Volume 2, Issue 3

In this paper we claim that pragmatics combined with cognitivism can enhance a critical discourse understanding and debate (Fairclough 1989, 1992, 1995) on ideologically-loaded metaphors and, in particular, on advertising gender metaphors. The former are defined as metaphors that conceal underlying social processes and determine interpretation, and the latter are characterised as cognitive-pragmatic discourse devices used to give rise to often covertly communicated sexist interpretations. We attempt to present a comprehensive description and evaluation of a combined critical cognitive-pragmatic approach to the analysis of ideological metaphors on the basis of a prototypical case study of gender metaphors in 1142 ads published in British Cosmopolitan (years 1999 and 2000). We argue that such an approach is desirable since it is useful in accounting for metaphor as a multifunctional phenomenon that is not exclusively discursive, cognitive, or pragmatic. The application of the proposed model to advertising gender metaphors has proved useful in helping the ad audience’s search for cognitive relevance, in revealing the advertiser’s rhetorical and ideological intentions, and in calling for action on the part of the ad addressees to overcome the negative social consequences of the use of sexist advertising gender metaphors.

Telephone service encounters make for a particularly interesting context which concerns both features of telephone conversations and a number of unique characteristics associated with face-to-face service encounters. This article investigates the politeness of telephone service encounters in Greek and British English by focusing on the degree of directness employed by the two language and cultural groups in question and by examining whether the two groups assess the same social variables similarly. It also examines the specific function that the markers ‘‘please’’ and ‘‘parakalo’’ take on in the context of requests and whether these markers are used with the same degree of requestive directness in the same framework. Results from the study indicated that the opening requests produced by Greek callers ringing an airline’s call centre were significantly more direct than the requests produced by British English callers. It is argued in the present paper that this higher directness is motivated by clarity, goal orientedness, and minimising imposition. As it also achieves social distancing, it can be seen as expressing negative rather than positive politeness in the specific context examined. Findings from this study further indicated that the markers ‘‘please’’ and ‘‘parakalo’’ were employed with a different degree of requestive directness by the two language groups. The marker ‘‘parakalo’’ was found to be less conventionalised than the marker ‘‘please’’ and its use further supported the negative politeness of the Greek requests examined.

This article presents a taxonomy of language learner strategies which are offered in support of learners in their efforts to obtain knowledge about speech acts and to perform them more effectively. Relevant language learner strategy literature and speech act literature are reviewed. After defining language learning and use strategies, the article makes the case for enhancing learner strategies in developing speech act ability. Next, as a lead up to the presentation of the taxonomy of strategies, the issue of where learners are to find empirical sources for speech act material is addressed, with attention given to the current concerns for naturally-occurring data. This is followed by a review of literature on efforts to teach pragmatics. The article concludes with a discussion of suggested avenues for validating the strategy taxonomy.

In this short forum piece, I respond to three of the main points Laurence Horn made in his replies to questions from Istvan Kecskes in this journal (Horn 2005a). My response will naturally (and as requested) reflect my relevance-theoretic allegiances, but I am looking as much for points of agreement and/or complementarity between Relevance Theory and Horn’s neo-Gricean framework as for divergences.

Jacob Mey What is in a (Hand)book? A review of The Handbook of Pragmatics edited by Laurence R. Horn & Gregory Ward.   Jean-Marc Dewaele Review of Cheng, Winnie: Intercultural Conversation