The transgressive that: making the world uncanny.

In this article, we examine how the demonstrative that may be used to notice an event in the world in such a way as to suggest it has highly unusual or transgressive properties and in so doing invite others to align with that implicit claim. Drawing on Freud's notion of the uncanny, we examine instances of the transgressive that in circumstances in which participants at least entertain the possibility that they are experiencing anomalous or paranormal objects and entities. The analysis outlines the basic features of the transgressive that and examines how it may be the vehicle for a range of delicate interpersonal activities. Throughout the article, we try to show the broader relevance of the analytic argument by reference to data from more mundane interactional settings and to other forms of discourse, including fiction, commentary and interview narrative

Emotivity in Valencian demonstratives

Més que una proximitat metafòrica cap al referent, la dixi emotiva, afectiva o empàtica produeix proximitat cap a l’oient arran de l’atenció conjunta i/o l’avaluació del referent. Aquest treball estudia els usos del demostratiu (com ara, la funció nominal o adverbial, el grau, el mode referencial, el caràcter humà, etc.) i de les seues construccions (anteposades al nom, posposades al nom o sense nucli nominal) per a comprovar quin tipus de demostratius tendeixen a tindre referents que són valorats de manera positiva o negativa. Per a realitzar aquesta exploració, hem recollit 383 formes demostratives d’un corpus propi (CoValC) format per converses col·loquials entre valencianoparlants de diverses zones. L’anàlisi mostra que en aquest corpus el grau dels demostratius no és rellevant per a proporcionar una implicació emocional, mentre que la majoria de determinants posposats (80%) i de referents humans (quasi 90%) revelen un caràcter afectiu o sobretot pejoratiu cap al referent. Per tant, d’acord amb aquests resultats, apuntar i, especialment, avaluar un referent faria que l’oient esdevinga una mena de còmplice, la qual cosa crea solidaritat i acostament cap a l’oient, no cap al referent.Rather than a metaphorical proximity to the referent, emotive, affective or empathetic deixis produce closeness to the hearer(s) because of jointing attention or/and valuating a referent. This paper looks into several uses of demonstrative (i.e., function as a determiner or adverb, degree, way to refer, humanness, etc.) and its constructions (adnominal, postnominal or with empty head noun) to check what kind of demonstratives tend to have referents that are valuated positively or negatively. In order to carry out that exploration, it has been collected 383 demonstratives of an own corpus (CoValC), which is made up of informal conversations of Catalan speakers from the several zones of Valencian territory. The analysis shows the degree of demonstratives is not relevant to provide an emotional involvement, whereas the most of postnominal determiners (80%) and the human referents (almost 90%) reveal an affective or mostly pejorative effect to the referent. Thus, according to these results, pointing and, especially, valuating the referent may turn the hearer(s) into a kind of confidant and that creates solidarity and approach to the hearer(s), not referents.Aquest estudi ha estat finançat pel programa de subvencions per a la contractació de personal investigador de caràcter predoctoral (ACIF/2018) de la Generalitat Valenciana, i forma part del grup de recerca “Variació lingüística en català (VaLingCat)” de Universitat de València (Ref: GIUV2017-397) i del projecte d’investigació “Continuación de la Gramática del Catalán Moderno (1600-1833) (FFI2015-69694-P – MINECO/FEDER) de la Universitat d’Alacant

"Cause" and affect : evaluative and emotive parameters of meaning among the periphrastic causative verb in English

This dissertation investigates the so-called periphrastic causative verbs in English – verbs such as cause, make, have, force, and let – and distinguishes them with respect to their selectional behavior and inferential properties. I suggest that these verbs are primarily differentiated in terms of the evaluative and affective dispositions of participants in the speech act and the caused eventuality. The empirical basis for this claim incorporates corpora as well as experimental elicitation and judgment tasks. Based on these findings, it is proposed that the selection of periphrastic causative verb in the expression of a directive causative event is governed by the evaluative stance of the patient of the causative verb. I argue that the English verb cause in particular is less general than has previously been assumed, that it has at least two different senses, and that its primary sense is restricted to cases of negative speaker sentiment.Linguistic

Linguistic expression of anger in Croatian and (American) English

Cilj ovoga rada je istražiti jezično izražavanje ljutnje u hrvatskome i (američkom) engleskome jeziku, s posebnim naglaskom na direktne jezične izraze ljutnje, kao i na kontekst uporabe tih jezičnih izraza. Direktni jezični izrazi ljutnje u ovome radu također su analizirani u okviru sociolingvističkog pojma zajednice, i to zajednice prakse, govorne zajednice i društvene mreže kao i sociopragmatičkih pojmova konteksta i konvencije. Emocije su integralni dio čovjekove svakodnevice i komunikacije. Jezik je sredstvo kojim čovjek doživljava, proživljava, izražava i razumije svoje emocije, pa tako i ljutnju. Teško je uopće zamisliti jedan dan u čovjekovom životu koji bi prošao bez ijednog izraza emocionalnog stanja ili doživljaja, bilo pozitivnog bilo negativnog.The aim of this dissertation is to analyze and explain expressions of anger in Croatian and (American) English. Language is a potent medium for expressing emotions. However, not all emotions are equally expressed and their expression is not equally understood. Expressing anger, which is usually analyzed and described as an uncomfortable, negative emotion carries certain social and cultural implications. The underlying assumption in this dissertation is that expressing anger carries more social and cultural regulations than expressing positive emotions. Expressing joy, happiness, satisfaction is generally favored and welcome, and will usually not present an obstacle in communication or be perceived as aggressive or threatening

La bifurcació dialectal del sistema demostratiu valencià en l'època moderna

Aquesta investigació té com a objectiu principal identificar i localitzar els diversos processos pels quals el valencià forma el seu propi sistema demostratiu, diferent del sistema català general. Al final de l’edat mitjana, el català gesta un sistema ternari a través d’un nou grau intermedi, que emergeix a partir de formes inicialment anafòriques ((aqu)eix, això, aquí) que entren en terreny díctic. No obstant això, durant l’edat moderna ocorren més alteracions. En algunes àrees com la valenciana i la ribagorçana es manté el sistema ternari amb la modificació d’algunes formes (ex. este o ahí). En canvi, en la major part del català el sistemademostratiu es redueix a una organització binària. Progressivament, el català general deixarà de banda algunes formes demostratives (com ara ací, açò i aqueix) i establirà un sistema de dos graus (amb les formes aquí, això i aquest). En aquest estudi ens centrarem en la bifurcació del sistema ternari demostratiu valencià enfront del sistema binari que preval en el català general. Per això, hem reunit un corpus format per textos des del segle XVI fins a la primera meitat del segle XIX. En total, hem obtingut 60183 ocurrències entre demostratius primer i segon grau (ací, aquí, ahí, açò, això, (aqu)est, (aqu)eix...), així com dels adverbis de tercer grau (allí, allà) i algunes partícules relacionades com el clític hi o el pronom ço. Segons els resultats del corpus, hem observat que l’estigmatització de les formes amb aqu- en els textos valencians arriba abans a l’adverbi aquí que als determinants reforçats aquest i aqueix. El test estadístic revela que la decadència de les formes aquí, aquest i aqueix està associada, encara que la magnitud de l’efecte és dèbil. En canvi, en els textos valencians el decreixement de aquí (i hi) enfront de l’assentament de ahí també estan associats, amb una magnitud més alta. Hem examinat també els determinants no reforçats paragògics valencians (este, eixe) i hem detectat diversos casos en què aquesta terminació produeix confusió entre el masculí i femení en altres dialectes (ex. esta plat). En canvi, en textos no valencians, ens ha sorprés l’increment de est a partir del segle XVIII, un fenomen promogut per la influència de la gramàtica escolar que inclús arriba a superar en freqüència el reforçat aquest. A banda de l’anàlisi, aquest treball durà a terme una revisió de la gramàtica tradicional, dels sistemes demostratius romànics i, a grans trets, del funcionament general del demostratius a fi de tindre una visió general d’aquest fenomen.This research aims to identify and locate the several processes which led to the setting up of the Valencian demonstrative system, different from the main Catalan system. In the Late Middle Ages, the Catalan demonstratives built a system with three deictic terms, with a new intermediate ((aqu)eix, això, aquí), which developed a deictic use from its initial anaphoric function. However, over the early modern era, more alterations emerged in the demonstrative system. Some areas, like Valencia and Ribagorça, kept a three-term system with some modified forms, e.g. este or ahí), while the Catalan demonstrative system generally went to a reduced two-term structure. In general, Catalan gradually lost some demonstratives (such as ací, açò, and aqueix). As a result, the first and the second degree were merged (in aquí, això, and aquest). In this study, we are going to focus on the split of the Valencian three-term demonstrative system in contrast to the main two-term system. Therefore, we arranged a corpus formed of texts dated between the 16th century and the first half of the 19th century. Overall, we obtained 60183 occurrences of the first and second-degree demonstratives (ací, aquí, ahí, açò, això, (aqu)est, (aqu)eix...), in addition to the third-degree adverbial demonstratives (allí, allà) and some particles as the clitic hi or the pronoun ço. According to the results of the corpus, we have observed that the stigmatization of the aqu- forms in Valencian texts affects the adverb aquí before the determiners aquest and aqueix. The statistic test reveals that the reduction of the aqu- demonstratives are correlated, even if the effect size is weak. Instead, there is a strong correlation in Valencian texts between the decrease of aquí (and hi) and the establishment of ahí. On the other hand, we examined the Valencian simple determiners with a paragogic -e (este, eixe) and we detected that this ending produced confusion between masculine and feminine in several cases of other dialects (e.g. esta plat). In those texts, by contrast, we noticed a surprising boost of est from the 18th century, promoted by the scholar grammar, which even surpassed the occurrences of the reinforced demonstrative aquest. Therefore, besides the analysis, this work investigates the demonstratives in grammar tradition, their system in the Romance context, and their widespread function in order to offer a general vision of this phenomenon