Taking a social constructionist perspective, this dissertation explores politeness-as-practice (Eelen, 2001) of L2 English speakers in intercultural communication encounters. The study is situated within the English as an International Language (EIL) paradigm which suggests that pragmatic norms in interaction between EIL speakers are dynamic and flexible, and therefore, instead of measuring EIL speakers' success in interaction against a "native-speaker" norm, the research should focus on how speakers themselves define and (co-)construct pragmatic norms and successful interaction (e.g., House, 2003a; McKay, 2009). The view of politeness taken in this study is based on postmodern approaches to politeness, which submit that politeness is dynamic and that the politeness meanings of particular strategies, utterances, and linguistic forms are assigned to them by participants within an interaction. Data were collected through background questionnaires, written questionnaires in the form of critical incidents, and semi-structured informal interviews. The data were analyzed qualitatively, relying primarily on discourse analysis complemented by the theories of "third place", facework, and politeness. The results of this study offer insights into the nature of pragmatic competence in EIL, the processes of the development of such competence, and challenges that L2 English speakers face in this process. Specifically, this study investigates how L2 speakers of English conceptualize politeness, the hybrid and dynamic nature of their pragmatic competence in general and politeness-in-practice in particular, and the interrelationship between politeness and other factors that determine the speakers' pragmatic choices in situations that have potential for misunderstanding, conflict, and face loss. This dissertation contributes to the theory and research in the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), EIL, Intercultural Communication, Interlanguage Pragmatics and Politeness by providing insights into the pragmatic competence and politeness of L2 English speakers. This work deepens the body of scholarship in these fields in that it provides the speakers' own perspectives on the processes of their pragmatic competence development and their concepts of politeness. It is also hoped that insights provided by this study will benefit English language teachers who aim to develop intercultural communicative competence in their classrooms.

Avec la publication du «Théâtre postdramatique» d’Hans-Thies Lehmann et la montée de la performance dans la représentation théâtrale contemporaine, le drame, et avec lui le texte dramatique, semblent une fois de plus mis à mal. Or, la propension de certains ouvrages critiques à présenter comme cataclysmique l’avènement d’un théâtre postdramatique laisse en plan de nombreuses questions, notamment celle de la dynamique texte/scène qui, plutôt que d’en évacuer la première constituante, semble en métamorphoser les deux parties. Ce mémoire entend creuser la question du texte au sein de cette dynamique afin d’interroger ses mutations et les techniques d’approche qui permettent de l’intégrer dans une praxis théâtrale. / With Hans-Thies Lehmann’s ''Postdramatic Theater'' and the growing presence of performance in the contemporary theater scene, the notion of drama, and the text itself, seems once again to suffer a terrible blow. Unfortunately, some critics’ tendencies to present new ways of making theater as if it were a violent upheaval, overshadow some phenomena, for one the dynamic between text and scene, in which instead of its first constituant disapearing, both of them seem to metamorphose under mutual influence. This thesis will investigate that phenomenom and its consequences on the dramatic text, as well as how we understand it as praxis of contemporary theater.

Social care and health services for older people in Cambridgeshire have been integrated since April 2004. This study examines the effect of the integration programme on service users. Previous research into health and social care integrations predominantly centre on process issues and pay much less attention to outcomes. No study has evaluated the impact of fully-integrated care services for the whole user group of older people. Theory-led programmatic approach was used in this study. Multi-method data collection and analysis were employed to uncover and examine the causal links, the contextual conditions, the implementation process, causal mechanisms, and intended and achieved outcomes of the integration programme. This study reveals an improvement in the physical functioning of one in three occupational equipment users; a rise in the level of satisfaction of 85% of occupational health and 82% of physiotherapy users; older people with complex problems and high-level needs were able to be helped to live at home; and waiting time for both assessment and for services within two weeks and four weeks were below the national achievement and the ministerial targets. It also reveals a lack of change outcomes in social care, and service users’ low level of satisfaction with social care services, which appear to be associated with the privatisation of long-term social care and the predominant aim in social work of achieving maintenance and prevention outcomes. The integration programme’s goals—unifying the care system, easier and simpler access to services and a single and quick assessment—were not fully reached, mainly because of users’ low awareness of the integration, incompatible ICT systems and lack of funding. This study contributes to knowledge on how the total integration in Cambridgeshire has benefited users and how theory-led programmatic approach can be used in this area and in the study of this kind of complex social programme.

Dans Literal Meaning, François Recanati cherche à montrer que ce qui est dit lorsqu’une phrase est prononcée correspond à un contenu fondamentalement pragmatique. À cet effet, il propose deux arguments généraux qui consistent à faire valoir que ce qui est dit est indéterminé si l'on s'en tient aux règles de la sémantique. Le premier de ces deux arguments tente d’établir que dans bien des cas, le contenu sémantique supposément associé à une phrase ne correspond pas à ce qui est dit. Le second est plutôt une élaboration de la thèse wittgensteinienne suivant laquelle la signification des types linguistiques est indéterminée. Pour ma part, je soutiens que si nous adoptons effectivement une conception wittgensteinienne de la signification, certains des exemples supposés illustrer le premier de ces deux arguments peuvent et doivent être critiqués. / In Literal Meaning, François Recanati argues that what is said when a sentence is uttered corresponds to a content that is fundamentally pragmatic. To this end, he proposes two general arguments according to which what is said will be indeterminate if we stick to the rules of semantics. The first of these two arguments tries to establish that in many cases, the semantic content supposedly associated with a sentence does not correspond to what is said. The second one is rather an elaboration of Wittgenstein’s thesis to the effect that the meaning of linguistic types is indeterminate. As for me, I claim that if we indeed adopt a wittgensteinian conception of meaning, some of the examples that are supposed to illustrate the first of these two arguments can and should be criticized.

Les textes des jeunes intellectuels de Parti pris, élaborés autour de l'agonistique et du polémique, théâtre de violence et de luttes entre classes et entre valeurs à l'intérieur du champ social, représentent un cas singulier de la parole pamphlétaire québécoise circonscrite au contexte des années 1960. La présente étude veut questionner la fortune critique des textes pamphlétaires de Parti pris au Québec en mettant au jour les stratégies d'ordre rhétorique et discursif qu'ils recèlent. La visée politique révolutionnaire mise de l'avant par la revue est certainement celle qui a réussi le mieux à regrouper ses membres autour de l'identité québécoise (politique, économique, littéraire, artistique et culturelle). Parmi eux, Paul Chamberland, dont les textes varient de l'éditorial à la poésie, et Pierre Vallières avec son essai autobiographique Nègres blancs d'Amérique, sont peut-être les plus représentatifs de leur époque et des enjeux autour desquels gravitait la génération Parti pris. En faisant appel aux théories sur la parole polémique, à la rhétorique et à la pragmatique, notre recherche vise à éclairer l'articulation de la pensée de Chamberland et de Vallières, de même que la valeur littéraire de leurs oeuvres, voire leurs particularités stylistiques. En plus de dégager un aperçu des principales problématiques abordées par les animateurs de Parti pris, ce mémoire interroge l'intentionnalité qui se profile derrière le discours qui circulait dans la revue et au sein de la génération qui s'en réclamait. / The texts of the young intellectuals that appeared in Parti pris, written about the antagonistic and contentious theatre of violence and strife between classes and values in the social field, represent a singular case of Quebec’s pamphleteering circumscribed in the context of the 1960’s. This study wishes to question the critical faculties of the pamphleteers' texts in Quebec by uncovering the discursive and rhetorical strategies. The revolutionary political purpose put forward by the revue is certainly one of most successful in terms of consolidating its members around the Quebec identity (political, economic, literary, artistic and cultural). Amongst them, Paul Chamberland, whose texts ranged from editorials to poetry, and Pierre Vallières with his autobiographical essay Nègres blancs d’Amérique, are perhaps the most representative of their time and of the issues around which revolved the generation that Parti pris was representing. Drawing on theories of controversy, rhetoric and pragmatic speeches, our research aims to inform the reader of the articulation of Chamberland and Vallières’s thought, as well as the literary value of their work and their stylistic peculiarities. In addition to identifying an overview of the main issues addressed by the Parti pris’s leaders, this research questions the intentions that lie behind the discourse circulating in the revue and in the generation that was claiming it.

This thesis presents a contrastive analysis of the English pragmatic markers now and well and their Czech translation equivalents. The overall material is based on 200+12 occurrences that were excerpted from the electronic parallel corpus InterCorp, with all the instances appearing in fictional dialogues. The contrastive study focuses on the role of translation as a means to understand better the nature of the two pragmatic markers. It analyzes specific marker-collocate sequences and the respective Czech translation equivalents. It demonstrates that certain marker-collocate sequences have a tendency to be translated by specific Czech translation equivalents and that the role of other factors, such as position in discourse structure, prosody, and broader context, play in this respect an important role as well. All this and the finding that both now and well share certain Czech translation equivalents add to the multifunctionality of both now and well and prove that a combination of other factors is needed to comprehend the use of the two pragmatic markers in English. The comparison of the Czech translation equivalents in this thesis to the Czech translation equivalents in the Czech-English dictionary Lingea attempted to provide an example of how a contrastive analysis can be useful in Lexicography.

In this thesis I aim to apply some late Wittgenstein's thoughts and ideas (mainly those of language-game) to media studies. For argumentation sake, both mediated communication as whole and various parts of mediated communication are perceived as self-aligning language- games. These are forms of communication wielded only by implicit rules which are determinated by usage of relevant signs. The key ideology here is that of pragmatism. Meaning of words and other signs is also determined by their usage in relevant language- game (e. g. article in paper, certain kind of TV show, etc.). This notion of various forms of mediated communication leads to a belief that they posses only a very limited ability to outreach their context (of a genre and to more extent mediated communication as a whole). This theory is compatible with Jean Beaudrillard's concept of simulacra. These are symbols without meaning based in reality. Instead they form a (hyper)reality of their own. What both scholars tech us is that symbols can be properly understood only within their context. Mediated communication according to my application of Wittgenstein has always a single meaning that is determined by "the way the communication go". I also consider few objections to this "totalitarian" conception, most importantly Umberto Eco's...

The aim of this study was trace the general tendence in the produce of headlines in the tabloid and serious press and their internet versions. The basis for this work was a sample of twelve newspaper headlines that came out in January and February 2013. There were drawn following conclusions on the basis of stylistic and pragmatic analysis and comparison of these titles. Analyzed subtitles are different designs and used language tools. The tabloid media is trying to attract potential readers, especially graphic design titles, while serious media put more accent on the content of the title message. The tabloid headlines have characteristic color caps and overhang headling to other cell components. Headlines of serious media are printed in black and stands on the site separately. One of the differences between tabloid headlines and serious media is their length - tabloid usually decide for shortes ones than the serious media. Basis subtitles should form a neutral literary language, yet there are presented present colloquial expressions in the headlines of tabloids and media. Tabloid headlines include expressive sign unlike the serious media headlines. Statements in the headlines are assertive and have interrogative and directive use. The tabloid media uses interrogative function in headlins more than the...

This study aimed to explore the underlying basis of the communication difficulties in children (between 5.0 and 7.11 years) with high functioning pervasive developmental disorder (HFPDD) (n=26), compared to children with specific language impairment (SLI) (n=26), and children with no history of developmental difficulty (NDD) (n=26). The study looked at: whether different profiles could be obtained for the groups on comprehensive batteries of communication, cognitive processing and theory of mind; which areas measured were best correlated; and which measures best differentiated the groups. Comprehensive communication and theory of mind batteries were devised and conducted. Cognitive processing was measured using the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) (Naglieri and Das, 1997). Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Bonferroni t tests, frequency distributions, Pearson correlation coefficients and discriminant function analyses. Kappa coefficients and analysis of variance measures were carried out on 23% of the rated data in order to establish inter-rater agreement and acceptable levels of agreement were reached. On the communication assessment, the HFPDD group experienced the most difficulty on the measures of understanding abstract vocabulary, understanding conversation, pronoun alternation, higher level semantics, narrative ability and pragmatic ability. In contrast, the SLI group experienced the most difficulty on the measures of expressive grammar and narrative clarity. On the cognitive processing assessment, the HFPDD group experienced marked difficulty in the areas of planning and attention, while the SLI group experienced significant difficulty in the areas of successive processing and less marked but still significant difficulty in the area of planning. Within the HFPDD group, a group with simultaneous processing markedly stronger than successive processing, a group with successive processing markedly stronger than simultaneous processing, and a group with simultaneous and successive processing occurring at a similar level, were identified. The HFPDD group experienced significant difficulty on all the measures of theory of mind, although a limited number of HFPDD subjects did not experience difficulty. The SLI group experienced significant difficulty on the two theory of mind measures that were more verbally loaded. Strong correlations were found between receptive language, expressive semantics, narrative ability, pragmatic ability, planning, attention and theory of mind; and between expressive grammar and successive processing. Pragmatic ability, narrative ability, planning, and certain of the theory of mind measures best appeared to discriminate the groups. A combined model of language, cognitive and theory of mind processing is proposed to explain the differences between the HFPDD and SLI groups.

[pt] Atualmente há, na área de ensino de língua estrangeira, a compreensão de que um bom usuário de uma LE deve desenvolver um conjunto de competências, tais como: gramatical, sociolingüística, discursiva e estratégica. A necessidade de se considerar todas essas competências advém do fato de que o sucesso em uma comunicação real e intercultural não pode ser garantido apenas com base no conhecimento lingüístico (Meyer, 2002). Procuramos investigar como elaboramos a emissão da opinião desfavorável, buscando verificar que elementos lingüísticos compõem-na e em que contextos emitimos tal tipo de opinião. Objetivamos, portanto, delinear um modelo de quadro que nos permita compreender as estratégias empregadas no ato de elaborar a opinião desfavorável. Foram fundamentais para esta pesquisa os conceitos advindos da Gramática sistêmicofuncional e referentes ao contexto, além de conceitos do campo da Pragmática. Os dados da pesquisa - obtidos após aplicação de um Discourse completion test - permitiram-nos identificar quatro categorias dentro das quais foram distribuídas as formas de elaboração do ato de emitir uma opinião desfavorável, a saber: 1. Opinião desfavorável direta; 2. Opinião desfavorável indireta; 3. Falsa opinião positiva; 4. Não manifestação de opinião. Além disso, foram identificadas formulações periféricas que, ao acompanharem as categorias listadas, têm como objetivos amenizar o impacto da opinião desfavorável e salvaguardar a face dos interlocutores. A pesquisa demonstrou que se faz necessário - no contexto de ensino de língua estrangeira - ter um conhecimento dos diferentes atos de fala, dentro dos quais inclui-se o ato de opinar desfavoravelmente a fim de que possamos nos comunicar adequadamente em situações reais de uso. / [en] Nowadays, in the field of foreign language (FL) teaching, it is understood that a good user of an FL should develop a group of competences such as grammatical, sociolinguistic, discoursive and strategic competences. The need to consider all of them derives from the fact that the success in a real intercultural communication cannot be assured through linguistic knowledge only (Meyer, 2002). This thesis investigates how an unfavourable opinion can be expressed and also which linguistic elements are used and in which contexts this kind of opinion is given. Our aim, thus, is to propose a model of table that provides an understanding of the strategies used in the act of stating an unfavourable opinion. The concepts from systemic functional Grammar related to the context, as well as those of Pragmatics, were paramount to this research. The data - gathered by means of a Discourse completion test - allowed us to identify four categories that classify the ways of giving an unfavourable opinion, namely: 1. direct unfavourable opinion; 2. indirect unfavourable opinion; 3. false positive opinion; 4. absence of opinion. Furthermore, peripheral formulations were identified. Coexisting with the categories listed above, they aim at diminishing the impact of an unfavourable opinion and preserving the interlocutors´ face. The research showed that - in the context of foreign language teaching - the knowledge of the different acts of speaking is necessary, including the act of stating an unfavourable opinion, so that proper communication can be established in real-life situations.