Pragmatic variation and cultural models
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Klaus P. Schneider
Abstract
The present paper focuses on pragmatic variation between national varieties of English, reporting an experimental study conducted in the framework of variational pragmatics. It is argued that experimental methods such as dialogue production tasks do not reveal actual verbal behaviour, which is subject to the specific circumstances of concrete social situations, but the underlying behavioural norms of the respective sociocultural community of speakers. These norms emerge from repeated encounters with similar verbal behaviour in social situations of the same type and are collectively shared prototypical patterns of behaviour stored in cultural models in the long-term memory. Such cultural models specify what is expected and considered appropriate in a given type of situation. More particularly, they specify what can be said when and how, i.e. discourse topics, discourse positions, and speech act realizations, as is exemplified in the empirical study reported on.
Abstract
The present paper focuses on pragmatic variation between national varieties of English, reporting an experimental study conducted in the framework of variational pragmatics. It is argued that experimental methods such as dialogue production tasks do not reveal actual verbal behaviour, which is subject to the specific circumstances of concrete social situations, but the underlying behavioural norms of the respective sociocultural community of speakers. These norms emerge from repeated encounters with similar verbal behaviour in social situations of the same type and are collectively shared prototypical patterns of behaviour stored in cultural models in the long-term memory. Such cultural models specify what is expected and considered appropriate in a given type of situation. More particularly, they specify what can be said when and how, i.e. discourse topics, discourse positions, and speech act realizations, as is exemplified in the empirical study reported on.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The emergence of Cognitive Sociolinguistics 1
-
Articles
- What is to be learned 23
- Variation, structure and norms 53
- Flexibility and change in distributed cognitive systems 75
- Pragmatic variation and cultural models 107
- Cognitive Sociolinguistics in L2-variety dictionaries of English 133
- Spread of on-going changes in an immigrant language 161
- Defining the cognitive mechanisms underlying reactions to foreign accented speech 187
- Index 213
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The emergence of Cognitive Sociolinguistics 1
-
Articles
- What is to be learned 23
- Variation, structure and norms 53
- Flexibility and change in distributed cognitive systems 75
- Pragmatic variation and cultural models 107
- Cognitive Sociolinguistics in L2-variety dictionaries of English 133
- Spread of on-going changes in an immigrant language 161
- Defining the cognitive mechanisms underlying reactions to foreign accented speech 187
- Index 213
