Language and affect: Go-say and come-say constructions in Finnish

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014

This article is about pragmatic potential of literary discourse in terms of comparative analysis of excerpts taken from Italian literarure and their Georgian translation. pragmatic potential lies in pragmatic effect on the target reader. We identified types of emotional subtexts, adjectives denoting colours, kinetic movements, as well as emotional gestures, which play an important role in literary discourse. We also analyzed phonatory paralinguisms, which are related to the characteristics of human speech sounds.

Ingrid van Alphen & Isabelle Buchstaller (eds.): Quotatives: Cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives. , 2012

Whereas research in the Anglophone world has concentrated on the global spread of like, this paper sets out to comparatively discuss three Norwegian quotative markers bare 'just' , liksom 'like' and sånn 'such/like (this/that)' . Similarly to like, the Norwegian quotatives derive from pragmatic particles which express a range of pragmatic functions, such as epistemic hedge, focus marker and filler. However, these functions are more specialized in the three Norwegian markers, so that each of them is less multifunctional than like. Working within an 'Interactional Linguistics' framework, we show that quotative bare is a speaker-oriented intensifying marker, expressing the speaker's affective stance. As a quotative, it is primarily used with dramatic or emphatic quotations, but may also be used as a neutral quotative. Liksom is a marker of comparison and similarity. When it functions as a quotative, it may be used as a speaker-oriented hedge, expressing epistemic stance of approximation/ uncertainty, or as a hearer-oriented marker, inviting the hearer to visualize the quoted material. Sånn is a speaker-oriented focus marker with a demonstrative or pointing function. In its quotative uses, it expresses epistemic stance of exactness/certainty. A quantitative comparison across three generations of speakers from Oslo shows that bare is the most frequently used quotative, and it also reveals clear generational differences, with adolescents being the primary users of all the quotatives.

Media-Tryck, 2019

This thesis is concerned with spoken dialogue and the dynamic negotiation of meaning in English conversation. It serves two aims, one theoretical and the other practical. The theoretical aim is to further our understanding of the kinds of properties that influence the meaning of constructions in spoken dialogue and the role of underlying socio-cognitive processes. The practical aim is to compile a new corpus of spoken British English, the London–Lund Corpus 2, modelled on the same principles as the first London–Lund Corpus from 50 years prior. The aims are addressed in the four articles included in the thesis. The first article focuses on a very common construction in English, namely I think COMPLEMENT and the family of complement-taking predicate constructions. It questions the rigid treatment of the constructions in APPRAISAL theory as always having the same dialogic meaning. For example, I think is considered to always open up the space for dialogic alternatives. By combining data from the London–Lund Corpus 1 with a laboratory experiment, we show that I think COMPLEMENT serves not only to expand the dialogic space, but it may also close it down. The factors that influence the dialogic meaning of the construction are not only semantic but also prosodic, collocational and social. The second article draws on data from the London–Lund Corpus 2 to shed new light on the interaction of intersubjective processes and priming mechanisms in dialogic resonance, which emerges when speakers reproduce constructions from prior turns. It does so by investigating the intersubjective functions that resonance has in discourse and the time it takes for speakers to resonate with each other. The results show that resonance is often used to express divergent views, which are produced very quickly. We argue that, while priming reduces the gap between speaker turns, intersubjective processes give the speakers the motivation to respond early. This is due to the increased sense of interpersonal solidarity that resonance is assumed to evoke. The third and the fourth articles are both concerned with the reactive what-x construction, which has not received any attention in the literature so far. The aim of the third article is to define and describe the constructional properties of the construction based on data from the London–Lund Corpus 2. The constructional representation includes not only lexical–semantic information but also essential dialogic and prosodic information, which are mostly missing in Construction Grammar. The fourth article combines data from the London–Lund Corpora to demonstrate the complex interplay between social motivations and cognitive mechanisms in the diachronic development of constructions in spoken dialogue. It shows that the development of the reactive what-x construction is triggered by the pragmatic strengthening of discourse-structuring and turn-taking inferences, and proceeds through metonymic micro-adjustments of the conceptual structure of the construction itself. In sum, the thesis provides a systematic and empirically grounded account of the dynamic negotiation of meaning in spoken dialogue. It contributes new knowledge to our understanding of the broad and interactive nature of constructional meaning and the complex interaction of underlying socio-cognitive processes. The compilation of the London–Lund Corpus 2 will facilitate many more investigations of this kind.

Psychological Inquiry

It is widely accepted that emotional expressions can be rich communicative devices. We can learn much from the tears of a grieving friend, the smiles of an affable stranger, or the slamming of a door by a disgruntled lover. So far, a systematic analysis of what can be communicated by emotional expressions of different kinds and of exactly how such communication takes place has been missing. The aim of this article is to introduce a new framework for the study of emotional expressions that I call the theory of affective pragmatics (TAP). As linguistic pragmatics focuses on what utterances mean in a context, affective pragmatics focuses on what emotional expressions mean in a context. TAP develops and connects two principal insights. The first is the insight that emotional expressions do much more than simply expressing emotions. As proponents of the Behavioral Ecology View of facial movements have long emphasized, bodily displays are sophisticated social tools that can communicate the signaler's intentions and requests. Proponents of the Basic Emotion View of emotional expressions have acknowledged this fact, but they have failed to emphasize its importance, in part because they have been in the grip of a mistaken theory of emotional expressions as involuntary readouts of emotions. The second insight that TAP aims to articulate and apply to emotional expressions is that it is possible to engage in analogs of speech acts without using language at all. I argue that there are important and so far largely unexplored similarities between what we can "do" with words and what we can "do" with emotional expressions. In particular, the core tenet of TAP is that emotional expressions are a means not only of expressing what's inside but also of directing other people's behavior, of representing what the world is like and of committing to future courses of action. Because these are some of the main things we can do with language, the take home message of my analysis is that, from a communicative point of view, much of what we can do with language we can also do with non-verbal emotional expressions. I conclude by exploring some reasons why, despite the analogies I have highlighted, emotional expressions are much less powerful communicative tools than speech acts.

Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 2022

Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 2015

In linguistic communication, in addition to referring to specific, known referents, we also need to deal with unknown, generic or non-specific referents. I investigated how the English generic you and impersonal they compare to the Finnish zero person construction and impersonal passive, respectively. In the first part of this paper, I compare the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic properties of these constructions, using examples from a range of sources. In the second part of this paper, I investigate how English generic you and impersonal they are translated into Finnish. As we will see, the differences in the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic properties of these constructions mean that the translator sometimes has to opt for alternative constructions (such as first person expressions or generic nouns). A detailed analysis of these patterns sheds light on our understanding of these typologically different constructions, and contributes to our understanding of how reference to gener...

Language and Emotion. An International Handbook , 2022

Affective meaning is pervasive in language. In this chapter we discuss its presence at multiple levels of linguistic analysis, with special attention to the lexicon. In a first introduction to the phenomenon, we explain and illustrate two types of affective meaning (denotative and connotative) and three ways to account for it (categorical, dimensional and feature-based approaches) transversal to all levels of analysis. We then illustrate how affect is communicated in phonology, morphology, the lexicon, and syntax, with examples from different languages. The discussion of the lexicon is further organized around two variables: (a) the word's grammatical class, where we discuss emotion concepts such as nouns (e.g., joy), verbs (e.g., to embarrass), adjectives (e.g., sad) and adverbs (e.g., surprisingly); and (b) the word's figurativeness, where we analyze affective meaning in literal (e.g. to rage) and figurative expressions (e.g., to erupt) and discuss the privileged link between figurative language and emotion.

Consciousness & Emotion Book Series, 2012

The relevance of emotion for language and linguistics is considered from three perspectives: (a) the conceptualization of emotions, (b) the expression of emotions and (c) the grounding of language. As to the conceptualization perspective, research on the emotional lexicon is discussed. Not only content words (N, V, A), but also prepositions are relevant (to long for, hate against). From the expression perspective, it is claimed that the expression of emotions takes place on all linguistic levels: phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and on the level of figurative language use (metaphor and metonymy). 'Grounding' of language in emotion means that emotion is one of the preconditions for the functioning of language (emotion is part of the embodied grounding) and for its coming into existence, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically.

Aktualʹnì pitannâ gumanìtarnih nauk, 2024

This research investigates idiomatic expressions in English in the light of speech act theory, elucidating their pragmatic functions. Against the backdrop of the anthropocentric paradigm, linguistic dynamics are examined, focusing on the interrelation between language and thought, culture, society, and psychology. Pragmatics, as the analytical lens, emphasizes the significance of discerning communicative intent, establishing a vital connection to the illocutionary acts expressed by idiomatic expressions. The foundational theories of Austin and Searle in speech act theory provide the theoretical underpinning, accentuating the dual role of language and speech in both expressing propositions and performing actions. The authors of the article identify and analyze 48 idiomatic expressions, strategically categorizing them into representative, expressive, commissive, and directive speech acts. Among these, representative speech acts dominate, covering diverse functions such as describing, complaining, stating, concluding, and swearing. Expressive acts are used to convey various emotions embodied in the varieties of thanking, offering condolences, showing sympathy, expressing regret, and providing excuses, while commissive acts materialize in the forms of agreement or opposition. Directives, as a significant category, prompt specific actions from the interlocutor, represented by commands, requests, suggestions, advice, orders, invitations, warnings. This comprehensive analysis not only contributes to understanding the complex array of idiomatic expressions used in speech acts but also enhances our comprehension of their role and pragmatic function in communication. The findings resonate with contemporary research trends in linguistic analysis and pragmatics, revealing the pragmatic functions of idiomatic expressions within diverse speech acts. The implications of this research extend to enriching our understanding of the intricate connections between language and various facets of human experience, contributing to the linguistic analysis and pragmatics.

This paper examines constructions used to report communicative acts in English and Spanish, both from a verb–centered perspective and from a constructional approach, as in Goldberg (1995). I review sentences with verba dicendi, and other constructions where verbs not belonging to the communicative domain are inserted in a ditranistive/communicative frame. The analysis of corpus examples shows that this conflated communicative pattern is not limited in English to conventional constructions of the type kiss goodnight. Novel uses reveal that this grammatical metonymy is more widespread than is generally believed. In Spanish it is not as productive as it is in English, but I claim that it is not banned by syntax, as has been suggested.

How do language and communicative practices shape emotional experience? What are emotions and how can we study them ethnographically? How do our everyday ways of interacting create emotional meaning? This course focuses on the role of language and communicative dynamics in mediating and shaping emotional experience. Since the early 1990s, influential works in linguistic and cultural anthropology have questioned universalizing views of emotion, advocating the idea that emotions are linguistic and sociocultural constructs grounded in historical and local specific contexts. These studies have challenged approaches to emotions based on binary oppositions (i.e. mind versus body and emotion versus reason), as reflected for example in popular and scholarly tendencies of associating emotions with stereotypical images of femininity, seen in opposition and hierarchical relations to reason (or rationality). Another line of research has explored the co-articulation between the linguistic expression of emotions and the process of subject- formation, highlighting how certain ways of speaking may generate or challenge moral dispositions, domains of experience, and structures of feelings. Throughout the semester students will engage a series of ethnographic case studies aimed at exploring the nexus between language, emotions, and everyday cultural practices. Ranging from the relation between ideologies of gender and linguistic styles of affective expression in the Pacific to the intersection between romantic love, marriage practices, and the development of literacy in Nepal; from the connection between emotional ethos and styles of religious devotion in Indonesia and Mexico to the poetic expressions of resistance in Egypt and Nigeria; and from the analysis of the emotion in doctor-patient interactions to the study of dynamics of popularity and exclusion among American teenagers, this course will explore the linguistic constitution of emotional experience and subjectivity. Our aim will be to explore the linguistic poetics of emotions and the cultural politics of affect to expand our understanding of the significance of language in shaping our world.

Language in Society, 2020

We examine how other-repetitions in Finnish are used for repairing interactional problems in hearing and understanding and for registering what another has just said, describing how prosody and grammar interact in accomplishing these goals. In the repair-initiating repetitions, the pitch contours build a continuum of different degrees of falling pitch from moderate to steep, the latter being associated with some type of an affective stance. In the registering repetitions, the pitch fall is generally narrower than in the repair-initiations, the pitch span of the repetition turn typically matching that of the original turn. A notable feature of other-repetitions in Finnish is the use of particles (mostly ai and vai), which deal specifically with the informational aspects of other-repetitions, thus contributing to the design of both repair-initiating and registering repetitions. The article illustrates the complex layering of actions that Finnish as a ‘particle language’ affords. (Conv...