of utterances, total comment and off-topic comment production, and total question and off-topic question production. Each Skype video was double coded to ensure accuracy of the data. Results: Participants presented with overall increases in total utterance production and ratio of total utterances across treatment phases. Data indicated a decrease in both off-topic comment and question production for both participants. Both participants performed consistently in their overall question production across all treatment phases. Conclusion: The Training for Adults in Language and Other Key Skills program had a positive effect on each of the participants' social language skills. Future research should include a larger number of participants and additional consecutive treatment phases.Item Emergence of comprehension of Spanish second language requests(2013-08) Sauveur, Robert Paul; Koike, Dale AprilThis dissertation examines the developmental trajectory of online processing toward second language (L2) pragmatic comprehension. This goal stems from two shortcomings of previous research: (1) approaching L2 pragmatics as the acquisition of discrete phenomena through progressive stages (see Kasper, 2009), and (2) focusing narrowly on production. Building upon previous L2 pragmatic comprehension work (Carrell, 1981; P. García, 2004; Taguchi, 2005, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2011a, 2011b; Takahashi & Roitblat, 1994), the current study investigates the development of L2 Spanish request speech act comprehension by native English-speaking adult learners. The analysis involves accuracy, comprehension speed and the relationship between the two dimensions across three levels of directness over a 13-week period. Previous research was informed by skill acquisition theories (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) to account for increased accuracy and decreased speed over time. Here, further analysis is based on Complexity Theory / Dynamic Systems Theory (CT/DST) (Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008a; de Bot, Lowie, & Verspoor, 2007; Ellis, et al., 2009; Verspoor, de Bot, & Lowie, 2011) to account for the seemingly chaotic results often found in L2 research. The findings of the current study show significant overall improvement in accuracy and speed of Spanish request identification, and a moderate relationship between the two measures. However, the association between slower responses and higher accuracy in the current data contradicts skill acquisition theories. Rather, the theoretical framework of CT/DST provides a more authentic account of development. As such, the results indicate that the levels of request directness develop along distinct trajectories and timescales. Direct requests reflect higher accuracy and faster interpretation. While the most indirect level of requests shows the largest improvement in accuracy, the responses for these items are no faster at the end of the study than at the beginning. The development of conventionally indirect requests occupies a middle ground in terms of accuracy similar to direct requests and comprehension speed like implied items. Further findings reflect L2 pragmatic comprehension as a complex, dynamic system that emerges through the differential effects of predictor variables across measures and within sub-groups of participants based on proficiency improvement, motivation and response strategy.Item The French c'est-cleft : empirical studies of its meaning and use(2013-05) Destruel, Emilie; Beaver, David I., 1966-This dissertation contributes to a fuller description of the French c'est-cleft by reporting on three empirical studies on its meaning and use, and presenting a unified account of the cleft couched in Stochastic Optimality Theory. The first two studies in this dissertation explore the meaning of the cleft, more specifically the exhaustive meaning. First, the results from a forced-choice task, designed to test the level of exhaustivity of the cleft compared to exclusive sentences and canonical sentences, show that the cleft does not behave like the other two sentence forms. This is taken to indicate that the exhaustivity associated with the cleft is not truth-conditional. Instead, I argue that exhaustivity arises from a pragmatic constraint on the way speakers use language. This argument is supported further in the second study, a corpus study that shows there is no categorical ban on the type of NP that can occur in post-copular position in a cleft. In fact, the cleft interacts felicitously with a number of expressions such as universal quantifiers and additives, which have been claimed to never appear in post-copular position. This corpus study further shows that the primary aspect of the cleft is not to convey exhaustivity, but instead to convey contrast or correction. Finally, the third study, a semi-spontaneous production experiment, helps make precise the situations in which an element is clefted. The results demonstrate that there is a clear asymmetry between the way grammatical subjects or non-subjects are marked: focused subjects are mostly clefted whereas focused non-subjects generally remain in situ. Moreover, the experiment shows that there exists some amount of free variation: subjects can be realized via prosody and non-subjects can be clefted. I conclude my research by proposing that the non-random alternation cleft/canonical is not a categorical phenomenon, but is gradient and explained by a set of constraints on French' syntax, prosody and pragmatics. The cleft is used to provide contrast or a total answer to the question under discussion.Item Greeting and leave-taking in Texas : perception of politeness norms by Mexican-Americans across sociolinguistic divides(2014-05) Michno, Jeffrey Alan; Koike, Dale AprilThe present study sheds light on how 16 Mexican-Americans residing in Texas perceive and follow politeness norms (e.g., Brown & Levinson, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Terkourafi, 2005) related to greetings and leave-takings in different cultural and linguistic contexts. Data from online questionnaires identify a significant difference in perceived level of social expectation (i.e. politeness) for employing the speech acts with Spanish- versus non-Spanish speakers. The data support previous research in identifying a sense of solidarity among Mexican-American extended families, but go further in suggesting that this bond extends to other Spanish-speaking acquaintances. Better understanding of these norms should facilitate inter-cultural exchanges between linguistic in- and out-group members.Item Information structure and mood selection in Spanish complement clauses(2010-12) Lascurain, Paxti; Koike, Dale April; Luj�n, Marta; Mej�as-Bikandi, Errapel; Salaberry, Rafael; Nishida, ChiyoThe general goal of this dissertation is to highlight the role of discourse pragmatics in the explanation of the use of the indicative and subjunctive moods in Spanish sentential complements. This dissertation examines mood selection in Spanish complements in order to illustrate the shortcomings of the traditional semantic/syntactic approach (Terrell & Hooper (1974), Hooper (1975), P. Klein (1974), Fukushima (1978-79), Bell (1980), and Takagaki (1984)) and to provide within the Information Structure framework (Lambrecht 1994; 2001) a detailed analysis of mood selection in Spanish complement clauses. Considering some existing pragmatic approaches to Spanish mood selection (e.g., Lavandera 1983, Guitart 1991, Mejías-Bikandi 1994, 1998), they are found to be inadequate because they are based on decontextualized sentences. This dissertation considers the context where sentences take place and contributes to our understanding of mood selection in Spanish complements as a formal reflection of the pragmatic properties and relations of the discourse referents that are denoted by noun complements, considering pragmatic notions of presupposition and assertion of propositional referents, their activation, and the pragmatic relations of topic/focus of these referents in the utterances. The notion of pragmatic assertion used in this dissertation is based on the notion of speaker intent, and it is equated with the notion of inactive discourse referents, which are in turn linked to the use of indicative mood in complements of assertive matrices. The notion of pragmatic presupposition is equated with the notion of active referents in the discourse, which are in turn linked to the use of subjunctive mood in complements of doubt/negation and comment matrices. However, this thesis argues that not all uses of subjunctive are motivated by the active status of propositional referents. Volitional and possibility uses of subjunctive are analyzed, similarly to assertive matrices, as activating a discourse referent. Yet, contrary to assertive matrices, and following Fauconnier’s (1985) theory of mental spaces, the referent activated belongs to the domain that represents an individual’s view of reality. This account of mood distribution in complement clauses is eventually extended to adjectival and adverbial subordinates and provides an explanation of mood distribution in all subordinate contexts in Spanish.Item Mitigation in Spanish discourse : social and cognitive motivations, linguistic analyses, and effects on interaction and interlocutors(2010-05) Czerwionka, Lori Ann; Koike, Dale April; Streeck, J�; Beaver, David; Kelm, Orlando; Hensey, FritzMitigation is the modification of language in response to social or cognitive challenges (stressors) in contexts of linguistic interaction (Martinovski, Mao, Gratch, & Marsella 2005). Previous mitigation research has been largely from social perspectives, addressing the word or utterance levels of language. This dissertation presents an empirical study of mitigating language resulting from both a cognitive stressor (degree of uncertainty) and social stressor (degree of imposition) in Spanish discourse, and the impacts of mitigation on interaction and interlocutors. The tripartite approach includes a: (1) quantitative analysis of discourse markers associated with mitigation (speaker-discourse, speaker-listener, and epistemic markers); (2) qualitative discourse analysis, relying on concepts from the Conversation Analysis framework; and (3) qualitative analysis of interlocutors’ perceptions of mitigation, using metalinguistic conversations. The results are discussed considering prior research on mitigation, politeness theories, and Clark’s (2006) model of ‘language use’ to address information types, interlocutor roles, and mutual knowledge. In addition, Caffi and Janney’s (1994) ‘anticipatory schemata’ and Pinker’s (2007) social psychological perspective of indirect language inform the theoretical framework. Results indicate that: (1) Mitigation devices vary depending on contextual factors prompting mitigation, significantly fewer speaker-listener markers are shown as evidence of mitigation, and epistemic markers, which are commonly analyzed mitigation devices, are infrequent overall in these data. These results provide evidence against the assumption that mitigation is associated with increased use of linguistic devices; (2) Two mitigating discourse structures were found, depending on the degree of uncertainty. Within contexts of high-imposition, the Co-reconstruction structure (CRS) is found in contexts with uncertainty and the Non-linear structure (NLS) is in contexts with certainty; and (3) The listeners’ metalinguistic comments indicate that the CRS, compared to the NLS, is preferred. Also, the results indicate how interlocutors address cognitive, social, and emotional stressors in interaction. Considering all analyses, a unifying definition of mitigation in discourse is provided. This phenomenon is characterized as the postponement of both confirmed knowledge and negotiation of the interlocutor relationship. This research contributes the first experimental investigation of mitigation as the result of cognitive and social stressors, and also the first systematic analysis of mitigation in Spanish discourse.Item Pragmatic error identification in traumatic brain injury(2014-12) Baldwin, Shaun Patrick; Marquardt, Thomas P.Traumatic brain injury causes physical, neurobehavioral, and cognitive-linguistic deficits including problems related to pragmatic functioning and emotional processing. This study investigated the ability of 10 (9 male and 1 female) adults with traumatic brain injury and 10 neurotypical participants to identify errors in pragmatic behavior embedded in 25 videotaped interactions presented by computer. Statistical analysis revealed that the neurotypical participants identified significantly more violations of pragmatic rules than the participants with traumatic brain injury for two of the five deficit categories, excessive interruption and two deficits. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.Item Pragmatics in foreign language instruction: the effects of pedagogical intervention and technology on the development of EFL learners' realization of "request"(2009-05-15) Liu, ChianingThis study investigated the effectiveness of explicit pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of requests by college-level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Taiwan. The researcher applied quantitative and qualitative approaches to determine first whether the use of explicit pragmatic instruction had a positive effect on EFL learners? pragmatic competence. Second, the relative effectiveness of presenting pragmatics through two delivery systems?face-to-face, in-class activities and computer-mediated communication (CMC) via e-mail and WebCT?was compared. One hundred and eighteen Taiwanese undergraduate students who made up three intact classes in an ?English for Tourism? course completed the entire study. The three groups were: (1) the control group, in which students received no explicit instruction on pragmatics but received instructor-led lessons from the textbook?s teacher?s manual, (2) the experimental/Teacher Instruction (TI) group, in which students learned pragmatics in a face-to-face classroom setting with explicit instruction on pragmatics, and (3) the experimental/CMC group, in which students learned pragmatics explicitly through e-mail and WebCT discussions with their partners at Texas A&M University. There were 40 Taiwanese students in the control group, 36 Taiwanese students in the experimental/Teacher Instruction group and 42 Taiwanese students in the experimental/CMC group. Treatment types (Control/TI/CMC) were randomly assigned to the intact classes. The results showed that explicit pragmatic instruction had a positive impact on the EFL learners in both the Teacher Instruction and CMC groups. Learners who received explicit pragmatic instruction performed better on the Discourse Completion Task posttest than those who did not. The findings also indicated that technology can be a valuable tool for delivering pragmatics instruction.Item Preposition typology with manner of motion verbs in Spanish(2013-12) Bassa Vanrell, Maria del Mar; Beavers, John T.Spanish, as a V(erb)-framed language (Talmy 1985), is expected to lexicalize the path of motion in the verb and manner in some satellite when it comes to the description of motion events. Nonetheless, it shows mixed properties (e.g. Aske 1989, Berman & Slobin 1994). All manner of motion verbs can take a path satellite introduced by the prepositions "hacia" and "hasta", and yet only some can take a path satellite introduced by the preposition "a." I claim that goal XPs introduced by "hasta" and "hacia" are adjuncts, whereas "a" is an argument marker. In order to capture the intermediacy of a verb’s ability to take a goal XP, I classify manner of motion verbs according to a three-way distinction that takes into account whether they encode path categorically, overwhelmingly, or only sometimes, and whether they lexically reject the notion of a goal. Finally, I posit verb coercion—under certain semantic and pragmatic conditions—of manner of motion verbs that strongly or categorically favor displacement in order to express a goal. These semantic/pragmatic influential factors are reduced to (i) degree of manner and (ii) degree of goal-orientedness.Item Speaking indirectly : theories of non-literal speech in Indian philosophy(2015-05) Keating, Colin Malcolm; Phillips, Stephen H., 1950-; Buchanan, Ray; Dever, Josh; Kamp, Hans; McCrea, LarryHow do hearers recognize when someone is speaking figuratively, and how do they recover the content--whatever it is--of an utterance? "Speaking Indirectly" explores this question in Indian philosophy, showing along the way that it is a helpful conversation partner with Western philosophy of language. Focusing on the debate between ninth-century Indian philosophers Mukulabhatt̤a and Ānandavardhana about competing explanations of non-literal meaning, I argue that Mukulabhatt̤a's proposal can be understood in the spirit of Gricean pragmatics, and is broadly successful. I also show that he tacitly appeals to reasoning known as arthāpatti to explain the interpretive process, a process which I conclude is a version of inference to the best explanation. I also employ contemporary conceptual tools, such as the theory of sort-shifting, to illustrate the plausibility of Mukulabhatt̤a's analysis of non-literal speech. A significant aspect of my dissertation is a new, philosophically informed, English translation of Mukulabhatt̤a's Sanskrit text, the Abhidhā-vṛtta-mātṛkā (Fundamentals of the Communicative Function).