Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Stance taking'

This study explores how JFL learners take a benefactive stance in Japanese. As Jaffe (2009) observes, stance-taking "plays a complex role with respect to the naturalization of social and linguistic ideologies and the social structures they legitimate." The way in which language is used to take a stance always concerns the social context in which a speaker finds her/himself. In Japanese, benefactive verbs (kureru, ageru, morau and their honorific and humble equivalents) are indispensable stance indicators for showing gratitude or indebtedness. Such expressions do not really exist in English and their grammar is complex. It is assumed that JFL learners will struggle with taking a benefactive stance using those expressions. In order to analyze JFL learners' stance-taking, data were collected from narrative interviews with ten JFL learners who are currently in 300- and 400-level university courses. In order to explore how learners attempt to show stance-reflecting benefaction, they were asked questions that aimed to elicit a speaker's feelings of gratitude. Some examples of such questions are, "Who do you appreciate the most in your life?" or "Who is the most generous person you know?" The data show that (1) learners do use (or attempt to use) benefactive verbs to indicate stance, (2) they also fail to use benefactive verbs in contexts where they are called for, and (3) they misuse benefactive verbs, e.g., using ageru instead of kureru. Furthermore, it revealed that learners tend to show stance using evaluation such as adjectives, adverbs, or ritual expressions that show appreciation but they fail to utilize benefactive verbs. This failure to project a benefactive stance can lead to miscommunication and/or misunderstanding between learners and Japanese speakers. I offer possible ways to promote learners' awareness of the benefaction in Japanese culture.

How do people manage disagreements in conversation? Previous studies of dialogue have shown that the interactional consequences of disagreement are not straightforward. Although often interpreted as face-threatening when performed in an unmitigated manner, disagreement can also encourage novel contributions. This thesis explores how systematically altering the presentation of someone's stance influences the deliberative potential of a dialogue. A corpus analysis of ordinary conversations shows that exposed disagreement occurs rarely, but that speakers can signal a potentially adversarial position in a variety of other ways. One of the most interesting among these is the way people mark their rights to speak about something. Resources such as reported speech and prefacing incongruent content with discourse markers (e.g. 'well') can be important to the management of interpersonal factors. The idea that disagreement is problematic but also useful for deliberation is examined. Using a method that allows fine-grained manipulations of text based dialogues in real-time, agreement and disagreement fragments are inserted into a discussion dialogue. The findings show that inserting exposed disagreement violates the conventions of polite dialogue leading participants to put more effort into the production of their replies, and does not improve levels of deliberation. This raises the question of whether manipulating apparent degrees of speaker commitment might be more important for influencing the quality of deliberation. An experiment was devised which presented oppositional content with differing degrees of 'knowingness'. The findings indicate that marking stance as knowing leads to less guarded exchanges, but does not increase deliberation. Conversely, framing statements as less knowing increases the likelihood that participants consider more alternative viewpoints, thus increasing the deliberative quality of a dialogue. Potential applications include training guidelines for professionals developing tools to support considered debate. Implications for computational argumentation studies include the importance of interpersonal dynamics and stance construction for formulating polite arguments.

Abstract This study examines stories as they appear in everyday conversation, focusing on the high degree of parallelism observed in them. Such parallelism is shown to be a vehicle of stance taking in interaction. Stance taking is here viewed as a highly intersubjective and interactive, public, multi-layered activity, which involves words, linguistic structures, voices, the body and the surrounding environment, and is embedded in the sequential organisation of social interaction. Stance taking involves various types of resonance between two interaction participants and also between the interactional turns of one participant. The concept of resonance is treated as the process of activating affinity across dialogic turns of talk within a telling or a series of tellings. The present study uses both audio and video recordings of naturally-occuring everyday interactions as data. The study first shows that voiced direct reported speech (DRS) utterances displaying a shared stance are an appropriate response to prior voiced DRS utterances and that a sequence of subsequent resonant voiced DRS utterances is an orderly phenomenon in interaction and a sequentially relevant practice of stance taking. Secondly, the study explicates the way in which participants use resonant words, structures, voicing and embodiment, and implicate the surrounding environment in constructing a reporting space. The reporting space enables and invites active participation in the form of multimodal enactments from all the participants of the telling event to the overall stance-taking activity within the storytelling sequence. Thirdly, the study details the use of resonating formal storytelling elements functioning as a resource for stance taking, e.g. the preface of a second telling by second tellers ties back to the preface and the high point of a prior telling. Finally, the study examines the way in which multiple actions, such as troubles telling, delivering news, giving an explanation and requesting advice, are accomplished via repeated tellings of a story in different interactional contexts. Similar structural units of such tellings resonate in form, whereas some lexico-syntactic details of these units vary according to the social actions that are being accomplished via the tellings, according to the engagement of the recipient in the telling and to the physical circumstances of the telling
Tiivistelmä Tutkimus tarkastelee arkikertomuksissa ilmeneviä parallellismin muotoja ja sitä miten nämä rakentavat vuorovaikutuksellista asennoitumistoimintaa. Asennoituminen nähdään monisäikeisenä intersubjektiivisena ja interaktiivisena toimintana, joka rakentuu puhujien sanojen, kielellisten rakenteiden, äänen ja kehon keinoin. Samanaikaisesti se rakentuu vuorovaikutuksen sosiaalisten toimintojen ja niiden sekventiaalisen järjestyksen tuloksena. Asennoitumistoimintaa ilmentää eriasteinen resonanssi pääasiassa eri puhujien mutta myös yhden puhujan eri vuorojen välillä: Puhujan resonoiva vuoro sitoo sen edellisen arkikertomuksen tai arkikertomussarjan vuoroihin aktivoiden näin yhtäläisyyden vuorojen välillä. Ilmiöitä tarkastellaan vuorovaikutuslingvistiikan ja keskustelunanalyysin menetelmin. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu englannin- ja suomenkielisistä äänitetyistä ja videoiduista arkikeskusteluista. Tutkimus osoittaa, että kertomistapahtumaan osallistuvat puhujat tuottavat kertomusten huippukohdissa kohosteisia referointivuoroja vastauksina aiempien kertojien kohosteisiin referointivuoroihin. Puhujat ilmaisevat tällä tavalla asennoitumistaan yhtäältä kerronnan sisältöön ja toisaalta edeltävien vuorojen ilmentämään asennoitumistoimintaan. Tutkimuksessa kartoitetaan myös sitä, miten puhujat rakentavat asennoitumista sanojen, kielellisten rakenteiden, prosodian ja kehollisten keinojen avulla. Kertomusten huippukohdissa puhujat referoivat roolihenkilöitä puheen lisäksi myös kehollisin keinoin, mitä tutkimuksessa kutsutaan roolissa toimimiseksi. Vastaanottajat voivat vastata asettumalla itsekin rooliin. He osoittavat ymmärtävänsä kertojan näkökulman tuottamalla kertomuksen sisältöön ja kertojan ilmentämiin asenteisiin sopivia samanlinjaisia lisävuoroja. Edelleen tutkimus kuvailee nk. toisen kertomuksen kielellisiä, prosodisia ja kehollisia elementtejä, jotka resonoivat edeltävän kertomuksen vuorojen elementtien kanssa ja joiden avulla asennoitumistoiminta rakentuu. Kertojat viittaavat toisen kertomuksen vuoroillaan edellisen kertomuksen vuoroihin aktivoiden yhtäläisyyksiä yhtäältä kyseisten resonoivien vuorojen ja toisaalta edeltävän ja toisen kertomuksen asennoitumistoimintojen välillä. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan samansisältöisiä peräkkäisiä arkikertomuksia, jotka on tuotettu eri vastaanottajille. Kertoja tuottaa samansisältöisten kertomusten avulla eri toimintoja vastaanottajasta ja vuorovaikutusympäristöstä riippuen. Kertomusten välillä on resonoivia rakenteellisia yhtäläisyyksiä, mutta ne myös poikkeavat toisistaan sosiaalisen toiminnon sekä vastaanottajan sitoutumisen asteen ja ympäröivien olosuhteiden mukaan

The European Parliament (EP) is the scene where certain issues concerning over 500 million ‘Europeans’ are publicly debated and where politically relevant groupings are discursively coconstructed. While the Members of the Parliament (MEPs) pursue their political agendas, intergroup boundaries are drawn, reinforced, and/or transgressed. Speakers constantly take stances on behalf of groupings in relation to some presupposed other groupings and argue what differentiates ‘Self’ from ‘Others’. This study examines patterns of language use by the MEPs as they engage in the contextually and historically situated dialogical processes of intergroup positioning and stance-taking. It further focuses on the strategic and competitive activities of grouping, grounding, and alignment in order to reveal the dynamic construction of intergroup boundaries. The study is based on a collection of Blue-card question-answer sequences from the plenary debates held at the EP in 2011, when the Sovereign Debt Crisis had been stabilized to some degree but still evoked plenty of controversy. Theoretically the study builds on Stance Theory (Du Bois, 2007), Positioning Theory (Davies & Harré, 1990), and several broadly social constructivist approaches to discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995). The analysis shows that intergroup positioning in the EP emerges as what I call a ‘collaborative competition’ between contradictory ideologies and political agendas. The MEPs strategically manipulate their opponents' prior or projected utterances in order to set up positions for self, a grouping he or she stands for, and thereby its adversaries. All participants engage in the maintenance and negotiation of intergroup boundaries, even though the boundaries hardly ever coincide between the different speakers. They discursively fence off some imaginary territories, leaving their adversaries with vague positions. When asking Blue-card questions, the MEPs use a particular turn organization, which involves routine forms of interactional units, namely addressing, question framing and question forms, each of which is shown to contribute to stance-taking. A dynamic model of stance-taking is suggested, allowing for a fluid transformation of the stance object as well as the discursively constructed stance-takers. While Blue-card questions are meant to serve as a structured procedure for eliciting information from a speaker, the analysis demonstrates that the MEPs accomplish various divergent actions that serve intergroup positioning. The dissertation thus contributes to the understanding of the discursive games played in the EP as the MEPs strive to construct social realities that fit their political ends.
Europaparlamentet (EP) är scenen där vissa frågor rörande mer än 500 miljoner ‘européer’ officiellt debatteras och där politiskt relevanta grupperingar diskursivt konstrueras [co-constructed]. Medan parlamentsmedlemmarna (MEPs) driver sina egna politiska agendor dras gränser mellan grupperna, och dessa gränser förstärks och/eller överträds. Talare intar oavbrutet vad man skulle kunna kalla för olika ‘hållningar’ (stances) för olika grupperingar i relation till vissa förutsatta andra grupperingar, och argumenterar för vad som skiljer ‘jaget/det egna’ (Self) från ‘de andra’ (Others). Denna studie undersöker språkmönster som används av parlamentsledamöterna när de hänger sig åt kontextuellt och historiskt situerade dialogiska processer rörande positionering mellan grupper (intergroup positioning) och stance-taking. Den fokuserar vidare på de strategiska och konkurrensutsatta aktiviteterna grouping (gruppformering), grounding (ung. legitimering av en talares stance) och alignment (när man placerar sig i linje med eller tar avstånd från en annan talares åsikter) för att urskilja den dynamiska konstruktionen av gränser mellan grupper. Studien baseras på en korpus av så kallade ‘Blue-card question-answer sequences’ från plenardebatter som hölls i EP under 2011, när statsskuldkrisen hade stabiliserats något men fortfarande utgjorde grunden för många kontroverser. Teoretiskt sett bygger studien på Stance-teori (Du Bois, 2007), Positionerings-teori (Davies & Harré, 1990) och ett flertal breda socialkonstruktivistiska infallsvinklar till diskursanalys (Fairclough, 1995). Analysen visar att positioneringen mellan de olika grupperingarna i EP framstår som något jag kallar ‘kollaborativ konkurrens’ mellan motstridiga ideologier och politiska agendor. Parlamentsledamöterna manipulerar strategiskt sina motståndares tidigare eller förutsedda yttranden för att positionera sig själva, en gruppering de står för, och därigenom dess meningsmotståndare. Alla deltagare agerar för att upprätthålla och förhandla gränsdragningen mellan grupperna, trots att gränserna nästan aldrig överensstämmer mellan de olika talarna. Diskursivt styckar de av några imaginära territorier, vilket lämnar deras motståndare i vaga positioner. När de ställer Blue-card questions använder sig parlamentsledamöterna av en särskild turtagningsorganisation, vilken inbegriper rutinformer av interaktionsenheter (interactional units), tilltal (addressing), hur frågor initieras (question framing), och frågeformer (question forms), av vilka var och en visar sig bidra till stance-taking. En dynamisk modell för stance-taking föreslås, vilket möjliggör en transformation av det kontinuerligt omdefinierade stance-objektet såväl som av de diskursivt konstruerade stance-takers. Medan Blue-card questions är avsedda att fungera som en strukturerad procedur för att få fram information från en talare demonstrerar analysen att parlamentsledamöterna lyckas med olika avledande manövrer som tjänar positioneringen mellan grupper. Avhandlingen bidrar på så vis till förståelsen av det diskursiva spelet i Europaparlamentet där parlamentsledamöterna strävar efter att konstruera sociala realiteter som tjänar deras politiska mål.

A common assumption is that language is used for conveying factual information, but linguistic forms also serve a way to communicate pragmatic features, such as speakers’ intentions and mental state. This study describes and analyses two strategies for stance-taking in GhaPE, more specific the use of discourse particles and complement-taking predicates. Such grammatical resources have been identified in the literature to play important functions in signalling how the speaker evaluates and positions him/herself and the addressee with respect to objects of discourse. The analysis and discussion of forms is informed by Du Bois’ (2007) ‘stance triangle’, which has proved to be a useful analytical device for investigating stance from a dialogical perspective. GhaPE is at times anticipated as fairly simple both by scholars and in the community where it is spoken. This thesis is thus an attempt to display aspects of the richness of the language.

Cette recherche propose une analyse multimodale du positionnement interactionnel ou stance-taking. Le corpus de travail, filmé, transcrit et annoté par nos soins dans trois logiciels compatibles (CLAN, PRAAT, ELAN), est une collection de discussions semi-guidées sur le thème de l’environnement (2h 20 min). Les 16 locuteurs sont des étudiants locuteurs natifs d’anglais britannique qui discutent par deux et entre amis. Dans cette recherche, nous adoptons une définition large du « langage », en y incluant l’ensemble des ressources sémiotiques verbales et non-verbales mobilisées pour la co-construction dynamique et intersubjective du sens au cours de l’interaction orale. Nous montrons que les locuteurs intègrent une grande variété de ressources verbales (segments, énoncés), mais aussi vocales (intonation) et mimo-posturo-gestuelles (gestes, expressions du visage), en les synchronisant de manière tant simultanée que séquentielle, pour prendre position vis-à-vis de leur interlocuteur. Au plan théorique, notre approche multi-niveaux et multimodale tisse des liens entre théories françaises de l’énonciation (Benveniste, 1966, Morel et Danon-Boileau, 1998), théorie discursive-fonctionnelle du stance-taking (Kärkkäinen, 2006, Du Bois, 2007), analyse conversationnelle multimodale (C. Goodwin et M.H. Goodwin, 1992, Mondada, 2007), anthropologie linguistique (Ochs, 1996), et étude de la gestualité (Kendon, 2004, Müller, 2004, Streeck, 2009) ; au plan méthodologique, nous combinons analyse qualitative et codage systématique. Notre thèse pose d’abord les bases théoriques et méthodologiques d’une étude multimodale des stances (Partie 1), puis propose la possibilité d’un marquage visuel du positionnement intersubjectif (Partie 2), avant de montrer comment les locuteurs intègrent mots et syntaxe, voix, visage et corps pour prendre position en interaction (Partie 3)
In this research, we propose a multimodal analysis of stance-taking based a collection of semi-guided discussions between pairs of friends who discuss environmental issues (2h 20 min). All 16 speakers are university students who are native speakers of British English. We filmed, transcribed and annotated this video corpus in three compatible software tools, CLAN, PRAAT and ELAN. In this research, we defend a broad understanding of “language”, defined as encompassing all verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources involved in the dynamic and intersubjective co-construction of meaning during spoken interaction. We show that speakers integrate a wide range of verbal resources (segments, utterances) as well as vocal (intonation) and visual ones (gestures, postures and facial expressions), and synchronize these resources simultaneously and sequentially so as to take stances with respect to their interlocutors. On a theoretical level, our multi-level, multimodal approach brings together French utterer-centred approaches to language (Benveniste, 1966, Morel and Danon-Boileau, 1998), discursive-functional theories of stance-taking (Kärkkäinen, 2006, Du Bois, 2007), multimodal conversation analysis (C. Goodwin and M.H. Goodwin, 1992, Mondada, 2007), linguistic anthropology (Ochs, 1996) and gesture studies (Kendon, 2004, Müller, 2004, Streeck, 2009); our methodology combines qualitative analysis with systematic coding. This thesis starts with laying the theoretical and methodological bases for a multimodal study of stance-taking (Part 1); it then proposes that some gestures and facial expressions can be used as intersubjective visual stance markers (Part 2), before showing how speakers integrate words and syntax, voice, facial expressions, gestures and physical posture to take stance in interaction (Part 3)

The present study explores informal English language teaching and learning (ELTL) on the social media platform of Facebook. In contrast to a formal second/foreign language (L2/FL) education setting which is institutionally sponsored and highly structured, the context of informal ELTL under investigation is "recreational" (Chik, 2015) in the sense that it is unconstrained by institutional structures and largely driven by personal interests and goals. With the unprecedented success of social media and social networking sites (SNSs), this new form of learning and teaching can be found in a variety of languages and discourses across diverse digital landscapes. This study pays particular attention to the context of Thai speakers in three ELTL communities formed on Facebook Pages (FPs). The aim is to describe the participants' SNS-mediated L2 literacy practices as informed by Thai culture, beliefs, and values. This research project is grounded in the concept of new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011) and the multimodal social semiotic approaches to analyzing digitally-mediated communication (Kress, 2010; Jewitt, 2009; Van Leeuwen, 2005). The analysis is also informed by the interpretative framework of positioning theory (Davies and Harré, 1990; Harré & van Langenhove, 1991) and sociolinguistic approaches to stances (Du Bois, 2007; Jaffe, 2009a). The integration of various theoretical and analytical models offers a holistic understanding of the participants' Facebook-based literacy practices from different perspectives. A mixed method approach that combines qualitative (e.g., multimodal analysis, online ethnographic observation) and quantitative (e.g., survey, user statistics) data analysis also helps describe the users’ semiotic productions and interactions from a diachronic point of view. While the purpose of the project is to examine contemporary L2 literacy engagement in an underexplored historical and cultural context, the analysis does not simply discuss the way Thai SNS users teach and/or learn English online. Rather, the findings also shed light on other important issues relating to digital literacies including multimodal production, identity construction, social relationship formation, stance-taking acts, and language ideology. These emerging literacy practices are presented in three separate but interrelated analysis chapters. They are comprised of: 1) the multimodal analysis of the interplay between Facebook affordances and the users' semiotic activities; 2) the investigation of the participants’ self- and other-positioning strategies; and 3) the discussion of the participants' stance-taking acts in various aspects relating to English language teaching, learning, and use in contemporary society. Altogether, the findings pinpoint the complex and interconnected relationships among digital media, self, community, and ideology as fundamental to meaningful learning experiences on SNSs. They also support the view of language learning as a social practice, which highlights the fact that meaning and knowledge are socially and culturally situated, shaped by contexts, and shared by members within particular communities (Gee, 2010; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Thorne, 2013). The dissertation, therefore, has implications for pedagogies and practice because it provides insights about how to design equitable learning materials and activities that address these contemporary social practices. Ultimately, the research suggests the use of a social media-enhanced ELTL site to develop meaningful interactions between learner, language, media, and community during the process of learning.

Abstract The study examines ‘recovery through repetition’, investigating how speakers repeat their own utterances in order to return to prior talk. The phenomenon comprises instances of everyday, casual conversation in which speakers indicate that their utterance was either not taken up at all or not taken up to an adequate degree. By repeating the utterance more or less word-for-word, speakers suggest to their recipients that a (different type of) response is relevant and offer the utterance for re-consideration. The data consist of American-English and Finnish conversations. The segments come from the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English and from the Corpus of Conversational Finnish that is maintained by the Department of Finnish Language and Literature at the University of Helsinki (Keskusteluntutkimuksen arkisto). The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is based on interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. First, the study details the typical composition and position of recovery through repetition and discusses the interactional implications that the repeated utterances may have. The study focuses on the functions of recovery through repetition and their implications for stance taking. Two overall interactional environments are identified: speakers employ recovery through repetition either to seek the attention of recipients and to take a stance towards an activity in progress, or to redirect the attention of recipients and to take a stance towards a recipient response. The different functions of recovery through repetition in the two environments are further examined. Moreover, the study contrasts repetition with other means of recovery and suggests that the different means have divergent implications for stance taking. Finally, the study concludes that recovery through repetition provides speakers with a means of negotiating the input of their utterances and simultaneously taking a stance towards an aspect of the ongoing interaction
Tiivistelmä Tutkimus tarkastelee toistoa elvytyskeinona keskustelussa eli sitä, kuinka puhuja toistaa oman lausumansa palatakseen aiempaan puheeseen. Ilmiö muodostuu arkisista, epämuodollisista keskustelutilanteista, joissa puhuja osoittaa, että jotakin hänen lausumaansa ei ole joko otettu lainkaan huomioon tai sitä ei ole käsitelty asianmukaisesti. Toistamalla lausuman lähes sanatarkasti puhuja ilmaisee keskustelukumppaneilleen, että jonkinlainen (tai mahdollisesti tietyntyyppinen) vastaanotto olisi odotuksenmukainen, ja tarjoaa lausumaansa käsiteltäväksi uudelleen. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu amerikanenglannin- ja suomenkielisistä keskusteluista, jotka ovat peräisin Santa Barbaran puhutun amerikanenglannin kokoelmasta (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English) ja Helsingin yliopiston suomen kielen ja kotimaisen kirjallisuuden laitoksen Keskusteluntutkimuksen arkistosta. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen ja menetelmällisen viitekehyksen muodostavat vuorovaikutuslingvistiikka ja keskustelunanalyysi. Aluksi tutkimuksessa kartoitetaan yksityiskohtaisesti elvyttävän toiston tyypillistä rakennetta ja paikkaa sekä pohditaan toistettujen lausumien mahdollisia vuorovaikutuksellisia seuraamuksia. Tutkimus keskittyy elvyttävän toiston tehtäviin ja niiden merkitykseen asennoitumiselle. Tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan kaksi yleistä esiintymisympäristöä: puhujat käyttävät elvyttävää toistoa joko hakeakseen vastaanottajien huomiota ja ottaakseen kantaa meneillään olevaan toimintaan tai ohjatakseen vastaanottajien huomiota ja ottaakseen kantaa edeltävään vastaanottajan vuoroon. Elvyttävän toiston tehtäviä näissä kahdessa ympäristössä eritellään tutkimuksessa tarkemmin. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa verrataan toistoa muihin elvytyskeinoihin keskustelussa ja esitetään, että eri elvytyskeinoilla rakennetaan asennoitumista eri tavoin. Tutkimus osoittaa, että elvyttävä toisto tarjoaa keskustelijoille keinon neuvotella sanomansa merkityksestä ja samalla rakentaa asennoitumistaan meneillään olevaan vuorovaikutustilanteeseen

Abstract This thesis reports on an empirical study of the forms and functions of two interrelated syntactic constructions, tag questions and negative yes/no interrogatives, in naturally occurring American English conversations. More specifically, the thesis focuses on examining the ways in which these interrogative constructions are involved in the intersubjective and interactional construction of stance. This involves describing the linguistic and interactional practices through which speakers index and negotiate their evaluative, affective or epistemic position or point of view towards some matter in the local context. The data used in the study comprise naturally occurring face-to-face and telephone interactions the majority of which take place between family and friends. The data are drawn from the first three published parts of the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English.The study is based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The first part of the study provides an examination of the linguistic and grammatical patterning of the chosen constructions in a database of naturally occurring interactions in English. This serves first of all as a study of the general linguistic patterning of utterances with negation or reversed word order in interaction. At the same time, however, the grammatical and semantic categories of person, verb type and tense are employed for establishing the high frequency of linguistic and semantic material that index the current speaker's affective, evaluative and/or epistemic position towards the issue at hand. The second part of the study expands the focus from individual utterances to the surrounding interactional context in which the interrogative constructions are located, and makes use of the conversation analytic methodology. I examine how discourse participants use negative yes/no interrogatives and tag questions as a resource for carrying out different actions such as requesting for confirmation, challenging, disagreeing and assessing, and the ways in which interrogative speakers convey their epistemic, affective or evaluative stances in so doing. In this section of the study the research proceeds through detailed analyses of interaction, and an examination of those sequential environments in which the interrogative constructions are found.

This study is concerned with the description of the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the attributive adjective self-proclaimed, employing corpus-linguistic methodology to explore its meaning from user-based data. The initial query provided the material from which a lexical pro-file of the target word was constructed, systematically describing collocational data, semantic preferences, semantic associations and discourse prosodies. Qualitative analysis of sample con-cordances illustrated the role of the target word in expressing different kinds of meaning-bearing stances. The results demonstrate the importance of context and communicative functionality as constraints determining meaning, determining the discourse prosodies of self-proclaimed as one of either negation; accepted-positive and accepted-negative. Further, the analysis of self-proclaimed as a stance marker indicates the linking evaluative meanings of extended lexical units to the project of linguistic description of intersubjective stancetaking as a possibly fruitful venue for research

Este trabalho se situa na fronteira entre os estudos culturais e os estudos lingüísticos. Ele tem como objetivo observar possíveis diferenças em termos de organização de gênero e escolhas lexicais entre os anúncios pessoais feitos por gays e heterossexuais do sexo masculino. O corpus de análise consiste de quarenta anúncios retirados de dois sites de encontros da Internet, sendo que vinte são originariamente escritos por gays e os outros vinte por heterossexuais do sexo masculino. A base desta pesquisa se encontra nos trabalhos de Swales (1990) e Bhatia (1993) sobre a descrição de gêneros e no trabalho de Hoey (1997) sobre narrativas eróticas. Deste último retiramos alguns conceitos sobre a auto-descrição e a descrição do objeto de desejo. Inicialmente, os anúncios eletrônicos pessoais são comparados com anúncios pessoais impressos (cf. Shalom 1997), na tentativa de verificar como os anúncios impressos podem ter se adaptado ao meio digital. Num segundo momento, a análise se concentra na aplicação do sistema de Avaliação (ou Appraisal) de Martin e White (2005) a fim de caracterizarmos como os gays e heterossexuais do sexo masculino avaliam a si próprios e a seus objetos de desejo. A dissertação sugere que há diferenças relacionadas ao posicionamento atitudinal dos gays e heterossexuais, especialmente em relação à utilização de Afeto. Observam-se diferenças também não previstas por nossas perguntas de pesquisa, que não podem ser atribuídas nem às organizações diferentes dos sites, nem às escolhas lexicais dos anunciantes, mas sim aos tipos de sites e audiências escolhidos pelos anunciantes
The present work lies on the borderline of cultural and linguistic studies. It aims at examining whether there are differences concerning genre organization and lexical choices in ads filled in by gay and heterosexual males. The corpus consists of forty ads from two dating sites on the internet: twenty are originally written by gay males and the other twenty are written by heterosexual males. This research draws on works such as Swales (1990) and Bhatias (1993) on genre description and on Hoeys (1997) on erotic narratives. From the latter we have borrowed a few key concepts to help us analyze self and other description. At an early stage, the internet ads are compared to printed ads (cf. Shalom 1997) in an attempt to check how these ads should have adapted to the digital medium. Afterwards, we resort to Martin and Whites (2005) Appraisal system so as to characterize how gays and heterosexuals see themselves and their desired others. The dissertation suggests that there are differences related to the attitudinal positioning of gays and heterosexuals, particularly in the use of Affect. There are also findings unforeseen at the beginning of the research. In other words, these differences do not come down either to the variation in the organization of the sites, or to the lexical choices of the advertisers, but rather to the kind of site chosen by the advertisers

Cette thèse porte sur l'acquisition et le développement de la négation chez deux enfants monolingues anglaise et française, filmées entre 10 mois et 4 ans et 2 mois (66h) en interactions naturelles avec leur mère. Nous adoptons une perspective constructiviste et fonctionnaliste de la langue (Tomasello 2003) en tissant des liens avec la théorie des opérations énonciatives, la socialisation langagière et avec les études sur la gestualité. Notre définition du langage est large car nous analysons toutes les ressources sémiotiques dont le locuteur dispose pour se positionner en interaction. À l'aide d'un système de codage multimodal qui repose sur l'utilisation de logiciels compatibles, nous menons des analyses qualitatives et quantitatives de l'usage des modalités verbales et non-verbales pour l'expression de la négation chez l'enfant avant 4 ans.Après avoir présenté l'ancrage théorique (partie 1) et notre méthode (partie 2), nous montrons que la négation correspond à un grand nombre de fonctions pragmatiques qui sont exprimées à l'aide de la synchronisation de modalités distinctes (partie 3). Les résultats indiquent que distinguer le rôle des modalités dans la construction de l’énoncé permet de travailler sur la complexité du langage. Concernant la négation, nous observons qu’il s’agit d’une opération énonciative qui ne repose pas systématiquement sur les mêmes formes selon la fonction exprimée.Cette recherche montre que l'usage synchronisé de plusieurs modalités en contexte de négation est une compétence linguistique et cognitive. En outre, les formes négatives s’enrichissent et se spécialisent après 3 ans pour permettre l’expression d’intentions communicatives variées
This research focuses on the acquisition and the development of negation in two monolingual French and English children filmed from 10 months to 4 years and 2 months old (66 hours) in natural mother-child dyadic interactions.We use a functionalist and constructivist theoretical approach (Tomasello 2003) but we also bring together French utter-centred approach to language, language socialisation and gesture studies. Our definition of language encompasses all verbal and non-verbal means of expression speakers use to position themselves within interaction. We developed a multimodal coding system relying on the use of several compatible programs to combine qualitative and quantitative analyses. This method offers the opportunity to investigate the expression of negation in verbal and non-verbal modalities in children under 4.After laying the theoretical background (Part 1), we will present our methodology (Part 2). Results show that negation refers to a vast range of pragmatic functions whose expression is fully embodied because it is conveyed through the synchronisation of several modalities of expression (Part 3). Our analysis of the interplay of modalities in the construction of meaning happens to be a great locus to account for the complexity of language. We also observe that negation is a meta-category which can be expressed by a variety of forms.Our research shows that the usage of synchronised modalities in negative contexts can be considered a linguistic and cognitive skill. Moreover, the set of forms for negation develops and specialises after 3 years and helps the child express various communicative intentions linked to negation

The object of this thesis is the study of constrained measurement systems of signals having low-dimensional structure using analytic tools from Compressed Sensing (CS). Realistic measurement systems usually have architectural constraints that make them differ from their idealized, well-studied counterparts. Nonetheless, these measurement systems can exploit structure in the signals that they measure. Signals considered in this research have low-dimensional structure and can be broken down into two types: static or dynamic. Static signals are either sparse in a specified basis or lying on a low-dimensional manifold (called manifold-modeled signals). Dynamic signals, exemplified as states of a dynamical system, either lie on a low-dimensional manifold or have converged onto a low-dimensional attractor. In CS, the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) of a measurement system ensures that distances between all signals of a certain sparsity are preserved. This stable embedding ensures that sparse signals can be distinguished one from another by their measurements and therefore be robustly recovered. Moreover, signal-processing and data-inference algorithms can be performed directly on the measurements instead of requiring a prior signal recovery step. Taking inspiration from the RIP, this research analyzes conditions on realistic, constrained measurement systems (of the signals described above) such that they are stable embeddings of the signals that they measure. Specifically, this thesis focuses on four different types of measurement systems. First, we study the concentration of measure and the RIP of random block diagonal matrices that represent measurement systems constrained to make local measurements. Second, we study the stable embedding of manifold-modeled signals by existing CS matrices. The third part of this thesis deals with measurement systems of dynamical systems that produce time series observations. While Takens' embedding result ensures that this time series output can be an embedding of the dynamical systems' states, our research establishes that a stronger stable embedding result is possible under certain conditions. The final part of this thesis is the application of CS ideas to the study of the short-term memory of neural networks. In particular, we show that the nodes of a recurrent neural network can be a stable embedding of sparse input sequences.

The statue called The Cathedral is a natural extension of my work, which deals with organic morphology of the landscape, both the details and grand compositions, which in the countryside vyskytují.Stejně like most authors is my creative work reflection of my surroundings, both personal so near in geographical terms. Integrating these aspects arise impetus to creation. In the case of sculptures entitled The Cathedral is a rendering of the very strong impression of verticality, which dominates the landscape. Regularly clashing with seemingly ordinary natural objects such as trees, soil, hills or reliefs and reliefs such as landscapes, I got into an imaginary dialogue, which I decided to answer this statue and also portray already mentioned impressed. This feeling is for me identically comparable to a situation where the viewer stands in front of the high Gothic building and trying to accommodate the shape of a giant who stands before him. Its peak, it seems so distant, as if no end, and the broad base is a kind of sign of confidence in the form of stability. Parallels between these seemingly different topics I could not miss, so I decided to call the statue Cathedral. In this work, as in previous ones, I try to get into organic sculptures character with the help of the deformation of materials, or basically draping. Compacting elastic materials to try to create the statues of the tension that fascinates me in nature and creates the impression of growth, which is in the countryside of one of the strongest motives. Shape diversity, which is in the landscape, in my inexhaustible source of inspiration and has become lately a space that fills me. When I release the perception of various aspects of your imagination and build imaginary composition, which would then be identical expression perceived impressions.

本研究旨在探討香港特別行政區行政長官怎麼在施政報告表達立場 (stance) 和主客觀立場 (intersubjectivity)，即是意見、評論、感情等等。本文主要運用語言庫的方法，研究三位前和現任香港特別行政區行政長官的英文版本施政報告，分別是董建華於1998及2004發表的施政報告、曾蔭權發表於 2008及2012的施政報告以及梁振英於2014及2015發表的施政報告。
研究結果顯示，確定立場 (epistemic stance) 和態度立場 (attitudinal stance) 於施政報告中是最常表達的。相反，演講風格立場 (style of speaking stance) 在施政報告中最少使用。就語言標記 (linguistic markers) 來說，情態動詞 (modal verbs) 和補充句式 (complement clauses) 在施政報告中是最常用的。反之，副詞 (adverb) 就是最少使用的。最後，就主客觀立場 (intersubjectivity) 而言，兩種表達方式特別常用，分別是直接表達 (explicit intersubjective) 和間接主表達 (implicit subjectivity) 。
從以上結果顯示，我們可以發現施政報告非常著重確定立場 (epistemic stance) 和態度立場 (attitudinal stance)的表達。出現這個現象的原因可能與施政報告文體有關。因為施政報告的主要目的是讓行政長官概述政府來年的施政重點和方向。更重要的是，行政長官也要描述和評估在過去一年間在香港發生的事件，並就這些事件提出應變對策和解決方法，所以行政長官要在其施政報告表達確定立場 (epistemic stance) 和態度立場 (attitudinal stance)。
作為極少數的實證研究，本文顯示了香港特別行政區行政長官發表的施政報告的語言特徵。同時，本文的研究的方法和成果對英語研究和英語教學都帶來了新的意義和啟示。例如研究人員可以使用語言庫去研究其他文體，而且，學習者也可以通過學習在施政報告行政長官使用的語言標記，從而在其他語景應用這些語言標記。
This dissertation examines the use of a range of linguistic devices for the expressions of stance and (inter)subjectivity in a policy document genre - Hong Kong Policy Addresses by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). In particular, it analyzes stance expressions in terms of their discourse functions and lexico-grammatical patterns. Two analytical frameworks, notably from Biber et al.’s (1999) classification of stance devices and Marin-Arrese’s (2009a) categorization of intersubjectivity, were selected for this study. Biber et al.’s (1999) framework was used to classify and identify the most frequently occurring the three major stance types (i.e., epistemic, attitudinal, and style of speaking) and stance devices (i.e., modals, adverbs, and verbs, nouns and adjective controlling that- and to-complement constructions) in the Hong Kong Policy Addresses; Marin-Arrese’s (2009a) framework was employed to analyze the ways the four types of (inter)subjectivity (i.e., explicit subjectivity, implicit subjectivity, explicit intersubjectivity, and opaque intersubjectivity) were expressed in the Policy Addresses.
Based on the quantitative analysis of the frequencies of stance types, stance devices, and (inter)subjective expressions, it is found that epistemic and attitudinal stances are more common than style of speaking stance in the Policy Addresses. In terms of stance devices, modal verbs are used most frequently, followed by complement constructions and adverbs. As far as (inter)subjective expressions are concerned, expressions of implicit subjectivity and explicit intersubjectivity are used more frequently than those of explicit subjectivity and opaque intersubjectivity.
The qualitative analysis also shows a wide range of discourse functions and lexico-grammatical patterns of stance expressions in the Policy Addresses. For example, the prediction modal (will), possibility modals (may, can), and adverbs, adjectives, nouns, and verbs expressing both certainty and likelihood meanings (clearly, sure, chance) are used to express epistemic stance for reporting statistics and events, making predictions and factual statements, and so on. The volition modal (will), the obligation modal (should), and attitudinal adverbs (closely) are used to express attitudinal stance for making cause-effect relationships, expressing personal feelings, and showing one’s understanding of a particular issue, etc. Style of speaking stance is usually expressed through such forms as style adverbs (especially), nouns of communication (proposal) and verbs of communication (propose) used to strengthen propositions, indicate widely accepted propositions, or make announcements. In terms of lexico-grammatical patterns, the adverb of certainty “firmly” always comes before the likelihood verb “believe” in that-clauses, and the adverb of degree “more” also always precedes the attitudinal adverb “effectively”. It is also found that the style adverbs “particularly” and “especially” occur repeatedly in both pre- and post-verbal positions to modify noun phrases and to-infinitive phrases, whereas the style adverb “in particular” is mainly used in pre-verbal position to modify the whole clause.
Based on the findings of the study, a detailed account of the methodological, conceptual, and pedagogical implications of the study is provided. In particular, the findings shed light on the value of using a corpus-based approach of political discourse analysis and enrich our understanding of how stance and (inter)subjectivity function in the Hong Kong Policy Addresses.
Chan, Hon Tung.
Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).
Abstracts also in Chinese.
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Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.