Persuasion pragmatic strategies in L1/L2 Italian argument-ative speech
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Luisa Salvati
Abstract
The paper aims at describing how it is possible to communicate certainty and uncertainty in L2 Italian by the argumentative macro-speech act. Specifically, in a comparative perspective with L1 Italian, the aim is to identify the pragmatic strategies carried out by non-native speakers when they argue in L2 Italian in order to persuade. We collected three corpora of argumentative speech: in L1, L2 and L1/L2 Italian. The analysis show that the non-natives seem to be skilful in expressing their judgments, but not in expanding or modifying them according to the other opinions they just heard. This is confirmed by the presence of many silences and hesitation phenomena.
Abstract
The paper aims at describing how it is possible to communicate certainty and uncertainty in L2 Italian by the argumentative macro-speech act. Specifically, in a comparative perspective with L1 Italian, the aim is to identify the pragmatic strategies carried out by non-native speakers when they argue in L2 Italian in order to persuade. We collected three corpora of argumentative speech: in L1, L2 and L1/L2 Italian. The analysis show that the non-natives seem to be skilful in expressing their judgments, but not in expanding or modifying them according to the other opinions they just heard. This is confirmed by the presence of many silences and hesitation phenomena.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction 1
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Certainty
- Certainty 29
- Modes of modality in an Un-Cartesian framework 47
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(Un)Certainty as attitudinality
- Counter-argumentation and modality 65
- Explanation as a certainty marker in persuasive dialogue 83
- How to deal with attitude strength in debating situations. A survey on forewarning, argument strength, repetition, and source credibility as mediators of uncertainty 97
- The role of subjective certainty in the epistemology of testimony 121
- Uncertainty in polar questions and certainty in answers? 135
- Lying as a scalar phenomenon 153
- Persuasion pragmatic strategies in L1/L2 Italian argument-ative speech 175
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Dialogical exchange and speech acts
- What do I know as yet? 185
- On polar questions, negation, and the syntactic encoding of epistemicity 199
- Epistemic uncertainty and the syntax of speech acts 217
- Discursive functions of evidentials and epistemic modals 239
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Onomasiology
- Vagueness, unspecificity, and approximation. Cognitive and lexical aspects in English, Swedish, and Italian 265
- Latin commitment-markers 285
- Italian come se “as if” 297
-
Applications in exegesis and religious discourse
- The communication of certainty/uncertainty within a Gospel passage (John 9:1-41) 327
- Rhetorics of (un)certainty in religious discourse 343
- Subject index 363
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction 1
-
Certainty
- Certainty 29
- Modes of modality in an Un-Cartesian framework 47
-
(Un)Certainty as attitudinality
- Counter-argumentation and modality 65
- Explanation as a certainty marker in persuasive dialogue 83
- How to deal with attitude strength in debating situations. A survey on forewarning, argument strength, repetition, and source credibility as mediators of uncertainty 97
- The role of subjective certainty in the epistemology of testimony 121
- Uncertainty in polar questions and certainty in answers? 135
- Lying as a scalar phenomenon 153
- Persuasion pragmatic strategies in L1/L2 Italian argument-ative speech 175
-
Dialogical exchange and speech acts
- What do I know as yet? 185
- On polar questions, negation, and the syntactic encoding of epistemicity 199
- Epistemic uncertainty and the syntax of speech acts 217
- Discursive functions of evidentials and epistemic modals 239
-
Onomasiology
- Vagueness, unspecificity, and approximation. Cognitive and lexical aspects in English, Swedish, and Italian 265
- Latin commitment-markers 285
- Italian come se “as if” 297
-
Applications in exegesis and religious discourse
- The communication of certainty/uncertainty within a Gospel passage (John 9:1-41) 327
- Rhetorics of (un)certainty in religious discourse 343
- Subject index 363
