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In this academic note, we aim to outline the foundations of a major L2 pragmatic project that we have been engaged in over the past few years. We believe the readers may find our system and its typology relevant to their own research studies. Central categorical parts of the project; that is to say, speech acts and interaction, are introduced in detail. More illustrations are followed using typical Persian examples on how refusal, as a popular category of speech acts in L2 (cross-cultural) pragmatics, can be analysed in our system, keeping in mind the target audience of the present contribution.

How do people answer polar questions? In this fourteen-language study of answers to questions in conversation, we compare the two main strategies; first, interjection-type answers such as uh-huh (or equivalents yes, mm, head nods, etc.), and second, repetition-type answers that repeat some or all of the question. We find that all languages offer both options, but that there is a strong asymmetry in their frequency of use, with a global preference for interjection-type answers. We propose that this preference is motivated by the fact that the two options are not equivalent in meaning. We argue that interjection-type answers are intrinsically suited to be the pragmatically unmarked, and thus more frequent, strategy for confirming polar questions, regardless of the language spoken. Our analysis is based on the semantic-pragmatic profile of the interjection-type and repetition-type answer strategies, in the context of certain asymmetries inherent to the dialogic speech act structure of question–answer sequences, including sequential agency and thematic agency. This allows us to see possible explanations for the outlier distributions found in ǂĀkhoe Haiǁom and Tzeltal.

This article is set in the framework of typological and functional studies on interrogativity, and focuses on the study of Guaraní, based on primary data collected in Formosa (Argentina). Interrogative constructions encode the speaker’s request for information, and their intention to confirm the underlying statement of the information that is the focus of the question. This topic has been partially addressed in previous descriptive works on Guaraní. There are, however, aspects in this domain yet to be explored. One involves the functions and meanings of the different interrogative strategies this language exhibits and the semantic particularities of their combination. In this regard, we analyze the distribution, meaning and pragmatic function of clitics =pa and =piko in polar and content questions. Furthermore, a preliminary analysis of tag questions (as a subtype of polar questions) is advanced here. Finally, we also discuss the way how the concurrence of interrogative words and clitics in Guarani is pragmatically and semantically motivated by the speaker’s epistemic attitude when posing the question.

Pointing serves many functions both syntactically and communicatively across signed languages. This study seeks to clarify the use of pointing by surveying signed language descriptions of thirty-one languages. Languages are coded for various attributes of pointing such as anaphoric and deictic use, distance marking, eye gaze patterns, and other attributes commonly associated with pointing. The study finds that all but three signed languages in the sample utilize pointing in sign space for anaphoric reference. Methodological issues with constructing a sample as well as a lack of available descriptions prevent statistical analysis. While historical contact among many signed languages has been documented, the effects of this contact have not been evaluated in terms of establishing genealogical and areal dependencies. Thus, while the sample constructed contains a geographically diverse set of languages, it is not diverse in terms of language contact. Furthermore, a larger sample could not be constructed because descriptions of many signed languages did not contain enough information on pointing or could not be accessed. The present study underscores the urgency of addressing these issues.

In this paper, we propose that there is a speech-act structure in the nominal spine, just as there is in the clausal spine. Its function is to encode what we do when we utter a nominal: that is, we name, describe, or track individuals. Thus, speech-act structure establishes a link between the discourse referent and the speech-act situation. The evidence we discuss comes from nominals that lack this speech-act structure, namely impersonal pronouns. We argue that impersonal pronouns have in common that they lack nominal speech-act structure but are not otherwise a natural class: they vary in syntactic structure. Thus, we propose a novel formal typology of impersonal pronouns. Dans cet article, nous proposons qu'il existe une structure d'actes de parole dans l’épine nominale, tout comme dans l’épine clausale, dont la fonction est de coder ce que nous faisons lorsque nous prononçons un nominal : nous nommons, décrivons ou gardons une trace d'un individu. Ainsi, la structure de l'acte de parole établit un lien entre le référent dans le discours et la situation de l'acte de parole. Les preuves dont nous discutons proviennent de nominaux dépourvus de cette structure d'actes de parole, à savoir les pronoms impersonnels. Nous soutenons que les pronoms impersonnels ont en commun l'absence de la structure nominale d'actes de parole, mais qu'ils ne constituent pas une classe naturelle : ils présentent plusieurs structures syntaxiques différentes. Nous proposons donc une nouvelle typologie formelle des pronoms impersonnels.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of English illocutionary speech acts' typological peculiarities of utterances-statements in dialogic discourse of Old-, Middle-, and Early Modern English. The research is the first attempt to identify and prove the relevance of English affirmative, imperative, interrogative statements' use as direct, indirect illocutionary speech acts in diachrony. Corpus data of the research are certified and argued in English utterances-statements as the illocutionary speech acts in the paradigm as: assertive or verdictive utterances, directive or exercitive utterances, commissive utterances, expressive or behabiative utterances, declarative or expositive utterances. Illocutionary force intensity feature is characterized by the speaker's intentional purpose in English utterances-statements of illocutionary assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, declarative goals, which actualize different types of illocutionary speech acts as \"strong illocutionary force - weak illocutionary force\". Direct / indirect illocutionary speech acts are highlighted in the objective / subjective content of an utterance, depending on the illocutionary force and purpose, the syntactic type, and conventionality / unconventionality of the speech acts as \"affirmative statements\", \"imperative statements\", \"interrogative statements\". Peculiarities of English illocutionary speech acts' relevant use in diachrony are outlined as the realization of speaker's intentional verbal proposition, depending on illocutionary paradigm of the main illocutionary verbs in utterances-statements.

This article draws on the conceptual link between power and causality to develop an account of the relational, discursive, and performative dimensions of power. Each proposed dimension of power is grounded in a different understanding of social causes: relationalrealist, discursive-hermeneutic, and performative-pragmatic. For the purposes of empirical analysis, this dimensional schema crosscuts the classic sources of power typology developed by Michael Mann and others, thus rendering the conceptual apparatus for pursuing sociological research on power more complex and explanatorily effective. The schema is illustrated by an example from comparative-historical sociology: explaining the storming of the Bastille and its effects. A series of research questions for investigating the relative autonomy of performative power is proposed. Finally, the current schema is situated vis-avis classic sociological theories of power, including the arguments of Steven Lukes, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Bourdieu, among others.

The present study offers a speech-act analysis of the phatic interaction taking place within the ritual frame of casual encounters in the elevator. The corpus consists of 70 encounters that took place in Madrid, Spain, between 2020 and 2023. The analysis draws from Edmondson House's (1981) originally proposed interactional typology of speech acts, also found in House Kádár (2021a, 2023) and Edmondson, House Kádár (2022). The main findings show, among other things, that some acts that are not conceived as phatic in the typology can migrate into the phatic slots, and that the speech-act pattern of this type of encounters can be affected by sociopragmatic variables such as the relational history of the interactants, or the co-created humorous episodes in the encounters.

The aim of this paper is to examine wh- questions taken from contemporary plays in the CODIF corpus. Their typology is compared to that of a corpus of spontaneous oral dialogues (ESLO2-MEALS). Although among the CODIF interrogatives one does find patterns similar to those of spontaneous oral, differences in usage remain, owing to the way dramatic discourse imposes or prioritizes certain structures. Three discursive functions are noted in the use of interrogatives in the theater: turn sequences targeting missing information (where interrogatives in situ are based on a preceding assertion), turn shortening (using verbless interrogatives), an emphasis on the interrogative speech act (with an over-use of the prefixal est-ce que structure), or of the notional content of the interrogative (drawing on the range of interrogative structures in French).

The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.