Cracking the chestnut
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Junwen Lee
Abstract
This chapter argues against previous analyses of the Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) particle lah. While homonymic approaches (e.g. Wong 2004) conflate pragmatic function and semantic meaning, unitary approaches (e.g. Gupta 2006) ignore the systematic differences in function that correlate with tonal differences. Using a relevance-theoretic framework, this chapter proposes that lah describes the preceding proposition as being of high epistemic strength, and the hearer interprets this description as being either of an actual situation (signalled by the falling tone of a declarative), or of a thought that is desirable to the hearer (signalled by the rising tone of a interrogative). One phenomenon that this analysis explains is how lah can strengthen declaratives but weaken imperatives.
Abstract
This chapter argues against previous analyses of the Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) particle lah. While homonymic approaches (e.g. Wong 2004) conflate pragmatic function and semantic meaning, unitary approaches (e.g. Gupta 2006) ignore the systematic differences in function that correlate with tonal differences. Using a relevance-theoretic framework, this chapter proposes that lah describes the preceding proposition as being of high epistemic strength, and the hearer interprets this description as being either of an actual situation (signalled by the falling tone of a declarative), or of a thought that is desirable to the hearer (signalled by the rising tone of a interrogative). One phenomenon that this analysis explains is how lah can strengthen declaratives but weaken imperatives.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
