The Pragmatics of Commitment.

• Superior document: Sciences Pour la Communication Series ; v.132
• Author: Boulat, Kira.
• Place / Publishing House: Bern : : Peter Lang AG International Academic Publishers,, 2023.; Ã2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Sciences Pour la Communication Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (276 pages)

This book puts forward a pragmatic and cognitive model of the linguistic notion of commitment in communication. After a detailed review of the existing literature, it proposes a new model based on the relevance-theoretic notion of strength, which is later experimentally tested.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Series Information -- Copyright Information -- Table of contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgements -- General introduction -- Part I Commitment: A literature review -- 1 Enunciation Theory and Linguistic Polyphony -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Enunciation Theory -- 1.2.1 Enunciation Theory and endorsement -- 1.3 Linguistic polyphony -- 1.3.1 Ducrot's (1984) linguistic polyphony -- 1.3.2 The ScaPoLine: Linguistic polyphony and responsibility -- 1.4 Conclusion -- 2 Speech Act Theory -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Definitions of commitment in Speech Act Theory -- 2.3 Speech acts and commitment -- 2.3.1 Commissives -- 2.3.2 Assertives -- 2.3.3 Directives -- 2.4 Illocutionary-force indicators and commitment -- 2.5 Conclusion -- 3 Studies on dialogue and argumentation -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Approaches and definitions of commitment -- 3.2.1 Hamblin -- 3.2.2 Walton -- 3.2.3 Beyssade and Marandin -- 3.2.4 Gunlogson -- 3.2.5 Malamud and Stephenson -- 3.2.6 Becker -- 3.3 Conclusion -- 4 Relevance Theory -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Relevance Theory -- 4.2.1 Relevance and cognition -- 4.2.2 Relevance and communication -- 4.3 Relevance-theoretic approaches to commitment -- 4.3.1 Indirect approaches: Assertion -- 4.3.2 Indirect approaches: Modality and evidentiality -- 4.3.2.1 Epistemic modality -- 4.3.2.2 Evidentiality -- 4.3.3 Direct approaches -- 4.4 Conclusion -- 5 Commitment in linguistics: A summary -- 5.1 Literature on commitment -- 5.2 Remaining questions -- 5.3 The need for a unified account of commitment -- Part II A new take on commitment -- 6 Modelling commitment -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 A hearer-oriented approach -- 6.3 Focusing on explicatures: A graded conception -- 6.4 A relevance-theoretic perspective -- 6.4.1 Higher-level explicatures -- 6.4.2 Strength of assumptions -- 6.5 Epistemic vigilance -- 6.5.1 Graded mechanisms.

6.5.2 Understanding and believing -- 6.5.3 Epistemic vigilance and the relevance-guided comprehension procedure -- 6.5.4 Vigilance towards the content -- 6.5.5 Vigilance towards the source of information -- 6.5.6 Concluding remarks -- 6.6 An alternative account of commitment -- 6.7 A commitment typology -- 6.8 Conclusion -- 7 Theoretical predictions of the model -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Linguistic markers of certainty -- 7.2.1 Plain assertions, epistemic modals and evidential expressions -- 7.2.2 Experimental literature on linguistic markers of certainty -- 7.2.3 Prediction -- 7.3 The source of information's reliability -- 7.3.1 Competence and benevolence -- 7.3.2 Reported speech and the ad verecundiam fallacy -- 7.3.3 Experimental literature on the source of information's perceived reliability -- 7.3.4 Prediction -- 7.4 The salience of the piece of information -- 7.4.1 Manifestness, accessibility and salience -- 7.4.2 The linguistic literature on salience -- 7.4.3 An alternative definition of salience -- 7.4.4 Experimental literature on salience -- 7.4.5 Prediction -- 7.5 Conclusion -- Part III Testing a new model of commitment -- 8 Experimental pragmatics and memory tasks -- 8.1 Experimental pragmatics -- 8.2 Literature review on memory tasks -- 8.2.1 Memory -- 8.2.2 Remembering and memory tasks -- 8.2.3 Recall and recognition paradigms: A survey -- 8.3 Linguistic phenomena affecting recall and recognition -- 8.4 Conclusion -- 9 Three experimental studies -- 9.1 Linguistic markers of certainty -- 9.1.1 Study 1a -- 9.1.2 Study 1b -- 9.2 The source of information -- 9.2.1 Study 2a -- 9.2.2 Study 2b -- 9.2.3 Study 2c -- 9.3 The salience of the piece of information -- 9.3.1 Study 3a -- 9.3.2 Study 3b -- 9.4 Conclusion -- 10 General discussion -- 10.1 Commitment from a pragmatic perspective -- 10.2 Commitment from a cognitive perspective.

10.3 Commitment from an experimental perspective -- 10.4 Three predictions about commitment -- 10.5 The results of the three recognition studies -- 10.6 Conclusion -- General conclusion -- References -- Series Index.