Based on Austin and Searle¡¦s speech act theory and Argyris¡¦ organizational learning theory, this study investigates how defensive speech routines impact the level of communication comprehension by information system professionals. Relying on the eye tracker as tool to measure information attention of participating IS professionals, the present researcher has conducted experiments to evaluate how indirect and direct speech acts as well as defensive speech routines influence subjects¡¦ understanding of illucotionary forces embedded in the speeches. The findings suggest that the different speech acts exert significant influence on subjects¡¦ comprehension and information attention, and information attention in turn significantly influences comprehension. The results of this study may help researchers to further investigate the congitive processes involved in IS professionals¡¦ communication and aid practitioners in reducing dysfunctional organizational learning due to defensive speech routines.

This dissertation examines the developmental trajectory of online processing toward second language (L2) pragmatic comprehension. This goal stems from two shortcomings of previous research: (1) approaching L2 pragmatics as the acquisition of discrete phenomena through progressive stages (see Kasper, 2009), and (2) focusing narrowly on production. Building upon previous L2 pragmatic comprehension work (Carrell, 1981; P. García, 2004; Taguchi, 2005, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2011a, 2011b; Takahashi & Roitblat, 1994), the current study investigates the development of L2 Spanish request speech act comprehension by native English-speaking adult learners. The analysis involves accuracy, comprehension speed and the relationship between the two dimensions across three levels of directness over a 13-week period. Previous research was informed by skill acquisition theories (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) to account for increased accuracy and decreased speed over time. Here, further analysis is based on Complexity Theory / Dynamic Systems Theory (CT/DST) (Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008a; de Bot, Lowie, & Verspoor, 2007; Ellis, et al., 2009; Verspoor, de Bot, & Lowie, 2011) to account for the seemingly chaotic results often found in L2 research. The findings of the current study show significant overall improvement in accuracy and speed of Spanish request identification, and a moderate relationship between the two measures. However, the association between slower responses and higher accuracy in the current data contradicts skill acquisition theories. Rather, the theoretical framework of CT/DST provides a more authentic account of development. As such, the results indicate that the levels of request directness develop along distinct trajectories and timescales. Direct requests reflect higher accuracy and faster interpretation. While the most indirect level of requests shows the largest improvement in accuracy, the responses for these items are no faster at the end of the study than at the beginning. The development of conventionally indirect requests occupies a middle ground in terms of accuracy similar to direct requests and comprehension speed like implied items. Further findings reflect L2 pragmatic comprehension as a complex, dynamic system that emerges through the differential effects of predictor variables across measures and within sub-groups of participants based on proficiency improvement, motivation and response strategy. / text

The promising agenda of the EU-Russia strategic partnership has resulted in mutual frustration manifested in continuous crises between the partners. This study explores possibilities for political transformation in the EU-Russia relationship. In search of the key to understanding this complex relationship, I develop a three-fold argument. First, an ongoing crisis in EU-Russia cooperation cannot be understood without revealing the underlying problem of tension between the subjects’ autonomy and their ability to cooperate. Second, this problem produces a paradoxical form of “autonomous cooperation,” imposing limits on the prospects for political transformation in the EU-Russia relationship. Third, Bakhtin’s dialogism holds a significant potential to re-imagine the contradictions of autonomous cooperation in an alternative relational way. Despite the existence of a considerable body of literature on EU-Russia cooperation, little work has been done to investigate the connection between the intricacies of political discourse and problems in EU-Russia cooperation. By drawing on Bakhtin’s account of a “dialogic imagination,” I develop a model, which exposes the processes of mutual constitution of the Self and the Other. This dialogic model reveals that in their political statements, both the EU and Russia privilege the pattern of autonomy or cooperation. The partners produce prevalent discursive practices that reinforce these contradictory patterns of autonomy and cooperation, systematically inflicting crises in the EU-Russia relationship. By establishing dialogic connections between the chosen political statements, the model demonstrates that Russia and the EU co-create perceived differences between each other, isolate each other or try to form an autonomous, self-sufficient Self through imposition, self-exclusion, resistance or dominance. This model, I argue, permits an alternative vision of contemporary trends and possible futures for the EU-Russia relationship as an exemplar of an international relationship viewed through a dialogic lens. My study is also relevant under the conditions of ongoing conflicts in EU-Russia cooperation, which expose the inability of the partners to cooperate effectively. I conclude with practical implications for the partners to overcome the current stalemate. In Bakhtin’s words: “When dialogue ends, everything ends. Thus dialogue, by its very essence, cannot and must not come to an end.” / Graduate

I argue that one cannot hold a Meinongian ontology of fictional characters and have a causal theory of reference for fictional names. The main argument presented refutes Edward Zalta's claim that storytelling should be considered an extended baptism for fictional characters. This amounts to the claim that storytelling fixes the reference of fictional names in the same way that baptism fixes the reference of ordinary names, and this is just a claim about the illocutionary force of these two types of utterance. To evaluate this argument, therefore, we need both a common understanding of the Meinongian ontology and a common taxonomy of speech acts. I briefly sketch the Meinongian ontology as it is laid out by Zalta in order to meet the former condition. Then I present an interpretation of the taxonomy of illocutionary acts given by John Searle in the late 1970s and mid 1980s, within which we can evaluate Zalta's claims. With an ontology of fictional characters and a taxonomy of speech acts in place, I go on to examine the ways in which the Meinongian might argue that storytelling is an extended baptism. None of these arguments are tenable-there is no way for the act of storytelling to serve as an extended baptism. Therefore, the act of storytelling does not constitute a baptism of fictional characters; that is, storytelling fails to ground a causal chain of reference to fictional characters.

The aim of this study was to look at speech acts of apology used in linguistic, social, and cultural settings and to answer the question, “Do people overuse and/or misuse them?” The research was conducted on the speech act of apology and its strategies used in American, Chinese, and Lithuanian cultures with 113 total respondents. The method chosen was the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) via a web-based questionnaire. The results revealed that Americans tend to overuse apologies while Chinese and Lithuanian, on the contrary, use them less. It also revealed that the dominant apology strategy in American culture is earnest politeness with an account/explanation; when the Chinese apply such a strategy, it is the same as the American style. Lithuanians most commonly employed the strategies of expected politeness/norm and earnest politeness with an account/explanation. Recommendations are that further research be conducted in the field of apology and its strategies in Lithuanian culture. In addition, an investigation into whether or not a shift in linguistic politeness and the speech act of apology in Chinese and Lithuanian cultures has occurred due to Western influence and globalization. / Šio tyrimo tikslas buvo pažvelgti į atsiprašymus naudojamus lingvistinėje pragmatikoje ištiriant jų kultūrinius atspalvius Amerikiečių, Kinų ir Lietuvių kultūrose. Dar vienas šio darbo tikslas yra atsakyti į klausimą Ar atsiprašymai yra vartojami per dažnai/retai minėtose kultūrose? Išvardintiems tikslams pasiekti, buvo nustatyti šie siekiniai: aptarti atsiprašymų panašumus ir skirtumus Amerikiečių, Kinų ir Lietuvių kultūrose; įvertinti vyrų/moterų naudojamus atsiprašymus; pažvelgti į atsiprašymus naudojamus atsisakant kvietimo ir išsiaiškinti kokie atsiprašymai naudojami skirtingose socialinėse ir profesinėse situacijos atsižvelgiant į santykių familiarumą ir hierarchiją.

剛出生前幾年，幼兒已逐漸能理解並談論自己和別人的不同。然而，真正習得用來指涉自己和別人的指涉詞不是那麼容易，因為至少得先理解角色轉換概念和說話者當時的說話目的為何。因此，在幼兒學會用大人模式指涉自己和別人前，他們會先有自己一套獨特的語言使用模式。本研究的目的在於探討一位以中文為母語的小孩如何用指涉詞表達自己的語用動機。研究對象是一對中階家庭的母女。語料來自於受試親子在家互動的語言。研究結果顯示幼兒特別容易會用指涉詞表達的語用功能種類不多。在語段層次，幼兒初期較會在和母親協調當下要做的事時，以及在和母親討論故事中虛幻世界時指涉自己；後期則除了在和母親協調當下要做的事時較會指涉自己外，在和母親協調未來要做的事、討論和現在或非現在相關的事時也較會指涉自己。另外，幼兒比較會指涉別人時，則是當她想要轉移母親焦點，或是在和母親討論兩人當下共同注視的目標、故事中虛幻世界、和現在相關的事、或是非現在發生的事時。在語句層次，幼兒則是當她在表達願望、要求母親為她做事、陳述個人想法、陳述她想要執行某動作的目的時較會指涉自己。較會指涉別人時則是當她在吸引母親注意、要求母親為她做事、陳述個人想法、和回答Wh-問句時。整體比較來看，母親特別會用指涉詞表達的語用功能種類比幼兒來得多元化。 / During the first years of life, children come to realize and talk about themselves distinct from others. However, acquisition of self- and other-reference forms is not always so easy because it presupposes at least a grasp of shifting roles, together with concept of the speaker’s communicative intents. Before children match adult-like usages of reference, they temporarily formulate their own linkages between language forms and functions. This paper examined how a Chinese young child formulated her pragmatic moves through self- and other-reference forms. One mother-child dyad from middle socioeconomic class were asked to do what they normally did at home. Results show that only a small set of communicative intents provided the particularly fertile contexts for the child’s self- and other-reference. In the speech interchange tier, the child earlier tended to refer to self in Negotiating the immediate activity(NIA) and Discussing the fantasy world(DFW), but later in Negotiating both the immediate and future activity(NIA, NFA),and Discussing the related-to-present(DRP) and the non-present(DNP). She tended to refer to other in Directing hearer’s attention(DHA), Discussing the joint focus of attention(DJF), the fantasy world(DFW), the related-to-present(DRP), and the non-present(DNP). In the speech act tier, the child tended to refer to self to Express a wish (WS), Request / Propose action for hearer(RS), State a proposition(ST), and State intent to carry out act by speaker(SI). She tended to refer to other to Call the hearer’s attention(CL), Request / Propose action for hearer(RS), State a proposition(ST) and Answer a wh-question by a statement(SA). In contrast, the contexts where the mother referred to self and other were more diversified than those where the child referred to self and other.

Die folgende Arbeit macht es sich zur Aufgabe, die Übertragbarkeit der Sprechakttheorie nach Austin und Searle auf komplexe aktuelle politikwissenschaftliche Kommunikationssituationen zu untersuchen. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit werden die Grundlagen und Implikationen der Sprechakttheorie analysiert und erklärt. Daran anschließend erfolgt ein Transfer grundlegender Überlegungen der Sprechakttheorie auf den politikwissenschaftlichen Kontext. Hierbei soll die Übertragbarkeit der Sprechakttheorie auf komplexe politische Kommunikationsprozesse am Beispiel des performativen Selbstwiderspruchs deutlich gemacht werden. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die Bedeutsamkeit der Sprechakttheorie anhand konkreter Beispiele differenziert zu reflektieren. Dabei soll der performative Selbstwiderspruch, der eine Verbindung zur Lehre von Austin und Searle besitzt, eine zentrale Rolle spielen.

In today’s globalized society with intense interaction between and among cultures, cross cultural understanding is becoming of crucial importance for successful communication. Whenever there is communication among people from different cultures, disagreement, argument and interpersonal conflict may occur. For this reason, the study of cultural differences in conflict resolution is of great value to society at large. Yet, the number of studies that have examined conflict resolution approaches across cultures is insufficient. This study sought to contribute to this area of research by investigating conflict resolution strategies employed by US and Taiwanese college students in academic contexts and the motives underlying participants’ preferences for certain strategies. The US and Taiwanese samples were chosen as representative of two different cultures, individualistic and collectivistic, respectively. Specifically, 15 US college students and 15 Taiwanese college students were selected from a US college campus. The Taiwanese group included students who have spent less than one year in the United States. The instrument consisted of a written questionnaire with four conflict scenarios and an audio-recorded interview with six randomly selected participants from both groups. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, Discriminant Function Analysis and content analysis. Both the descriptive and the Discriminant Function analyses showed that the US college students were significantly associated with the use of direct or avoidance conflict resolution approaches, while the Taiwanese college students showed a significantly higher inclination towards an indirect approach often involving a third party. The qualitative results revealed that the motives underlying the participants’ responses stemmed from both cultural and personal factors, such as individualistic and collectivistic values as well as family and religious background.

This thesis, SPEECH ACT THEORY AND COMMUNICATION: A UNIVEN STUDY, is an investigation into the communicative competence of a group of second language speakers. The study employs Speech Act Theory, a discourse evaluation method within the cross-cultural paradigm, to ascertain the structural (form) and the pragmatic (function) statuses of selected utterances of entry-level students in the University of Venda for Science and Technology (Univen). Speech Act Theory is a concept premised on the notion that an utterance has a definite function, meaning or purpose, for example, to suggest, to advise, to complain; and that these functions are expressible in established structural codes. Implicit in this notion is the assertion that there is a correlation between the ‘form’ and the ‘function’ of utterances. The corollary to this is that, where there is no correlation, miscommunication may result. The contention of this study is that such a correlation may not always exist in the utterances of second language users of English because of the idiosyncratic nature of such utterances, derived from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors. The hypothesis continues to assert that despite the individualistic nature of these utterances, meaning can be created or miscommunication does not always result because hearers are able to accurately interpret the intention of the speakers, by exploiting notions such as implicature, conversation principles, context and prosodic features. This research is an attempt to identify the processes that speakers undergo to articulate their intentions and the verbal and non-verbal information that hearers require to interpret such intentions or messages. The quality of the processes of formulating intentions and interpreting them is directly dependent on the communicative ability of the interlocutors. Communicative ability is a very general term, inclusive of various abilities of the interlocutors amongst which are grammatical and pragmatic competences. Meaning is dynamic, flexible and dependent on negotiation among the interlocutors. This flexibility of meaning is even more pronounced when idiosyncratic utterances, such as those of second-language speakers, are examined. To ascertain how meaning is created from such individualistic utterances, an analysis of selected utterances was conducted along the principles of Speech Act Theory. The results of the analysis supported the hypothesis that, although different categories of blemishes are visible in these utterances, such characteristics do not always affect the interpretation process, indicating that a variety of non-linguistic clues is also required for communication. Conclusions reached include the fact that, even though both grammatical and pragmatic considerations are vital for the quality of the utterances, perhaps, Speech Act Theory does not make sufficient provision for blemished but meaning-bearing utterances, like those usually produced by second language users and the kind selected for this investigation. This observation also impinges on the validity of Speech Act Theory as the sole judge of communicative competence of second-language users. / Thesis (D.Litt (English))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / English / unrestricted

The female characters in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI and Richard III; Rowley’s All’s Lost by Lust; Fletcher’s The Tragedy of Valentinian; Rowley, Dekker, and Ford’s The Witch of Edmonton; and Brome and Heywood’s The Late Witches of Lancashire curse their enemies because, as women, they have no other way to fight against the injustices they experience. At once an extension of the early modern belief that words are “women’s weapons,” and dangerously beyond the feminine ideal of silence, the curse, as a performative speech act, resembles the physical weapons wielded by men in its potential to cause serious harm. Using Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performative and J. L. Austin’s theory of performative utterances, this thesis argues that curses function as part of the cursing woman’s performative identity, and by using speech as a weapon, the cursing woman gains a measure of social agency within the social order even if she cannot change her place within it.