Expressing Opinions in French and Australian English Discourse

A semantic and interactional analysis

Author
Kerry Mullan | RMIT University
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027256041 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027287656 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
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Based on the analysis of conversations between French and Australian English speakers discussing various topics, including their experiences as non-native speakers in France or Australia, this book combines subjective personal testimonies with an objective linguistic analysis of the expression of opinion in discourse.
It offers a new perspective on French and Australian English interactional style by examining the discourse markers I think, je pense, je crois and je trouve. It is shown that the prosody, intonation unit position, and the surrounding context of these markers are all fundamental to their function and meaning in interaction. In addition, this book offers the first detailed comparative semantic study of the three comparative French expressions in interaction.
The book will appeal to all those interested in linguistics, French and Australian English interactional style, cross-cultural communication, and discourse analysis. Students and teachers of French will be interested in the semantic analysis of the French expressions, the authentic interactional data and the personal testimonies of the participants.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 200] 2010.  xvii, 282 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“This book offers remarkable insights into how native French and Australian speakers express their opinions. Furthermore, it is the first detailed comparative study of the three French expressions je pense, je crois and je trouve in interaction, which it contrasts with I think in English.[The] findings highlight what is culturally important for speakers of the two cultures in relation to the expression of opinion, an added dimension that also makes the book a major contributor to the field of Intercultural Language Teaching.”
“This is probably the first book to expose in detail the comparative semantics of three discourse markers in French that are used above all to express opinions. What is refreshing about its approach is that the study makes use of authentic conversational data from native French and Australian English speakers.The book will not fail to satisfy its readers about many intriguing linguistic differences between French and Australians that may prove to reflect some deeper cultural differences regarding the degree to which speakers can openly express opinions. Dr Mullan was the recipient of an Outstanding Thesis Award in 2007 conferred by La Trobe University in Melbourne.”
“Kerry Mullan's work constitutes a substantial and original contribution to cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison. It combines multiple perspectives, those of interactional sociolinguistics, politeness theory, semantic primes and grammaticization, in the analysis of an original database of semi-structured interviews carefully collected and transcribed by the author. While the English and French discourse markers examined are deceptively similar, the author is able to tease out the interactional functions and semantic meanings of each on its own merits, but with a keen eye to the often subtle differences in meaning and function between them. The book's best contribution is indeed in the insightfulness of the contextual analyses of the chosen markers, which renders the claims made about the French and Australian English interactional styles thoroughly convincing.”
“In this thorough study, Kerry Mullan analyses how speakers of French and Australian English express opinions in their native language. Mullan’s analysis of conversations between native speakers discussing a variety of different topics provides many fascinating examples of linguistic and cultural differences between speakers of the two languages. This study will therefore hopefully go some way to dispelling many of the cultural stereotypes that we hold, and to improving cross-cultural communication between Australian English and French speakers. [...]
On the whole, Mullan’s study is extremely thorough, her methodological choices are consistently justified [...] and her conclusions backed up by quantitative data, as well as a
rigorous and methodical examination of the intonation unit position, prosody, context, and core meanings of the expressions, to provide valuable insights into cultural values which are often misunderstood. The book is accessible to nonspecialists thanks to Mullan’s clear explanations of the various concepts, and notions that she uses.”
“This book provides a thorough and informative investigation which valuably contributes to the study of discourse markers, discourse analysis, interactional research and cross-cultural communication. [...] Those interested in discourse markers, discourse analysis, and interactional analysis will find the approach thorough and effective. The cross-cultural comparison offers new insights for research in these fields and likewise new ideas for examining differences across and within languages and cultures. Mullan’s work is a well-conceived, well-implemented and well-presented study which emphasises the interactional significance of these expressions.”
“Il s’agit d’une étude intéressante et méticuleuse, qui apporte de nouvelles connaissances sur les usages des quatre expressions en question. [...]
L’ouvrage [...] a toutes les chances de se révéler fécond en donnant l’impulsion à des recherches encore plus poussées dans cette direction innovatrice.”
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Angot, Juliette & Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
2021. Chapter 5. The meaning and functions of French je pense (que). In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219],  pp. 128 ff. DOI logo
Auer, Peter & Jan Lindström
2021. On agency and affiliation in second assessments. In Intersubjectivity in Action [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 326],  pp. 81 ff. DOI logo
Béal, Christine & Kerry Mullan
2017. La verbalisation du calcul interprétatif et de l’incertitude en français et en anglais : approche comparative et interculturelle. Cahiers de praxématique :68 DOI logo
Degoumois, Virginie, Cécile Petitjean & Simona Pekarek Doehler
2017. Expressing Personal Opinions in Classroom Interactions: The Role of Humor and Displays of Uncertainty. In Interactional Competences in Institutional Settings,  pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Diaz, Maria Angela, Ken Lau & Chia-Yen Lin
2020. Pragmatic functions of I think in computer-mediated, cross-cultural communication between Taiwanese and Japanese undergraduate students. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 30:4  pp. 509 ff. DOI logo
Haugh, Michael
2019. The Metapragmatics ofConsiderationin (Australian and New Zealand) English. In From Speech Acts to Lay Understandings of Politeness,  pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Leclercq, Pascale
2021. The Acquisition of Verbal Epistemic Stance Marking during Study Abroad: The Case of je pense in L2 French. Languages 6:4  pp. 196 ff. DOI logo
Mullan, Kerry
2016. Et pis bon, ben alors voilà quoi!Teaching those pesky discourse markers. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning 11:3  pp. 271 ff. DOI logo
Mullan, Kerry
2019. Véronique Traverso, Décrire le français parlé en interaction. (L’Essentiel français.) Paris: Ophrys, 2016, 195 pp. 978 2 7080 1460 2 (softcover). Journal of French Language Studies 29:03  pp. 444 ff. DOI logo
Mullan, Kerry & Christine Béal
2021. The Use of Humour to Deal with Uncomfortable Moments in Interaction: A Cross-Cultural Approach. In The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research,  pp. 41 ff. DOI logo
Nes, Anders
2016. Assertion, belief, and ‘I believe’-guarded affirmation. Linguistics and Philosophy 39:1  pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Podhajecka, Mirosława
2020. Additional Evidence for nu. American Speech 95:3  pp. 364 ff. DOI logo
Rendulić, Nina, Layal Kanaan-Caillol, F. Neveu, G. Bergounioux, M.-H. Côté, J.-M. Fournier, L. Hriba & S. Prévost
2016. Je crois que, je pense que: valeurs et variation dans un corpus oral diachronique. SHS Web of Conferences 27  pp. 02014 ff. DOI logo
Rodríguez Louro, Celeste
2015. The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English. In Grammatical Change in English World-Wide [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 67],  pp. 205 ff. DOI logo
RODRÍGUEZ LOURO, CELESTE & THOMAS HARRIS
2013. Evolution with an attitude: the grammaticalisation of epistemic/evidential verbs in Australian English. English Language and Linguistics 17:3  pp. 415 ff. DOI logo
Sadow, Lauren
2018. Can cultural scripts be used for teaching interactional norms?. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 41:1  pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Soler Bonafont, M. Amparo
2020. Usos discursivos de la forma verbal doxásticacreoen la interacción oral en español. Pragmática Sociocultural / Sociocultural Pragmatics 8:2  pp. 204 ff. DOI logo
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
2019. EPISTEMIC STANCE IN THE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING: FOCUS ON MENTAL AND COMMUNICATION VERBS. Discourse and Interaction 12:2  pp. 72 ff. DOI logo
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
2020. VERB PATTERNS IN TRIAL DISCOURSE: THE CASE OF I THINK. Discourse and Interaction 13:2  pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
Tobback, Els
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Unaldi, Ihsan
2013. Overuse of Discourse Markers in Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners’ Writings: The Case of ‘I Think’ and ‘in My Opinion’. The Anthropologist 16:3  pp. 575 ff. DOI logo
Waters, Sophia
2017. Chapter 2. Nice as a cultural keyword. In Cultural Keywords in Discourse [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 277],  pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 march 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
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2010030447 | Marc record