‘Pragmatic punting’ and prosody
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Jesús Romero-Trillo
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present the notion of “pragmatic punting” as the cognitive process that confirms that communication in interaction has achieved its goal. The theoretical tenets of this mechanism are based on the principles of communicative context and on the Dynamic Model of Meaning. The study compares the prosodic patterns of pragmatic markers in the London-Lund Corpus and in the LINDSEI Corpus (the Spanish section) in order to describe the prototypical realization of pragmatic punting in native and non-native English conversation respectively. The results show the disparity in the use of pragmatic punting between both groups of speakers. The conclusions indicate that the improvement of the non-natives’ awareness of the intonation patterns and distribution of pragmatic markers would contribute to the improvement of their communicative competence.
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present the notion of “pragmatic punting” as the cognitive process that confirms that communication in interaction has achieved its goal. The theoretical tenets of this mechanism are based on the principles of communicative context and on the Dynamic Model of Meaning. The study compares the prosodic patterns of pragmatic markers in the London-Lund Corpus and in the LINDSEI Corpus (the Spanish section) in order to describe the prototypical realization of pragmatic punting in native and non-native English conversation respectively. The results show the disparity in the use of pragmatic punting between both groups of speakers. The conclusions indicate that the improvement of the non-natives’ awareness of the intonation patterns and distribution of pragmatic markers would contribute to the improvement of their communicative competence.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
-
Introduction
- On the relatedness of functionalism and pragmatics 1
-
I. Methods in the analysis of language and discourse
- Developing comprehensive criteria of adequacy 19
- A method of analysing recontextualisation in the communication of science 37
- Contrastive corpus annotation in the CONTRANOT project 57
- Form and function in evaluative language 87
- Life before Nation 111
-
II. Pragmatics and grammar
- A lexico-paradigmatic approach to English setting-constructions 133
- How did we think? 149
- The adverb truly in Present-Day English 169
-
III. Current trends in pragmatics and discourse analysis
- Nominal reference and the dynamics of discourse 189
- ‘Pragmatic punting’ and prosody 209
- Besides as a connective 223
- Searle and Sinclair on communicative acts 243
- Strategies of (in)directness in Spanish speakers’ production of complaints and disagreements in English and Spanish 261
- Name index 285
- Term index 289
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
-
Introduction
- On the relatedness of functionalism and pragmatics 1
-
I. Methods in the analysis of language and discourse
- Developing comprehensive criteria of adequacy 19
- A method of analysing recontextualisation in the communication of science 37
- Contrastive corpus annotation in the CONTRANOT project 57
- Form and function in evaluative language 87
- Life before Nation 111
-
II. Pragmatics and grammar
- A lexico-paradigmatic approach to English setting-constructions 133
- How did we think? 149
- The adverb truly in Present-Day English 169
-
III. Current trends in pragmatics and discourse analysis
- Nominal reference and the dynamics of discourse 189
- ‘Pragmatic punting’ and prosody 209
- Besides as a connective 223
- Searle and Sinclair on communicative acts 243
- Strategies of (in)directness in Spanish speakers’ production of complaints and disagreements in English and Spanish 261
- Name index 285
- Term index 289
