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.