Table Of ContentIntroducing Pragmatics in Use
Introducing Pragmatics in Use is a lively and accessible introduction to pragmatics
which both covers theory and applies it to real spoken and written data. This textbook
systematically draws upon a number of different language corpora and the corresponding
software applications. Its primary focus is the application of a corpus methodology in
order to examine core component areas such as deixis, politeness, speech acts, language
variation and register. The main goal of the book is to contextualise pragmatics in the study
of language through the analysis of different language contexts provided by spoken and
written corpora.
Substantially revised and updated, this second edition covers a wider range of topics,
corpora and software packages. It consistently demonstrates the benefits of innovative
analytical synergies and extends this to how corpus pragmatics can be further blended with,
for example, conversation analysis or variational pragmatics. The second edition also offers
a new chapter specifically dedicated to corpus pragmatics which proposes a framework
for both form-to-function and function-to-form approaches. The book also addresses the –
sometimes thorny – area of the integration of the teaching of pragmatics into the language
classroom. All chapters in the second edition include a number of cohesive, step-by-step
tasks that can be done in small groups in class or used as self-study resources.
A wide range of illustrative language samples drawn from a number of English-
language corpora, coupled with instructive tasks and annotated further reading sections,
make this an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate students of
pragmatics, discourse analysis and corpus linguistics within applied languages/linguistics
or TESOL programmes.
Anne O’Keeffe is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language
and Literature, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland.
Brian Clancy is Lecturer in Academic Writing and Research Methods, Academic Learning
Centre, and Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature,
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland.
Svenja Adolphs is Professor of English Language and Linguistics and Head of School at
the School of English, University of Nottingham, UK.
Introducing
Pragmatics in Use
Second Edition
ANNE O’KEEFFE
BRIAN CLANCY
SVENJA ADOLPHS
Second edition published 2020
by Routledge
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© 2020 Anne O’Keeffe, Brian Clancy, Svenja Adolphs
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explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2011
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Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables xi
Acknowledgements xiv
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 What is pragmatics? 1
1.2 Ways of studying pragmatics 2
1.3 The empirical turn within pragmatics 3
1.4 The main functions of software tools used in corpus
pragmatics 5
1.5 The structure of this book 17
1.6 Further reading 19
Chapter 2 Researching pragmatics 21
2.1 Pragmatics research: from intuitive to empirical approaches 21
2.2 Methods for eliciting language data 26
2.3 Methods for recording language data 34
2.4 Conclusion 44
2.5 Further reading 45
Chapter 3 Corpus pragmatics 47
3.1 Introduction 47
3.2 Key considerations of corpus pragmatics research 48
3.3 Form-to-function research in corpus pragmatics 51
3.4 Function-to-form research using corpora 56
3.5 Conclusion 67
3.6 Further reading 68
Chapter 4 Reference 69
4.1 Introduction 69
4.2 Deixis 72
vi CONTENTS
4.3 The deictic centre 76
4.4 Basic categories of deixis 78
4.5 Reference in use: ‘that’ and speaker attitudes 91
4.6 Conclusion 95
4.7 Further reading 96
Chapter 5 Politeness 98
5.1 Linguistic politeness 98
5.2 The face-saving approach to politeness 103
5.3 Impoliteness 114
5.4 Discursive politeness 119
5.5 Conclusion 122
5.6 Further reading 123
Chapter 6 Speech acts 124
6.1 Introduction 124
6.2 Speech Act Theory 125
6.3 Identifying and analysing speech acts in a corpus 135
6.4 What is a speech act context? 138
6.5 Speech act classification in discourse analysis 140
6.6 Conclusion 143
6.7 Further reading 143
Chapter 7 Pragmatics and language variation 145
7.1 Pragmatics and language variation 145
7.2 Response tokens and variation 147
7.3 Pragmatic markers and variation 154
7.4 Vague language and variation 159
7.5 Speech acts and variation 165
7.6 Further reading 170
Chapter 8 Pragmatics and variation at the level of register 173
8.1 Pragmatics and variation at the level of register 173
8.2 Comparability at the level of turns 174
8.3 Other methods of comparing registers using a corpus 184
8.4 Conclusion 193
8.5 Further reading 194
Chapter 9 Pragmatics and language teaching 196
9.1 Introduction 196
9.2 Implicit versus explicit pragmatic instruction 197
9.3 Technology-based opportunities for pragmatic learning 200
9.4 Developing classroom materials 210
CONTENTS vii
9.5 Conclusion 225
9.6 Further reading 227
Appendix 229
References 233
Index 255
Figures
1.1 A sample of concordance for h ave in the TED_en corpus sorted 1R
(using Sketch Engine) 10
1.2 Top ten collocates of have in the TED_en corpus (using Sketch Engine),
examining all word candidates three to the left and three to the right of we 11
1.3 Concordance sample of we + have as the node (sorted 1R) 12
1.4 Top ten most frequent words to the right of w e + have in the TED_en
corpus (using Sketch Engine) 13
2.1 Language inside as intuitive knowledge and language outside as
empirical data 22
2.2 Researcher interference versus research control (adapted from
Jucker, 2018: 23) 23
2.3 An example of a freer DCT (adapted from Beebe and Zhang
Waring, 2004: 245) 27
2.4 Scenarios from DCT presented to American and Mandarin students in
Liang and Han (2005) 29
2.5 A roleplay prompt 31
2.6 Example of broad transcription (and extract from a political science
lecture from the LIBEL corpus) 38
2.7 Example of narrow transcription from the Hong Kong Corpus of
Spoken English (HKCSE) (Cheng and Warren, 2007) 39
2.8 Web interface for BNCweb: B rowse a File Function (search for file
KCT line 7746) 40
2.9 Transcript of file KCT 7752 in BNCweb, marked up for <pauses>,
<unclear> segments and overlapping talk <-|-> 40
2.10 Detailed transcription provided by Rühlemann (2019: 94) 41
2.11 Sample interface from ELAN where image, sound and multi-modal
transcript are aligned in tiers (ELAN H ow-to Guide , 2017: 15) 42
2.12 Data extract from a cookery instruction session from CLAS 43
2.13 Screenshot of a search for directives marked with the tag <Dir> in
CLAS using AntConc software (sorted 1R) 44
3.1 Form-to-function and function-to-form approaches in corpus pragmatics 48
3.2 Corpus data versus DCT elicited data across form and context
(O’Keeffe, 2018: 593) 51
FIGURES ix
3.3 20 concordance lines of the node word s orry in the BNC2014,
using #LancsBox (unsorted) 52
3.4 20 concordance lines of the node word s o in the BNC2014,
using #LancsBox (unsorted) 54
3.5 The four main approaches to form-to-function analysis using CL
(based on Ädel and Reppen, 2008: 2–3) 55
3.6 An inventory of function-to-form approaches (adapted from O’Keeffe,
2018: 598–599) 57
3.7 An example of gratitude clustering across turns in the BNC2014
(using #LancsBox) 62
3.8 Collocate search settings for o ops in the spoken component of COCA 65
4.1 Concordance lines for that bloke in the BNC Baby 92
4.2 Concordance lines for that fella in LCIE 94
5.1 Brown and Levinson’s (1987) strategies for performing FTAs 104
5.2 The semantic categorisation of in-group terms of address (adapted
from Leech, 1999) 107
5.3 Distribution of hedges in LCIE (normalised per million words)
(Farr et al ., 2004) 113
6.1 20 randomly generated concordance lines for suggest in the BASE
(sorted 1L) 126
6.2 Felicity conditions for requests (adapted from Levinson, 1983: 240) 128
6.3 Felicity conditions for promises 128
6.4 20 concordances lines for C an you…? in LCIE (sorted 1L) 131
6.5 20 concordance lines for Could you…? in LCIE (sorted 1L) 131
6.6 15 randomly chosen concordance lines for why don’t you…? in MICASE 137
6.7 15 random concordance lines for w hy don’t we…? in MICASE 137
7.1 20 random concordance lines for u m in the Spoken BNC2014 151
7.2 20 random concordance lines for w ell in the Spoken BNC2014 153
7.3 Frequency of use of t hanks, thank you and cheers in American English
1800–2008 166
7.4 Frequency of use of thanks, thank you and cheers in British English
1800–2008 166
8.1 Sample of concordance lines for <$1> as search item from LCIE (sorted 1R) 183
8.2 Concordance extracts of s ort in the NHS Direct corpus (unsorted) 185
8.3 Sample concordance lines for m aybe + we in C-MELT (unsorted) 188
8.4 Extract from concordance lines for < $E> sound of till <\$E> in shop
recordings from LCIE (sorted 1R) 192
8.5 Examples of concordance lines of < $E> inhales <\$E> (unsorted) 193
9.1 Role card for Alex 198
9.2 Two examples of high-frequency imperatives in the MICUSP 203
9.3 Frequencies per 10,000 words of n ote in the MICUSP. The results for
Physics, Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, Economics and Linguistics
are highlighted, as these were used in Neiderhiser et al . (2016) 203
9.4 Examples of elicited responses to a request task based on booking a
study room in a university context (SPACE corpus) (taken from Jones
et al ., 2018: 145) 208
