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Article published In:
(Inter)Cultural Dialogues
Edited by Răzvan Săftoiu
[Language and Dialogue 13:3] 2023
► pp. 427–452

Yes (Rom. Da). Usages and functions in L2 proficiency examinations

A view from Romanian

| University of Bucharest , Romania | Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti Institute of Linguistics , Romania

The article analyses a Romanian corpus of intercultural dialogues recorded in natural settings during language proficiency examinations and discusses the usages of the frequently occurring word yes (Rom. da). The framework is provided by the Mixed Game Model (Weigand 2009, 2010, 2017, 2018, among others) intersected with the socio-cognitive approach to intercultural communication (Kecskes 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, among others). Beyond the analysis of a single lexical unit in a limited collection of texts, the author aims to demonstrate how a particular word of the lexicon becomes a culturally-socially-cognitively-discursively-rhetorically situated utterance that acquires specific functions when it is used by interlocutors who negotiate their communicative agendas to come not only to mutual understanding but also to achieve their convergent-divergent institutional purposes.

Keywords: intercultural communication, Mixed Game Model, socio-cognitive approach, competence-in-performance, universal principles of human communication, languaculture
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The framework: The intercultural dialogic action game
  • 3.The features and functions of da (Eng. yes) as part of dialogic action games
    • 3.1The propositional level
    • 3.2The discourse level
    • 3.3The interactional level
    • 3.4The pragmatic level
      • 3.4.1
  • 4. Da/Yes as part of the intercultural mixed game
    • 4.1Characteristics of non-natives’ competence-in-performance examination interactions
      • 4.1.1Hybrid structures
      • 4.1.2Metacommunicative nature
      • 4.1.3Reconfiguration of the maxims of the cooperative principle
      • 4.1.4Face work and power work
      • 4.1.5Form-meaning pairs/matches negotiations
    • 4.2Corpus analysis and data interpretation
      • 4.2.1Da/Yes as a synchronizer
      • 4.2.2Cumulative functions
      • 4.2.3Asymmetric usages: Rapport vs cognitive stance to knowledge
      • 4.2.4Metalinguistic function
      • 4.2.5High frequency
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00160.vas
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