Variational Pragmatics
A focus on regional varieties in pluricentric languages
Editors
This collection of papers is designed to establish variational pragmatics. This new field is situated at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology and aims at systematically investigating the effect of macro-social pragmatic variation on language in action. As such, it challenges the widespread assumption in the area of pragmatics that language communities are homogeneous and also addresses the current research gap in sociolinguistics for variation on the pragmatic level. The introductory chapter establishes the rationale for studying variational pragmatics as a separate field of inquiry, systematically sketches the broader theoretical framework and presents a framework for further analysis. The papers which follow are located within this framework. They present empirical variational pragmatic research focusing on regional varieties of pluricentric languages. Speech acts and other discourse phenomena are addressed and analysed in a number of regional varieties of Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The seminal nature of this volume, its empirical orientation and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 178] 2008. vii, 371 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments | p. vii
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Where pragmatics and dialectology meet: Introducing variational pragmaticsKlaus P. Schneider and Anne Barron | pp. 1–32
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Part I. English
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The structure of requests in Irish English and English EnglishAnne Barron | pp. 35–67
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Response tokens in British and Irish discourse: Corpus, context and variational pragmaticsAnne O'Keeffe and Svenja Adolphs | pp. 69–98
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Small talk in England, Ireland, and the USAKlaus P. Schneider | pp. 99–139
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Gratitude in British and New Zealand radio programmes: Nothing but gushing?Sabine Jautz | pp. 141–178
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Part II. Dutch and German
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The distribution of T/V pronouns in Netherlandic and Belgian DutchKoen Plevoets, Dirk Speelman and Dirk Geeraerts | pp. 181–209
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The pragmatics of a pluricentric language: A comparison between Austrian German and German GermanRudolf Muhr | pp. 211–244
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Requesting in German as a pluricentric languageMuriel Warga | pp. 245–266
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Part III. Spanish and French
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Different realizations of solidarity politeness: Comparing Venezuelan and Argentinean invitationsCarmen García | pp. 269–305
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Requests in corner shop transactions in Ecuadorian Andean and Coastal SpanishMaría Elena Placencia | pp. 307–332
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Apologizing in French French and Canadian FrenchUrsula Schölmberger | pp. 333–354
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Name index | pp. 355–362
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Subject index | pp. 363–371
“I am convinced that variational pragmatics has a bright future. Schneider & Barron have carried out a pioneering job in assembling the contributions and in drawing up the agenda for what promises to be a very fruitful - and very useful - field of research.”
Gunnel Tottie, University of Zurich, in Language in Society 38:4 (2009)
“Variational pragmatics is a new exciting discipline enriching the pragmatic study of language by including regional and social variation, thus widening the domains of both traditional dialectology and variational sociolinguistics. The collection contains a number of insightful empirical studies dealing with pragmatic issues such as speech acts, pragmatic markers and conversational interactions in different regional varieties and languages.”
Karin Aijmer,
Göteborg University
“[...] colleagues working in the fields of dialectology, pragmatics and discourse analysis will find it a goldmine of data-driven analysis and insights.”
Philip Riley, Nancy Université, in the Journal of Sociolinguistics Vol. 13/4, 2009.
“The present volume is extremely valuable in broadening the research scope of pragmatics [...]. The contributors' determination to dig out the differences in linguistic behaviour among pluricentric language users is meaningful. They help to establish the link between language in action and its hidden cultural values. Globalization and standardization are sweeping the world, but the inherent mores of a nation are still there. Their findings pave the way for diminishing misunderstandings in intercultural or cross-cultural discourses. With their pioneering work, this newly established discipline is right on the way.”
Zhong Hong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China, in Discourse Studies 11(2).
“The main accomplishment of this book is that it clearly frames a new subfield of pragmatics and establishes an ambitious research agenda. The papers present solid empirical research and address a variety of issues within the paradigm. This book certainly is a must read for researchers and scholars with an interest in the interface of pragmatics and dialectology.”
Istvan Kecskes,
State University of New York, Albany
Cited by
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Barron, Anne
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Barron, Anne
2022. Responses to Thanks in Ireland, England and Canada: A Variational Pragmatic Perspective. Corpus Pragmatics 6:2 ► pp. 127 ff.
Chen, Xinren
2019. ‘Family-culture’ and Chinese politeness. Acta Linguistica Academica 66:2 ► pp. 251 ff.
Chen, Xinren & Mengxin Li
2023. Personality and (Im)politeness: Evidence from WeChat/QQ Group Chats. In Advancing (Im)politeness Studies [Advances in (Im)politeness Studies, ], ► pp. 51 ff.
Degenhardt, Julia & Tobias Bernaisch
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den Hartog, Maria, Sanne Bras & Gert-Jan Schoenmakers
2024. The Impact of Pronouns of Address in Job Ads from Different Industries and Companies. Languages 9:3 ► pp. 110 ff.
DiBartolomeo, Megan, Vanessa Elias & Daniel Jung
2023. Chapter 3. Situational and contextual variation in the development of Spanish apologies during short-term study abroad. In Study Abroad and the Second Language Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Variation in Spanish [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 37], ► pp. 82 ff.
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Farenkia, Bernard Mulo
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2019. Rühlemann, C. (2018). Corpus Linguistics for Pragmatics: A Guide for Research
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Fernández García, Francisco
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2021. Service Encounter Discourse. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 496 ff.
Gales, Tammy
2021. Julia Muschalik, Threatening in English: A mixed method approach (Pragmatics & Beyond 284). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2018. Pp. xiv + 246. ISBN 9789027256898.. English Language and Linguistics 25:1 ► pp. 211 ff.
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2022. Assessing Pragmatic Skills in Speech Act Production and Perception. In Handbook of Research on Policies and Practices for Assessing Inclusive Teaching and Learning [Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership, ], ► pp. 211 ff.
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2023. Diverging Grammaticalization Patterns across Spanish Varieties: The Case of perdón in Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. Languages 9:1 ► pp. 13 ff.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General