Doing confirmation with ja/nee hoor. Sequential and prosodic characteristics of a Dutch discourse particle

This paper offers sequential-interactional and prosodic observations on the confirmation forms ja hoor / nee hoor ('yes'+particle hoor / 'no' + hoor) in Dutch talk-in-interaction, as part of a larger analysis of the form and function of the particle hoor. We show that ja/nee hoor is used as a marked confirmation in sequentially specifiable context-types. When used as a response to queries, the speaker marks doing confirmation as programmatically motivated. When used in environments that further §[ sequence expansion], ja/nee hoor resists such expansion. Thus, the use of ja/nee hoor is motivated by an orientation to multiple levels of discourse organization. Ja/nee hoor is associated with recurrent pitch contours which are systematically distributed across environments of use. We discuss our findings in relation to previous findings on the use of hoor in Dutch

Pitfalls in the Evaluation of Argumentation in the Legislative Process

The quality of argumentation in parliamentary debates may play an important role in the evaluation of legislative decisions. In this contribution I will discuss shortcomings in the application of the pragma-dialectical argumentation theory for the analysis and evaluation of the argumentation in a parliamentary debate on the penalization of stalking. The case illustrates that institutional preconditions of a specific type of debate should be taken into account in order to be able to give an adequate analysis of these debates

Telling Examples. Strategic manoeuvring in plenary debates in the European Parliament

Members of Parliament may make use of argumentation from examples to justify policies and legislation. In this contribution I concentrate on how argumentation from example may be used to manoeuvre strategically in plenary legislative debates in the European parliament. As a framework for the analysis of the strategic use of examples in the institutional setting of the European parliament, I shall make use of van Eemeren and Houtlosser’s (1999, 2002) concept of strategic manoeuvring

Prediction of pH Change in Processed Acidified Turnips

The acetic acid uptake by turnips was studied during an acidification process in containers. The process was successfully described by a Fickian diffusion, using a correlation for the buffer effect. Diffusion coefficients (0.629 to 3.99 × 10-9 m2/sec) and partition coefficients (0.8 to 1.1) were obtained by optimization of the fit between experimental and theoretical values, using the simplex method. The partition coefficient did not show an evident dependence on temperature, while diffusivity followed an Arrhenius type behavior. The relationship between acid concentration and pH was described using a cubic model with parameters independent of temperature. Results showed that the combination of these models describing the acid diffusion into the food and the buffering effects of the food allowed accurate prediction of pH evolution in the acidification process