Volume 15, Issue 1 -

In this paper, the Gricean notion of explicit cancellability Grice’s original spelling is “cancelability”. is used as a testable characteristic, able to indicate different degrees of strength for different types of (ironic) implicatures. According to the definition adopted for this analysis, implicature strength is determined by the likelihood of retrieval of an implicature in a specific context and, essentially, by the degree of certainty that the hearer maintains about the correctness of the inferred interpretation. Ironic implicature strength is considered the product of various factors (“factors of implicature strength”), some of which are always present (such as the type and strength of assumptions on which a derivation is based), while others are optional and appear in tandem with specific irony strategies. Irony strategies are categorized into two general types (meaning reversal and meaning replacement), which are expected to show different degrees of implicature strength, being influenced by different factors. For the experimental testing of the hypotheses, subjects were presented with the task of judging the acceptability of the explicit cancellation of various implicated (ironic, as well as non-ironic) meanings. Findings show significant differences between irony types in terms of cancellability (measured as acceptability of cancellation – AC), under the influence of (i) type of syllogism and associated assumptions, (ii) co-textual cues, and (iii) humorous framing.

Statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online questionnaire from 429 participants who were in an intercultural relationship revealed strongly divided opinions on the pragmatic challenges of communicating emotions with their partner. Though most participants reported some degree of difficulty, most agreed that love and emotional acculturation helped them overcome language barriers. Difficulties in communication were attributed to linguistic, pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic issues by almost three quarters of the participants who filled out an open question. Participants with higher scores on Emotional Stability, Flexibility and – marginally – Openmindedness, male participants and participants with high levels of education reported fewer difficulties. Partners in intercultural couples thus faced serious and sometimes totally unexpected pragmatic challenges in communicating emotions but generally managed to overcome the obstacles after some months.

While greetings are performed in all cultures and open most conversations, previous studies suggest that there are cross-cultural differences between different languages in greeting behavior. But do speakers of different national varieties of the same language organize and perform their greeting behavior in similar ways? In this study, we investigate the sequential organization of greetings in relation to gaze behavior in the two national varieties of Swedish: Sweden Swedish spoken in Sweden and Finland Swedish spoken in Finland. In recent years, the importance of studying pluricentric languages from a pragmatic perspective has been foregrounded, not least within the framework of variational pragmatics. To date, most studies have focused on structural differences between national varieties of pluricentric languages. With this study, we extend the scope of variational pragmatics through adding an interactional, micro perspective to the broader macro analysis typical of this field. For this study, we have analyzed patterns for greetings in 297 video-recorded service encounters, where staff and customers interact at theatre box offices and event booking venues in Sweden and Finland. The study shows that there are similarities and differences in greeting behavior between varieties. There is a strong preference for exchanging reciprocal verbal greetings, one at a time, in both. There is also a similar organization of the greeting sequence, where customer and staff establish mutual gaze prior to the verbal greetings, thus signaling availability for interaction. The duration of mutual gaze and the timing of the greeting, however, differ between the two varieties. We have also conducted a multi modal analysis of gaze behavior in correlation to the greeting. We found that the customers and staff in the Finland Swedish data share mutual gaze before and during the verbal greeting, and often avert gaze after the verbal greetings. However, in the Sweden Swedish data, the participants often avert gaze before the verbal greetings. Our results thus indicate that both similarities and differences in pragmatic routines and bodily behavior exist between the two national varieties of Swedish. The present study on greeting practices in Finland Swedish and Sweden Swedish should contribute to the field of variational pragmatics and to the development of pluricentric theory.

The focus of this study is on a particular type of implied impoliteness in Persian commonly known as tikkeh . Given the lack of critical attention paid to the notion of implied impoliteness in the literature, the present study seeks to explore this issue further by addressing the following questions: (i) What is implied impoliteness? (ii) What are the properties which make it different from other types of conventionalized impoliteness? (iii) For whom is it offensive? And finally (iv) how does one evaluate an implied meaning as offensive? It will be argued that, in the right context, any utterance can potentially be evaluated as a tikkeh which can convey a negative impolite belief about the ratified and/or unratified hearer(s). In this respect, examples from both dyadic and polylogal interactions are provided. Along the way, the influence of relational histories as well as interpersonal expectations are also discussed.