The illocution-prosody relationship and the Information Pattern in spontaneous speech according to the Language into Act Theory (L-AcT)

This paper introduces the question of the definition of reference units for speech, correlating with the necessary condition that they must be an adequate and useful means for analyzing large spoken corpora. According to Language into Act Theory (L-AcT), the utterance is the proper reference unit and the counterpart of the speech act (Austin 1962), being demarcated by prosody within the flow of speech. The pragmatic foundations of the utterance and its information structure will be described and are closely connected to the role of prosody in their identification. The pragmatic and information analysis of English and Romance examples are presented, which are taken from representative spoken corpora (C-ORAL-ROM, C-ORAL-BRAZIL, S. Barbara Corpus). Regarding the information structure, the Comment unit is considered the core of the Information Pattern and since its role is the expression of the illocution it automatically conveys the new information. The Comment may be accompanied and supported by other optional information units which are functionally differentiated. The Information Pattern is systematically demarcated by a Prosodic Pattern within an isomorphic correlation

The role of prosody for the expression of illocutionary types. The prosodic system of questions in spoken Italian and French according to Language into Act Theory

This article presents a corpus-based study of the correlations between prosodic contours and question speech acts in Italian and French from the perspective of the Language into Act Theory (L-AcT). A rich taxonomy of question illocutionary types is derived from two comparable corpora of informal speech taken from the C-ORAL-ROM collection and illustrated through prototypic examples. The number of questions in speech is evaluated as <10% of utterances. Despite their syntactic and accentual differences, the two languages share comparable pragmatic values conveyed by defined prosodic variations. Total questions, which can be answered with yes or no, are expected with canonical rising contours. Still, a good percentage shows the so-called declarative prosody (26% in FR and 36% in IT). They have been supposed to be biased by presupposing the proposition's truth and considered Requests for confirmations instead of genuinely Seeking for information acts. But presupposition, depending on intentional states, is hard to be detected, and no clear linguistic correlation was found. The corpus-based study of the prosody/pragmatics relation allows a better understanding of the system. Total questions should be framed within the larger category of Directives aimed at the addressee's linguistic behavior, which does not foresee seeking information as the only goal. When the speaker makes a hypothesis on what he asks—that is not an actual presupposition—he performs a Request for confirmation. This is true in most Total questions, and prosody complies with the canonical contour. In contrast, declarative contours correlate with corpus contexts in which the speaker does not make any hypothesis but puts pressure on the addressee (Challenging Questions). Partial questions genuinely seek information and comprise Open questions, which are verbless utterances where the addressee is requested to freely provide information on a given topic. Tag questions, Double questions, and Alternative questions correspond to Illocutionary patterns that, according to L-AcT, are composed of two pragmatic units framed within one prosodic strategy

Rottlerin-mediated inhibition of Toxoplasma gondii growth in BeWo trophoblast-like cells

Autophagy is a crucial and physiological process for cell survival from yeast to mammals, including protozoan parasites. Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular parasite, typically exploits autophagic machinery of host cell; however host cell upregulates autophagy to combat the infection. Herein we tested the efficacy of Rottlerin, a natural polyphenol with autophagic promoting properties, against Toxoplasma infection on the chorioncarcinoma-derived cell line BeWo. We found that Rottlerin, at sub-toxic doses, induced morphological and biochemical alterations associated with autophagy and decreased Toxoplasma growth in infected cells. Although autophagy was synergically promoted by Toxoplasma infection in combination with Rottlerin treatment, the use of the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine revealed that Rottlerin anti-parasitic effect was largely autophagy-independent and likely mediated by the converging inhibitory effect of Rottlerin and Toxoplasma in host protein translation, mediated by mTOR inhibition and eIF2α phosphorylation. Both events, which on one hand could explain the additive effect on autophagy induction, on the other hand led to inhibition of protein synthesis, thereby depriving Toxoplasma of metabolically essential components for multiplication. We suggest that modulation of the competition between pathogen requirement and host cell defense might be an attractive, novel therapeutic approach against Toxoplasma infection and encourage the development of Rottlerin-based new therapeutic formulations

Dal polilogo al monologo nell’italiano parlato: la base pragmatico/prosodica del bi-/multi-dialogo e la sua declinazione monologica in testi narrativi e descrittivi

From multi-dialogue to monologue in spoken Italian: the pragmatic/prosodic basis of multi-dialogue and its transformation in narrative and descriptive monologues – The paper summarizes the Language into Act Theory (L-AcT), according to which spoken texts are analysed and aligned per utterance to the acoustic source. Three stretches of spoken Italian taken from the LABLITA Corpus (multi-dialogue, dialogue, monologue) are described according to L-AcT as regards turn-taking, information structure, and illocution. The above texts are then compared to a short literary excerpt showing the different syntactic architecture of the two language varieties

Force illocutoire, articulation topic/comment et contour prosodique en italien parlé

Cresti Emanuela. Force illocutoire, articulation topic/comment et contour prosodique en italien parlé. In: Faits de langues, n°13, Mars 1999. Oral-Ecrit : Formes et théories, sous la direction de Laurent Danon-Boileau et Mary-Annick Morel. pp. 168-181

Prospettive nello studio del lessico italiano : Atti del IX Congresso SILFI

The Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the International Society of Italian Linguistics and Philology (SILFI), \uabProspects in the study of Italian vocabulary\ubb (Florence, 14-17 June 2006), comprise 88 contributions by scholars from Italy and abroad. The essays are divided into twelve sections, each representing a study prospect, thus illustrating the vitality of the great tradition of Italian studies on language. The Conference confirms the importance of tradition, but also points up how the new areas of study – concerning the use of information infrastructures for the acquisition and conservation of the linguistic heritage – are by now pivotal both for research and for the establishment of essential resources for the defence and promotion of our language. Meditation on the Italian lexicon at this moment in time signifies retrieving the relation between our language and our culture, which tends to be overshadowed in a period of globalisation and of vehicular language such as the present.Gli Atti del IX Congresso della Societ\ue0 Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Italiana (SILFI), \uabProspettive nello studio del lessico italiano\ubb (Firenze, 14-17 giugno 2006), comprendono 88 contributi di studiosi italiani e stranieri. Le dodici sezioni in cui sono suddivisi segnalano altrettante prospettive di studio, a testimoniare la vitalit\ue0 della grande tradizione degli studi italiani sulla parola. Il Congresso conferma l\u27importanza della tradizione ma mostra anche come nuovi settori di studio, riguardanti l\u27utilizzo delle infrastrutture informatiche per l\u27acquisizione e la conservazione del patrimonio linguistico, sono ormai centrali sia per la ricerca che per la costituzione di risorse essenziali alla difesa e alla promozione della nostra lingua. Riflettere sul lessico italiano in questo momento vuol dire ritrovare quella relazione tra la nostra lingua e la nostra cultura, che in un\u27epoca di globalizzazione e di lingue veicolari, come la presente, tende a essere messa in ombra