Cette thèse porte sur la question de la sémantique causative. Elle propose une typologie sémantique pour les verbes causatifs analytiques CAUSE, MAKE, HAVE, GET et LET, fondée sur le modèle de la dynamique des forces. Le premier chapitre est une étude épistémologique de l’essence de la notion de causation et de son expression linguistique en anglais. Le second chapitre situe le cadre théorique de notre analyse, à savoir la sémantique cognitive. Le troisième chapitre est un tour d’horizon des idées les plus récurrentes dans la littérature au sujet de la sémantique des verbes causatifs analytiques. Dans le quatrième chapitre, nous proposons une étude de corpus portant sur les propriétés lexico-sémantiques des verbes CAUSE, MAKE, HAVE, GET et LET. Sur la base des donnés empiriques de notre étude de corpus, nous présentons, dans le dernier chapitre, une nouvelle typologie sémantique pour les verbes causatifs analytiques anglais / This thesis deals with the semantics of causative constructions. It develops a semantic typology for English periphrastic causative verbs CAUSE, MAKE, HAVE, GET, and LET, based on the force-dynamics model. The first chapter aims to capture the essence of the notion of causation from an epistemic as well as a linguistic viewpoints. The second chapter sets the theoretical framework, which is cognitive semantics. The third chapter offers a discussion of some of the most commonly shared hypotheses about the semantics of English periphrastic causative verbs in literature. In the fourth chapter, we propose a corpus study of the lexico-semantic features of the verbs CAUSE, MAKE, HAVE, GET and LET. The last chapter presents a newly semantic typology for English periphrastic causative verbs, drawn upon the data we collected from our corpus study.

The three chapters of my dissertation examine immigrant assimilation in the Canadian labour market. Through three levels of analysis, which are distinguished by the sample restrictions that are employed, I investigate immigrant labour force and job dynamics, immigrant propensity for self-employment, and immigrant wage assimilation, respectively. In the first chapter, I exploit recently-introduced immigrant identifiers in the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the longitudinal dimension of these data to compare the labor force and job dynamics of Canada's native-born and immigrant populations. I am particularly interested in the role of job, as opposed to worker, heterogeneity in driving immigrant wage disparities and in how the paths into and out of jobs of varying quality compares between immigrants and the native-born. The main finding is that the disparity in immigrant job quality, which does not appear to diminish with years since arrival, reflects a combination of relatively low transitions into high-wage jobs and high transitions out of these jobs. The former result appears about equally due to difficulties obtaining high-wage jobs directly out of unemployment and in using low-wage jobs as stepping-stones. I find little or no evidence, however, that immigrant jobseekers face barriers to low-wage jobs. We interpret these findings as emphasizing the empirical importance of the quintessential immigrant anecdote of a low-quality "survival job" becoming a "dead-end job". The second chapter analyzes immigrant choice of self-employment versus paid employment. Using the Canadian Census public use microdata files from 1981 to 2006, I update the Canadian literature on immigrant self-employment by examining changes in the likelihood of self-employment across arrival cohorts of immigrants and how self-employment rates evolve in the years following migration to Canada. This study finds that new immigrants, who arrived between 1996 and 2005, turned to self-employment at a faster rate than the earlier cohorts and that immigrants become increasingly likely to be self-employed as they spend more time in Canada. More important, I examine immigrant earnings outcomes relative to the native-born, instead of within, sectors and thus explore the extent to which a comparative advantage in self-employment, captured by the difference in potential earnings between the self- and paid-employment sectors, can explain the tremendous shift toward self-employment in the immigrant population. The results show that the earnings advantage between the self- and the paid-employment sectors accounts for the higher likelihood of self-employment for traditional immigrants in the years following migration. However, the potential earnings difference cannot explain the reason that non-traditional immigrants are more likely to be self-employed as they consistently lose an earnings advantage in the self-employment sector relative to the paid-employment sector. My paper suggests that immigrants may face barriers to accessing paid-employment, or immigrants are attracted to self-employment by non-monetary benefits. Lastly, in the third chapter, studies which estimate separate returns to foreign and host-country sources of human capital have burgeoned in the immigration literature in recent years. In estimating separate returns, analysts are typically forced to make strong assumptions about the timing and exogeneity of human capital investments. Using a particularly rich longitudinal Canadian data source, I consider to what extent the findings of the Canadian literature may be driven by biases arising from errors in measuring foreign and host-country sources of human capital and the endogeneity of post-migration schooling and work experience. The main finding is that the results of the current literature by and large do not appear to be driven by the assumptions needed to estimate separate returns using the standard data sources available.

The three chapters of my dissertation examine immigrant assimilation in the Canadian labour market. Through three levels of analysis, which are distinguished by the sample restrictions that are employed, I investigate immigrant labour force and job dynamics, immigrant propensity for self-employment, and immigrant wage assimilation, respectively. In the first chapter, I exploit recently-introduced immigrant identifiers in the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the longitudinal dimension of these data to compare the labor force and job dynamics of Canada's native-born and immigrant populations. I am particularly interested in the role of job, as opposed to worker, heterogeneity in driving immigrant wage disparities and in how the paths into and out of jobs of varying quality compares between immigrants and the native-born. The main finding is that the disparity in immigrant job quality, which does not appear to diminish with years since arrival, reflects a combination of relatively low transitions into high-wage jobs and high transitions out of these jobs. The former result appears about equally due to difficulties obtaining high-wage jobs directly out of unemployment and in using low-wage jobs as stepping-stones. I find little or no evidence, however, that immigrant jobseekers face barriers to low-wage jobs. We interpret these findings as emphasizing the empirical importance of the quintessential immigrant anecdote of a low-quality "survival job" becoming a "dead-end job". The second chapter analyzes immigrant choice of self-employment versus paid employment. Using the Canadian Census public use microdata files from 1981 to 2006, I update the Canadian literature on immigrant self-employment by examining changes in the likelihood of self-employment across arrival cohorts of immigrants and how self-employment rates evolve in the years following migration to Canada. This study finds that new immigrants, who arrived between 1996 and 2005, turned to self-employment at a faster rate than the earlier cohorts and that immigrants become increasingly likely to be self-employed as they spend more time in Canada. More important, I examine immigrant earnings outcomes relative to the native-born, instead of within, sectors and thus explore the extent to which a comparative advantage in self-employment, captured by the difference in potential earnings between the self- and paid-employment sectors, can explain the tremendous shift toward self-employment in the immigrant population. The results show that the earnings advantage between the self- and the paid-employment sectors accounts for the higher likelihood of self-employment for traditional immigrants in the years following migration. However, the potential earnings difference cannot explain the reason that non-traditional immigrants are more likely to be self-employed as they consistently lose an earnings advantage in the self-employment sector relative to the paid-employment sector. My paper suggests that immigrants may face barriers to accessing paid-employment, or immigrants are attracted to self-employment by non-monetary benefits. Lastly, in the third chapter, studies which estimate separate returns to foreign and host-country sources of human capital have burgeoned in the immigration literature in recent years. In estimating separate returns, analysts are typically forced to make strong assumptions about the timing and exogeneity of human capital investments. Using a particularly rich longitudinal Canadian data source, I consider to what extent the findings of the Canadian literature may be driven by biases arising from errors in measuring foreign and host-country sources of human capital and the endogeneity of post-migration schooling and work experience. The main finding is that the results of the current literature by and large do not appear to be driven by the assumptions needed to estimate separate returns using the standard data sources available.

Verbs and prepositions encode relations within events, such as a child running towards the top of a hill or a second child pushing the first away from the top. These relational terms present significant challenges in language acquisition, requiring the mapping of the categorical system of language onto the continuous stream of information in events. This challenge is magnified when considering the complexities of events themselves. Events consist of part-whole relations, or partonomic hierarchies, in which events defined by smaller boundaries, such as the child running up the hill, can be integrated into broader categories, such as the second child preventing the first from reaching the top (Zacks & Tversky, 2001). This dissertation addresses how this partonomic hierarchy in events is paralleled in the structure of relational language. I examine the semantic category of force dynamics, or "how entities interact with respect to force" (Talmy, 1988, p. 49), which introduces broad categories (e.g., help, prevent) that incorporate previously independent relations in events, such as paths, goals, and causality. Two studies ask how children and adults navigate the tension between fine and broad categories in their nonlinguistic representations of force and motion events and whether language - in the form of both labels and syntactic cues - helps children to integrate previously independent relations into these higher order constructs. Participants completed a novel task designed to assess the saliency of force dynamics relations across events. Participants viewed an animated event depicting a force dynamics relation (e.g., prevent, cause) and were asked to identify which of two perceptually varied events (i.e., different characters and setting) depicted the same relation. Study One extends previous research, showing that adults encode force dynamics relations in nonlinguistic contexts. Study Two examined these representations in 4-year-olds, both with and without linguistic cues. Absent linguistic cues, children showed no evidence of encoding force dynamics; however, the presence of language highlighted these relations, improving children's attention to these broader categories in events. The results are the first to explore the problem of hierarchies in relational language and demonstrate a novel role for language in drawing children's attention to the presence of relations between relations. / Psychology

<p>Within the framework of Jackendoff’s conceptual semantics, this study investigates the semantic properties that govern the distribution of object control (such as <i>John persuaded Mary to help Sally</i>) and exceptional case marking (such as <i>John wanted Mary to help Sally</i>) in English. In contrast to Jackendoff’s approach to control, one central idea here is that the<i> to-</i>infinitive complements under discussion should receive a uniform semantic analysis, and thus that control behaviour cannot be explained in terms of semantic argument type of the complement clause. In order to arrive at such an analysis of these<i> to-</i>infinitival complements, they are taken to constitute Situations in conceptual structure, and clauses (TPs) in syntax.</p><p>It is argued here that it is indeed possible to establish the character of the semantic properties that govern the two constructions OC and ECM. Not only does the semantic type of the governing predicate play a role—attitude predicates, as opposed to force dynamic predicates, are exclusively coded as ECM in syntax—but also the realisation of the semantic argument position that corresponds to the Patient/Beneficiary role in conceptual structure. With force dynamic predicates, OC will arise when this argument position is filled with an explicit argument. When it is empty, or left implicit, however, the result will be ECM in syntactic structure.</p>

A presente tese de doutorado tem por objetivo (i) Descrever o significado das conjunções causais da língua alemã por meio dos recursos fornecidos pelo Modelo da Dinâmica de Forças no contexto da Gramática Cognitiva; e (ii) explicar a multiplicidade de conjunções causais na língua alema a partir de diferentes arranjos de perspectiva conceitual evocados pelas diferentes conjunções que atendem diferentes necessidades comunicativas dos participantes de uma interação linguística. Para tanto, desenvolve um modelo de análise elaborado a partir dos conceitos teóricos da Gramática Cognitiva (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) e do Modelo da Dinâmica de Forças (Talmy 1988) para as conjunções causais da língua alemã contemporânea (da, denn e weil ). A Gramática Cognitiva e a Dinâmica de Forças são abordagens da Linguística Cognitiva para a gramática e compartilham a concepção de que a experiência humana com a realidade fornece o substrato conceitual que molda o significado linguístico. Elas também compartilham a noção de que as interações mediadas por força representam um ponto-chave conceitual para a descrição do significado de classes gramaticais variadas como, por exemplo, verbos modais e causativos, preposições, advérbios e conjunções. A pesquisa aqui apresentada faz um levantamento dos recursos teóricos empregados pela Gramática Cognitiva e elabora a partir de ocorrências extraídas de textos jornalísticos uma descrição do significado das conjunções causais da, denn e weil em que a Dinâmica de Forças figura como base conceitual a partir da qual as chamadas operações de perspectivação conceitual (construal operations) estruturam os conteúdos relevantes para a diferenciação de cada uma das conjunções. Essa diferenciação, segundo sugere este trabalho, está relacionada ao fato de que cada uma das conjunções reside essencialmente no fato de que cada uma acessa a base conceitual (dinâmica de forças) a partir perspectivas diferentes, adequadas a situações comunicativas diversas e visa estabelecer entre falante e ouvinte uma melhor troca de informações acerca daquilo que compartilhando em sua interação linguística. / The present doctoral dissertation aims (i) a description of the meaning of the German causal conjunctions in terms of force-dynamic patterns and construal operations; as well as (ii) an explanation for the multiplicity of causal conjunctions based on the notion that construal can impose different conceptual strutuctures to the same conceptual basis, resultuing in different perspectives over causality, perfiled by the conjunctions of a language. In order to fulfill this purpose, I develop an analisys model based on the theoretical concepts of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) and the Force Dynamics Model (Talmy 1988) for the causal conjunctions of the contemporary German language (da, denn and weil). Cognitive Grammar and Force Dynamics are approaches based on the Cognitive Linguistics framework to grammar and share the view that the human experience of reality provides the conceptual substrate that shapes linguistic meaning. They also share the notion that the conception that force-mediated interactions represent a reference point for describing the meaning of several grammatical classes, such as modal and causative verbs, prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions. This research uses the theoretical resources used by Cognitive Grammar in order to elaborate a description of the meaning of the causal conjunctions da, denn and weil. It is argued that the conceptual basis of these conjunctions consists of a force-dynamic pattern accessed by the so-called construal operations. The construal operations structure the content of the conceptual basis in different ways. It is argued in the the present research that different conceptual structures imposed by construal can be related to the multiplicity of causal conjunctions in contemporary German. Thus, da, denn and weil serve to the conceptualization of diverse communicative situations in which the speaker attempts to convey specific causal information to the listener about the objective scene they are conceptualizing in the linguistic interaction.

A presente tese de doutorado tem por objetivo (i) Descrever o significado das conjunções causais da língua alemã por meio dos recursos fornecidos pelo Modelo da Dinâmica de Forças no contexto da Gramática Cognitiva; e (ii) explicar a multiplicidade de conjunções causais na língua alema a partir de diferentes arranjos de perspectiva conceitual evocados pelas diferentes conjunções que atendem diferentes necessidades comunicativas dos participantes de uma interação linguística. Para tanto, desenvolve um modelo de análise elaborado a partir dos conceitos teóricos da Gramática Cognitiva (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) e do Modelo da Dinâmica de Forças (Talmy 1988) para as conjunções causais da língua alemã contemporânea (da, denn e weil ). A Gramática Cognitiva e a Dinâmica de Forças são abordagens da Linguística Cognitiva para a gramática e compartilham a concepção de que a experiência humana com a realidade fornece o substrato conceitual que molda o significado linguístico. Elas também compartilham a noção de que as interações mediadas por força representam um ponto-chave conceitual para a descrição do significado de classes gramaticais variadas como, por exemplo, verbos modais e causativos, preposições, advérbios e conjunções. A pesquisa aqui apresentada faz um levantamento dos recursos teóricos empregados pela Gramática Cognitiva e elabora a partir de ocorrências extraídas de textos jornalísticos uma descrição do significado das conjunções causais da, denn e weil em que a Dinâmica de Forças figura como base conceitual a partir da qual as chamadas operações de perspectivação conceitual (construal operations) estruturam os conteúdos relevantes para a diferenciação de cada uma das conjunções. Essa diferenciação, segundo sugere este trabalho, está relacionada ao fato de que cada uma das conjunções reside essencialmente no fato de que cada uma acessa a base conceitual (dinâmica de forças) a partir perspectivas diferentes, adequadas a situações comunicativas diversas e visa estabelecer entre falante e ouvinte uma melhor troca de informações acerca daquilo que compartilhando em sua interação linguística. / The present doctoral dissertation aims (i) a description of the meaning of the German causal conjunctions in terms of force-dynamic patterns and construal operations; as well as (ii) an explanation for the multiplicity of causal conjunctions based on the notion that construal can impose different conceptual strutuctures to the same conceptual basis, resultuing in different perspectives over causality, perfiled by the conjunctions of a language. In order to fulfill this purpose, I develop an analisys model based on the theoretical concepts of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) and the Force Dynamics Model (Talmy 1988) for the causal conjunctions of the contemporary German language (da, denn and weil). Cognitive Grammar and Force Dynamics are approaches based on the Cognitive Linguistics framework to grammar and share the view that the human experience of reality provides the conceptual substrate that shapes linguistic meaning. They also share the notion that the conception that force-mediated interactions represent a reference point for describing the meaning of several grammatical classes, such as modal and causative verbs, prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions. This research uses the theoretical resources used by Cognitive Grammar in order to elaborate a description of the meaning of the causal conjunctions da, denn and weil. It is argued that the conceptual basis of these conjunctions consists of a force-dynamic pattern accessed by the so-called construal operations. The construal operations structure the content of the conceptual basis in different ways. It is argued in the the present research that different conceptual structures imposed by construal can be related to the multiplicity of causal conjunctions in contemporary German. Thus, da, denn and weil serve to the conceptualization of diverse communicative situations in which the speaker attempts to convey specific causal information to the listener about the objective scene they are conceptualizing in the linguistic interaction.

Within the framework of Jackendoff’s conceptual semantics, this study investigates the semantic properties that govern the distribution of object control (such as John persuaded Mary to help Sally) and exceptional case marking (such as John wanted Mary to help Sally) in English. In contrast to Jackendoff’s approach to control, one central idea here is that the to-infinitive complements under discussion should receive a uniform semantic analysis, and thus that control behaviour cannot be explained in terms of semantic argument type of the complement clause. In order to arrive at such an analysis of these to-infinitival complements, they are taken to constitute Situations in conceptual structure, and clauses (TPs) in syntax. It is argued here that it is indeed possible to establish the character of the semantic properties that govern the two constructions OC and ECM. Not only does the semantic type of the governing predicate play a role—attitude predicates, as opposed to force dynamic predicates, are exclusively coded as ECM in syntax—but also the realisation of the semantic argument position that corresponds to the Patient/Beneficiary role in conceptual structure. With force dynamic predicates, OC will arise when this argument position is filled with an explicit argument. When it is empty, or left implicit, however, the result will be ECM in syntactic structure.

Submitted by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-04-06T13:50:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_VERSÃOFINAL_MONCLAR.pdf: 1940526 bytes, checksum: 940f620c4523d8191f52048af08c8f12 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-04-06T13:52:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_VERSÃOFINAL_MONCLAR.pdf: 1940526 bytes, checksum: 940f620c4523d8191f52048af08c8f12 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-06T13:52:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_VERSÃOFINAL_MONCLAR.pdf: 1940526 bytes, checksum: 940f620c4523d8191f52048af08c8f12 (MD5) / Esta tese visa à descrição do processo de transitivização do verbo desaparecer no português brasileiro. Tal verbo, a despeito de ser considerado intransitivo na literatura tradicional (mais especificamente um verbo inacusativo, na medida em que apresenta um sujeito gramatical de papel paciente), apresenta-se frequente em construções transitivas na sincronia atual. Defende-se que tal mudança representa um processo de gramaticalização e construcionalização, motivado, sobretudo, pela estrutura conceptual humana. Nessa perspectiva, assume-se que adjuntos adverbiais com propriedades de causação (como as circunstâncias de “causa” e “instrumento”) são promovidos à posição de sujeito, partindo-se de uma construção “SUJEITO-CAUSAÇÃO + VERBO + ADJUNTO ADVERBIAL+CAUSAÇÃO” para uma outra: “SUJEITO+CAUSAÇÃO + VERBO + OBJETO-CAUSAÇÃO”. Tal hipótese pôde ser confirmada, na medida em que adjuntos com propriedades semânticas de causação podem apresentar-se em uma nova construção em que passam a funcionar como sujeito e o sujeito gramatical, como objeto, como podemos comprovar nos corpora analisados. Não obstante, vale ressaltar que esse processo de construcionalização (isto é, de uma FORMANOVA-SENTIDONOVO) é escalar, e não abrupto. Nesse sentido, num primeiro estágio, os adjuntos adverbiais com propriedades semânticas de causação – como os de “causa” e “instrumento” – passam por um processo de analogização, no qual são interpretados semanticamente como um tipo de argumento do verbo, muito embora ainda mantenham a mesma estrutura morfossintática. Num segundo estágio, procede-se à transitivização (neoanálise), na medida em que se efetua mudança tanto na estrutura semântica quanto na morfossintática. / This thesis describes the process of transitivization of the unaccusative verb “desaparecer” (disappear) in Brazilian Portuguese. Such verb, despite being regarded as unaccusative in the traditional literature (to the extent that it is intransitive and select a patient role as the subject), is frequently found in transitive constructions in nowadays synchrony. It is argued that this change represents a process of grammaticalization and construcionalization, motivated by the human conceptual structure. From this perspective, the “causative-like” adverbial adjuncts (like the circumstances of "cause" and "instrument") would be promoted to the subject position, that is, from construction 'SUBJECT-CAUSATION + VERB + ADJUNCT+CAUSATION " to another: " SUBJECT+CAUSATION + VERB + OBJECT-CAUSATION". This assumption is quite reasonable, to the extent that “causative-like” adjuncts always permit a construction in which they become the subject and the grammatical subject becomes the object, as we demonstrate in the corpora analyzed. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that this construcionalization process (that is, a FORMNEW MEANINGNEW) is gradual, and not abrupt. In this point of view, at first, the adverbial adjuncts which shows causation semantic properties – like the ones of "cause" and "instrument" – undergo a process of analogization, in which they are semantically interpreted as a kind of argument, though still maintaining the same syntactic structure. At second, transitivization occurs, as long as the semantic structure and morphosyntactic structure change (neoanalysis).

This dissertation investigates the comprehension of indirect requests (IRs). Focusing on English and French, it proposes that IRs such as Can you + verbal phrase (for short, Can you VP?) achieve an optimal communicative efficiency because, while they entail extra processing costs, they match the expected level of politeness in many contexts. The approach taken combines Talmy’s force dynamic semantics with a traditional perspective in philosophy of language drawing on speech act theory. First, I sketch a theoretically viable and empirically plausible definition of directive speech acts, and provide a naturalistic explanation of why directives result in obligations for addressees. According to this definition, a directive speech act consists in a force exerted by a speaker towards an addressee’s performance of some action, with a prima facie obligation created for the addressee as a result. Consistently with this definition, I propose that imperative sentences are a convenient means to perform directives insofar as they encode a force dynamic pattern that is compatible with, but distinct from, the force exertion pattern that characterizes directives. I develop a similar analysis for You should/must VP declarative sentences. By contrast, I argue that, if interrogative sentences can be used in the performance of directives such as questioning, they do so by virtue of their incompleteness.To satisfactorily account for the variety of utterances that can be used as directives, I propose a typology based on the formal criterion of (in)directness and on the processing criterion of primariness/secondariness. Three factors are furthermore predicted to influence the processing of IRs: conventionality of means, degree of standardization, and degree of illocutionary force salience. This typology underpins an exhaustive review of experimental work on the comprehension of directives, in which I conclude that further investigation into the processing of IRs is necessary. In particular, the influence of these three factors on the processing, and, in particular, on the primariness/secondariness of IRs is left unexplored.In three eye-tracking experiments with native speakers of French, I put to the test four hypotheses. First, I hypothesize that the more an expression is standardized for the performance of IRs, the more likely it will be understood as an IR, and the more likely the IR will be primary rather than secondary. Second, because expressions such as Can you VP? used as IRs also have a direct interpretation, they should entail extra processing costs relative to their imperative and interrogative direct counterparts. Third, assuming they are direct, You must VP requests should be understood like imperatives requests, and they should not activate the assertive force. Fourth, the high degree of directive illocutionary force salience contributed by the adverb please should increase the likelihood of an IR interpretation and the likelihood that the IR will be primary. In Experiment 1, I show that IR interpretations tend to be more frequent for highly standardized IRs relative to their less standardized counterparts. I also demonstrate that interpreting the highly standardized Can you VP? and the less standardized Is it possible to VP? as IRs does not activate their “ability question” illocutionary meaning. The same finding holds, in Experiment 2, for the declaratives You can VP and It is possible to VP. The data of Experiment 2 indicate that, like imperative sentences, You must VP does not activate the assertive illocutionary force. Another finding of Experiment 1 is that Can you VP? and Is it possible to VP? can be understood as primary IRs, but these expressions nonetheless impose extra processing costs when they are interpreted as direct questions. In Experiment 3, I find that the high degree of directive force salience contributed by please increases the likelihood of an IR interpretation regardless of the degree of standardization of the expression. However, the presence of please has no significant influence on the processing of IRs.Turning to the production of directives, I address the issue of why speakers use IRs despite the extra processing costs entailed by these expressions. In a production task experiment where addressee status is manipulated, I test the hypothesis that Can you VP? IRs are used to trigger extra politeness effects absent in imperatives. A second hypothesis is that speakers should avoid imperatives and obligation declaratives such as You should/must VP because these request forms are directly compatible with force exertion at the pragmatic level. Rather, they should prefer indirect request forms such as ability interrogatives. Third, Can you VP? it should be more frequent than Is it possible to VP? in the data. A first important finding is that higher addressee status does not increase the frequency of Can you VP? interrogatives relative to other request forms. Instead of using Can you VP? more often when they address higher status people, speakers use specific politeness markers, which disconfirms the hypothesis that Can you VP? is used to convey extra politeness effects. The second hypothesis is confirmed, insofar as the data collected with this production task contain a vast majority of ability interrogatives, and imperatives and obligation declaratives are absent. Third, in line with the standardization hypothesis, Can you VP? occur much more often in the data than Is it possible to VP?. / Doctorat en Langues, lettres et traductologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished