Anne Barron

Variational pragmatics: Studying the impact of social factors on language use in interaction

Intercultural pragmatics is usually associated with pragmatic di¤erences between di¤erent languages. This seems to be the default reading of the term. However, this reading tacitly ignores that there is no one-to-one relationship between languages and cultures.1 Speakers who share the same native language do not necessarily share the same culture. For instance, native speakers of English in Ireland and the United States use language in di¤erent ways (e.g., Schneider 1999, 2008). Neither do Americans in the US all use English in the same way (cf., e.g., Barron 2009; Wolfram and Schilling 2006: 93–101). On the other hand, cultures may be shared by speakers with di¤erent native languages. Thus, as language use in interaction is shaped by cultural values, pragmatic similarities may occur across languages, while pragmatic di¤erences may occur across varieties of the same language. Variational pragmatics is a subdiscipline of intercultural pragmatics. Other subdisciplines include contrastive pragmatics, cross-cultural pragmatics, ethnopragmatics, interlanguage pragmatics, and postcolonial pragmatics. Contrastive pragmatics is concerned with inter-lingual di¤erences, i.e., with pragmatic variation between di¤erent languages. Crosscultural pragmatics, on the other hand, compares the ways in which different languages are used in communication. It also deals with native speaker—non-native speaker interaction and with lingua franca communication (cf. Blum-Kulka et al. 1989; House-Edmondson 1986: 282).2 Ethnopragmatics is concerned with explaining speech practices in terms of a culture-internal perspective (e.g., in terms of values) rather than in terms of presumed pragmatic universals (cf. Goddard 2006). Interlanguage pragmatics focuses on the specific nature of language use conventions in learner language, e.g., in the English as a foreign language spoken by native speakers of German, and also on the acquisition of these conventions by learners (cf. Kasper 1998; Kasper and Rose 1999; Barron 2003: 26–28). The use of second (as opposed to foreign) languages in interaction is studied in postcolonial pragmatics. In other words, this

“And your wedding is the twenty-second of June is it?”: Tag questions in Irish English

This chapter addresses the lack of systematic research into the use of tag questionsin Irish English on a formal and functional level by conducting an exploratorygenre-specific analysis of tag questions in service encounters in IrishEnglish. Tag question usage is compared with previous findings from referencecorpora of Irish English, British English and American English. The study pointsto many similarities between tag questions across genre and variety but alsoshows features which appear particular to present day Irish English, such as theuse of sure-tags a higher frequency of the operator BE, a more frequent canonicaluse of “is it?” tag questions and a high use of interrogative anchors. In addition,the confirmation-eliciting function was employed particularly frequently in thecanonical tag questions recorded in the service encounter data. Further researchis required to investigate whether this findings was genre-related or varietyrelated.Finally, non-concordant tag uses were found to be uncommon, a findingwhich contrasts with previous research on Irish English. The paper closes with aplea for an increase in cross-variational analyses of tag questions.

Tag questions across Irish English and British English: A corpus analysis of form and function

Abstract The present study, situated in the area of variational pragmatics, contrasts tag question (TQ) use in Ireland and Great Britain using spoken data from the Irish and British components of the International Corpus of English (ICE). Analysis is on the formal and functional level and also investigates form-functional relationships. Findings reveal many similarities in the use of TQs across the varieties. They also point, however, to a lower use of TQs in Irish English and in a range of variety-preferential features on both the formal and functional levels. The paper shows how an in-depth analysis of form-function relations together with a fine-tuned investigation of sub-functions gives an insight into formal preferences.

Pragmatics of discourse

Discourse is language as it occurs, in any form or context, beyond the speech act. It may be written or spoken, monological or dialogical, but there is always a communicative aim or purpose. The present volume provides systematic orientation in the vast field of studying discourse from a pragmatic perspective. It first gives an overview of a range of approaches developed for the analysis of discourse, including, among others, conversation analysis, genre analysis, functional discourse grammar and corpus-driven approaches. The focus is furthermore on functional units in discourse, such as discourse markers, speech act sequences, interactional moves and phases, and also silence. Finally, the volume examines different types of discourse (e.g. narratives, service encounters, press releases) in various discourse domains (e.g. medical contexts, the media, education). Each article surveys the current state of the art of the respective topic area while also presenting new research findings.

The Sociolinguistics of language use in Ireland

While the study of Irish English (IrE) on the phonological, grammatical and lexical levels is long established (cf. Hickey 2011: 13–14), the study of variation in language use in IrE is a recent endeavour (cf. Vaughan and Clancy 2011: 47). IrE is not exceptional as a variety in this regard, dialectological research in general having long concentrated on synchronic variation at the level of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. In pragmatic research too, variation in language use according to macrosocial factors, such as region, age, socio-economic class, ethnicity — and gender to a lesser extent — have been largely neglected. However, in recent years variational pragmatics has emerged as a research field, making intra-lingual pragmatic variation according to these five macrosocial factors the focus of systematic analysis (cf. Schneider and Barron 2008; Barron and Schneider 2009; Holmes 2010: 449; Schneider 2010; Placencia 2011; Barron 2014, forthcoming). This research field propagates intra-lingual pragmatic research adopting the methodological principles of empiricity, comparability and contrastivity (cf. Schneider 2010; Barron 2014). In other words, research should be contrastive between varieties and use comparable data since it is only such data that can highlight the similarities and differences between varieties on any level.

Public Information Messages

Public information messages are an important means of state-citizen communication in today’s societies. Using this genre, citizens are directed to “never ever drink and drive”, to “slow down” and to “learn to say no”. Yet, this book presents the first in-depth analysis of public information messages from a linguistic perspective, and indeed also from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, the study, adopting genre analysis, contrasts a corpus of state-run national public information campaigns in Germany and Ireland. A taxonomy of moves is developed inductively and the interactional features of the genre are analysed and related to the context of use. The comprehensive discussion of theoretical and methodological issues, the in-depth analysis and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to researchers and students in (contrastive) discourse analysis, (cross-cultural) pragmatics, contrastive rhetoric, advertising, social psychology, mass communication and media studies. Copy-writers will also profit from the insights gained, particularly within the context of an increase in Europe-wide public information campaigns.

Public Information Messages : A Contrastive Genre Analysis of State-Citizen Communication

Public information messages are an important means of state-citizen communication in today’s societies. Using this genre, citizens are directed to “never ever drink and drive”, to “slow down” and to “learn to say no”. Yet, this book presents the first in-depth analysis of public information messages from a linguistic perspective, and indeed also from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, the study, adopting genre analysis, contrasts a corpus of state-run national public information campaigns in Germany and Ireland. A taxonomy of moves is developed inductively and the interactional features of the genre are analysed and related to the context of use. The comprehensive discussion of theoretical and methodological issues, the in-depth analysis and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to researchers and students in (contrastive) discourse analysis, (cross-cultural) pragmatics, contrastive rhetoric, advertising, social psychology, mass communication and media studies. Copy-writers will also profit from the insights gained, particularly within the context of an increase in Europe-wide public information campaigns.

Click Here to Shop Now!: A micro-linguistic analysis of medical spam mails

Unerwunschte Werbemails, im Volksmund’ spam’ genannt, sind inzwischen ein weit bekanntes Phanomen (siehe, z.B., Behrens 2003: 204). Linguistische Analysen von Spam stellen jedoch eine Forschungslucke dar (vgl. Barron 2006: 882–883, Durscheid 2005, Janich 2001: 22, 2002: 140). Die vorliegende Untersuchung ist eine mikro-linguistische Analyse von Spam. Das Korpus umfasst 121 auf Englisch verfasste Spam-Mails, die von medizinischen Anbietern innerhalb einer Zeitspanne von acht Wochen verschickt wurden. Der Fokus der Analyse liegt speziell auf der sprachlichen Realisierung der pragmatischen Funktion (in der Textsortenforschung „move“ genannt, siehe Bhatia 1993), ‘zur Antwort bewegen’ (‘solicit response’ move). Dabei handelt es sich um eine obligatorische pragmatische Funktion in Spam-Mails, die dem werbenden Zweck der Mail dient, indem sie den potenziellen Kaufer zu weiterer Kommunikation mit dem Anbieter ermutigt (vgl. Barron 2006: 894–896). Die Analyse erfasst die semantischen Strategien, die bei der Realisierung dieser Funktion verwendet werden. Es zeigt sich, dass haufig Hyper-Links verwendet werden. Daruber hinaus wird die Funktion durch einen hohen Grad an Direktheit realisiert, der durch lexikalische Verstarker und orthographische Kreativitat weiter verstarkt wird. Schlieslich weist ein Vergleich der Daten mit fruheren Ergebnissen zu unerwunschten Werbebriefen darauf hin, dass Spam-Mails durch einen hoheren Direktheitsgrad gekennzeichnet sind. Dies wird im Bezug auf den rhetorischen Kontext von Spam erlautert.

Explorations in regional variation: A variational pragmatic perspective

Abstract The present article introduces the Special Issue entitled “A Variational Pragmatic Approach to Regional Variation in Language”, a collection of papers which celebrates the work of Klaus P. Schneider (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany) on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Warga, Muriel: Pragmatische Entwicklung in der Fremdsprache. Der Sprechakt 'Aufforderung' im Französischen. Tübingen: Narr, 2004

These days people find themselves interacting with a new language and culture in di¤erent ways. The director of a big industrial company in Europe may use English in meetings but speak to his employees in his/ her native language. In conducting business it is important for him/her to meet other cultures in the right way, while it may be less important to speak the new language fluently. Other learners have di¤erent needs. For example, an academic might want to ‘‘integrate seamlessly’’ into another culture. Language and culture have come to play an increasingly important role in a world which is characterised by migration, mass tourism and internet communication. But what do we mean by culture and cultural knowledge and how is it significant for communication? John Corbett explores what it means to have an intercultural approach to second-language education and, in particular, how we observe, interpret and understand the cultures we encounter and relate them to our own. The book deals with a wealth of di¤erent issues. What is the goal of language teaching? What is the relationship between speaking the language e¤ectively and citizenship? What do we mean by cultural literacy? Whose culture should be represented in the classroom? To what degree are learners expected to conform to norms and values of the target culture? A central issue is that we need to reconsider the long-established view that the goal of language learning is communicative competence in the target language. The alternative picture of language learning is that of an open-ended process in which the learner moves from one set of linguistic and cultural contexts into another. This new type of learner is not just