Investigating the Communicative Functions of Interrogative Sentences in Dialogue Texts

The article aims to study the problem of the peculiarities of the communicative functions of interrogative sentences. The relevance of the problem is connected with the rich pragmatic fullness of these linguistic units. The issue of communicative functions of interrogative sentences was considered from the theory of speech acts, in which they are realized. Thus, examples of interrogatives were analyzed in representative, directive, commission, and expressive speech acts based on dialogues from the sitcom “Big Bang Theory”. Determining the quantitative ratio of interrogatives in the composition of different types of speech acts and comparing these statistics with the results of another study allowed the authors to decide the most productive types. The prospect of further research is a more in-depth study of the pragmatics of interrogative sentences, as well as interdisciplinary research

Referential metonymy: Cognitive bases and communicative functions

Referential metonymy is a variety of figurative usage wherein our apprehension of relations of contiguity (e.g. the ‘distinctive property-individual’ relation) is exploited in order to pick out a specific target referent in the communicative context: The green trousers (= man wearing green trousers) is doing the Macarena with gusto. This thesis begins by providing an in-depth theoretical treatment of referential metonymy, exploring (i) the conceptual basis of the phenomenon, and how ‘contiguity’ may best be understood; (ii) the relationship between referential metonymy and other ‘contiguity-based’ usages of language (e.g. noun-noun compounds and conversions); (iii) current theoretical approaches to metonymy, namely Bowerman’s (2019) ‘repurposing’ account and Wilson and Falkum’s (2015, 2020, forthcoming) ‘neologism’ account; (iv) both metonymically-derived nicknames (e.g. ‘Red Shirt’) and the metonymic usage of established proper names (e.g. ‘a Picasso’ = a painting by Picasso); and (v) the relationship between metonymy and ellipsis. The theoretical claims I develop are then empirically examined, with an acquisition focus. First, I present a corpus study of two young children’s spontaneous production, in a naturalistic setting, of referential metonymy and other related phenomena (noun-noun compounds, conversions, metaphor, etc.) (Eleanor: 2;6-2;12, Thomas: 2;6-3;12). Key findings include: examples of referential metonymy and contiguity-based naming from 2;6, and striking evidence of metalinguistic awareness before age four. Second, I report a series of experiments into metonymy comprehension and production in Japanese adult learners of English as an additional language. Key findings include: support for the claim that metonym is a useful ‘gap-filling’ strategy during acquisition. Finally, directions for future research are indicated; in particular, examining metonymy comprehension and production in atypical development (e.g. ASD), and systematically comparing referential metonymy with referential metaphor (e.g. ‘the helmet’ = metonymy: woman wearing a cycle helmet/metaphor: woman with a lacquered bouffant resembling a military helmet)

Echo questions in German and Polish on the basis of literary dialogues and their translation

The paper deals with two types of German and Polish echo-questions (so called Rückfragen and Gegenfragen) and their communicative functions. It will be discussed which linguistic means can be used to achieve these functions in both languages.The paper deals with two types of German and Polish echo-questions (so called Rückfragen and Gegenfragen) and their communicative functions. It will be discussed which linguistic means can be used to achieve these functions in both languages.

Response to Fred Cummins: Looking for Rhythm in Speech

This commentary briefly reviews three aspects of rhythm in speech. The first concerns the issues of what to measure and how measurements should relate to rhythm's communicative functions. The second relates to how tonal and durational features of speech contribute to the percept of rhythm, noting evidence that indicates such features can be tightly language-specific. The third aspect addressed is how bodily gestures integrate with and enhance the communicative functions of speech rhythm

Temporal Inferences in Conversation

Within this article, I explore how coproductions (expansions made by a second speaker upon a previous utterance) and questions regarding prior utterances work to verbalize inferences regarding the temporal information in spoken German conversation. While questions regarding prior utterances and coproductions are traditionally understood to have different communicative functions (signaling understanding/ misunderstanding; turn taking) to coproductions, empirical data shows how these expression types enable the speaker to gradually verbalize different strengths of assumption about details of the previous turn. These two expression types are not a dichotomy, but a continuum

Communicative functions of young children\u27s visual art

How can young children use visual art to communicate? This study used Halliday\u27s communicative functions of language (Halliday, 1973), to frame the answer to this question; Halliday\u27s categories of communicative functions are: instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, and representational/informative. Five children, between the ages of three and five, were observed and interviewed as they voluntarily created visual art over a six-week period. In that time period, each of the seven functions of language was demonstrated collectively by the participants. The research was conducted by an educator employed in the early childhood setting. Qualitatively, this study confirmed that young children are capable of utilizing art in a variety of ways to communicate