Referring Expressions, Pragmatics, and Style

Referring Expressions, Pragmatics, and Style
Author: Kate Scott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2020
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 110717757X

A relevance-theoretic account of reference, with a focus on its role in creating stylistic, attitudinal and emotional effects.

Referring expression generation in context

Referring expression generation in context
Author: Fahime Same
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2024-06-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961104719

Reference production, often termed Referring Expression Generation (REG) in computational linguistics, encompasses two distinct tasks: (1) one-shot REG, and (2) REG-in-context. One-shot REG explores which properties of a referent offer a unique description of it. In contrast, REG-in-context asks which (anaphoric) referring expressions are optimal at various points in discourse. This book offers a series of in-depth studies of the REG-in-context task. It thoroughly explores various aspects of the task such as corpus selection, computational methods, feature analysis, and evaluation techniques. The comparative study of different corpora highlights the pivotal role of corpus choice in REG-in-context research, emphasizing its influence on all subsequent model development steps. An experimental analysis of various feature-based machine learning models reveals that those with a concise set of linguistically-informed features can rival models with more features. Furthermore, this work highlights the importance of paragraph-related concepts, an area underexplored in Natural Language Generation (NLG). The book offers a thorough evaluation of different approaches to the REG-in-context task (rule-based, feature-based, and neural end-to-end), and demonstrates that well-crafted, non-neural models are capable of matching or surpassing the performance of neural REG-in-context models. In addition, the book delves into post-hoc experiments, aimed at improving the explainability of both neural and classical REG-in-context models. It also addresses other critical topics, such as the limitations of accuracy-based evaluation metrics and the essential role of human evaluation in NLG research. These studies collectively advance our understanding of REG-in-context. They highlight the importance of selecting appropriate corpora and targeted features. They show the need for context-aware modeling and the value of a comprehensive approach to model evaluation and interpretation. This detailed analysis of REG-in-context paves the way for developing more sophisticated, linguistically-informed, and contextually appropriate NLG systems.

The Pragmatics of Multiword Terms

The Pragmatics of Multiword Terms
Author: Melania Cabezas-García
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2024-02-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1003845568

This book explores the pragmatics of specialized language with a focus on multiword terms, complex phrases characterized by sequences of nouns or adjectives whose meaning is clarified in the unspecified but implicit links between them, with implications for their use and translation. The volume adopts an innovative approach rooted in Frame-Based Terminology which allows for the analysis of multiword – compound terms in specialized language, such as horizontal-axis wind turbine – term formation from an integrated semantic and pragmatic perspective. The book features data from a corpus on wind power in English, Spanish, and French comprising such specialized texts as research articles, books, reports, and PhD theses to consider term extraction and the identification of terminological correspondences. Cabezas-García highlights the ways in which pragmatic analysis is an integral part of understanding multiword terms, due to the necessary inference of information implicit within them, with applications for future research on pragmatics and specialized language more broadly. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in pragmatics, semantics, corpus linguistics, and terminology.

The Politics of Person Reference

The Politics of Person Reference
Author: Naomi Truan
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-10-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027260184

This book, the first systematic exploration of the third person in English, German, and French, takes a fresh look at person reference within the realm of political discourse. By focusing on the newly refined speech role of the target, attention is given to the continuity between second and third grammatical persons as a system. The role played by third-person forms in creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships in discourse has been surprisingly overlooked. Until now, third-person forms have overwhelmingly been considered as referring to the absent, i.e. to someone outside the communication situation, other than the speaker or the hearer: the “nonperson”. By broadening the scope and finally integrating the third person, we come to understand The Politics of Person Reference fully, and to see the strategic, argumentative, and dialogical nature of the act of referring to other discourse participants, understood as the act of creating new referents.

Pragmatics Online

Pragmatics Online
Author: Kate Scott
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2022-02-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000519082

Pragmatics Online examines the use and interpretation of language and communication in digitally mediated contexts. It provides insight into how meaning is communicated online, with a focus on how users negotiate and navigate the constraints and resources of social media sites and other online contexts. The book introduces key concepts in the study of digital contexts and online communication, and discusses how these can be understood from the perspective of pragmatics. Each chapter examines a different topic and includes an overview of key research alongside original pragmatic analyses of data. Topics include sharing and liking, emoji and emotions, memes, and clickbait. Kate Scott focuses on how ideas and topics from pragmatics can be applied to mediated contexts, irrespective of the particular media. The book is an essential guide to the pragmatics of online discourse and behaviour for students and researchers working in the areas of digital pragmatics, language and media, and English language, linguistics, and communication studies.

Pragmatics in English

Pragmatics in English
Author: Kate Scott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2022-12-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108836003

An accessible introduction to the key topics in theoretical pragmatics, including Grice, speech acts, relevance theory, and politeness.

The Pragmatics of Style (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)

The Pragmatics of Style (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)
Author: Leo Hickey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2014-02-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317933567

In the general area of style study or stylistics there is no shortage of ideas, definitions or published works. It is hoped, in the present volume, to contribute to the prosperity of the discipline mainly by clarifying and exemplifying how pragmatic considerations may be relevant to any study of style, in the conviction that pragmastylistics is more interesting and useful than stylistics on its own. The starting point must be a brief survey of the definitions and style and stylistics. The very form of the latter term suggests a scientific and orderly, rather than an intuitive or impressionistic, investigation of style. There are two separate levels of study: one, a general, methodical and scientific discipline; the other, an application of its methods or postulates to the analysis of the ‘style’ of a specific utterance, text, speaker, writer, movement or period. It is clear that, in order to approach either, we must first attempt to understand style.

Beyond Meaning

Beyond Meaning
Author: Elly Ifantidou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027259593

Despite the fact that they are often crucial to our understanding, the vague, ineffable elements of language use and communication have received much less attention from linguists than the more concrete, effable ones. This has left a range of important questions unanswered. How might we account for the communication of non-propositional phenomena such as moods, emotions and impressions? What type of cognitive response do these phenomena trigger, if not conceptual or propositional? Do creative metaphors and unknown words in second languages and other ‘pointers’ to ‘conceptual regions’ communicate concepts learned from language alone? How might the descriptive ineffability of interjections, free indirect speech etc. be accommodated within a theory of communication? What of those working on the aesthetics of artworks, music and literature? What can evolution tell us about ineffability? The papers in this volume address these fascinating questions head-on. They represent a range of different attempts to answer them and, in so doing, allow us to pose exciting new questions. The aim, to bring the ineffable firmly within the grasp of theoretical pragmatics.

The Grammar-pragmatics Interface

The Grammar-pragmatics Interface
Author: Nancy Ann Hedberg
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027253989

This collection of papers celebrates the work of Jeanette K. Gundel, who has contributed to the field of grammar-pragmatics interface through her publications on the syntactic realization of topic and comment and the cognitive status of referring expressions, as well as by inspiring colleagues to make contributions to the overall field of pragmatics. This volume collects together papers from colleagues and former students on pragmatics and syntax, pragmatics and reference, and pragmatics and social variables. The volume includes papers devoted to explicating the grammar-pragmatics interface, with the focus of the papers ranging from Gricean and post-Gricean pragmatics, construction grammar, and genre theory to formal semantics, as well as papers devoted to expanding on Gundel's own original approach to factors such as the cognitive status decisions underlying speakers' choice of referring expression and the topic and focus decisions underlying speakers' choice of referring expression and the topic and focus decisions underlying speakers' choice of syntactic construction.

Semantics

Semantics
Author: James R. Hurford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1983-04-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521289498

Introduces the major elements of semantics in a simple, step-by-step fashion. Sections of explanation and examples are followed by practice exercises with answers and comment provided.