About his friend, how good she is, and this and that: General extenders in native Persian and non-native English discourse

Parvaresh, Vahid; Tavangar, Manoochehr; Rasekh, Abbas Eslami; Izadi, Dariush

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2011.12.003

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The majority of studies focusing on European French have been qualitative and descriptive (Andrews, 1989), although some included quantitative components (Secova 2014). Large-scale comparative analyses involving languages other than English are still relatively rare (however, see Norrby and Winter 2002, Overstreet 2005, Cortés-Rodriguez 2006, Terraschke and Holmes 2007, Ruzaite 2010, Parvaresh et al 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders

Secova

2017

Journal of Pragmatics

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This paper examines the use of general extenders (GEs), such as and stuff in English and et tout in French, in Paris French and London English. We aim to compare the social and the linguistic conditioning of extender use in the two languages, discuss the different kinds of spread in the two cities and reflect on the specificity of discourse-pragmatic variation.The study shows that GE forms as well as frequencies vary across factors such as gender, age and ethnicity, while some variants also appear to be grammaticalising and acquiring new pragmatic functions. The analysis includes a comparison of different age groups, and finds that different types of generational change may be occurring in both languages.In London, forms such as and stuff and and that diverge along ethnic lines, whereas in Paris et tout is becoming the dominant variant across the board. While different variants in both languages are indirectly associated with different social categories, they perform similar pragmatic functions such as hedging, marking solidarity and appealing to common knowledge between the speaker and the interlocutor(s).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders

Secova

2017

Journal of Pragmatics

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“…Numerous studies have shown that L2 learners tend to use fewer GEs than native speakers (Aijmer 2004;de Cock 2004;Drave 2002;Fernández and Yuldashev 2011;Parvaresh et al 2012). Although this tendency does not necessarily point to a pragmatic deficiency in their second language, raising L2 Spanish learners' awareness of how GEs are used, especially given their frequency and formulaic nature, could be highly beneficial to them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

General extender use in spoken Peninsular Spanish: metapragmatic awareness and pedagogical implications

Fernández

2015

Journal of Spanish Language Teaching

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This article examines vague lexical features in unplanned, naturally occurring spoken discourse among speakers of Peninsular Spanish. It focuses on vague multi-word expressions that are part of a larger category of General Extenders (GEs, Overstreet 1999). Drawing on a subset of data from the Corpus Oral de Referencia del Español Contemporáneo (COREC), the article describes GEs in terms of form and frequency, and illustrates the use of the three most frequent GEs vis-à-vis discursive and pragmatic functions in spoken discourse. Based on GEs' many and pivotal interactional functions as well as their frequency in attested interactions, this article proposes that language learners' metapragmatic awareness of GE use in L2 Spanish be promoted through corpus-informed instruction.Este artículo examina el uso de "locuciones vagas" en el discurso oral y espontáneo de hablantes de español peninsular. En particular, se analiza el uso de unidades fraseológicas que son parte de una categoría más amplia, conocida como Apéndices Generalizadores (General Extenders [GEs, Overstreet 1999]). El presente trabajo describe este tipo particular de locuciones en relación con su forma y frecuencia. También se ilustran algunas de las funciones discursivas y pragmáticas de los tres GEs que ocurren con mayor frecuencia en una porción del Corpus Oral de Referencia del Español Contemporáneo (COREC). Dadas las múltiples e importantes funciones de los GEs en contextos de interacción oral, al igual que su frecuencia en conversaciones auténticas, se propone promover el conocimiento metapragmático sobre los usos del "lenguaje vago" mediante la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (ELE) basada en el uso de corpus.

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“…Fernandez and Yuldashev (2011) explored general extender usage in instant messaging interactions, finding that NNSEs from several backgrounds utilised fewer disjunctive and societal (culturebound) ones than US NSEs. Parvaresh et al (2012) found that Persian NNSEs used VL items that NSEs would not routinely use, transferring from Persian to English 'and and and' (vae, vae, vae) and 'and this and that' (vae in, vae un').…”

Section: Geographical Variation Of English Vague Languagementioning

confidence: 94%

“…NNSEs seemed to lack an awareness of functional subtleties. Parvaresh et al (2012) examined 'and blah blah blah' and 'and so on', finding that speakers of Persian used both with a range of stances and settings, where the US NSEs reserved 'and blah blah blah' for a pejorative meaning and 'and so on' for formal speech. Aijmer's (2002) study of vague hedges used by Swedish NNSEs showed that they were unaware of their politeness function in NSE talk.…”

Section: Geographical Variation Of English Vague Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Dingsbums und so: Beliefs about German vague language

Cutting

2015

Journal of Pragmatics

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Research has shown that vague language, which includes vague items (general nouns, general verbs, general extenders, vague clauses, clause final ellipsis and conversational implicature) and vague modifiers (vague quantifiers and other epistemic stance markers), is a feature of many languages, signalling a friendly attitude and modifying face threats. In order for language teachers to teach about vague language, they need to understand the preconceptions of their learners. This paper describes the beliefs of 178 German English language teachers and students. This study has shown that all the participants were aware of German equivalents to the English general nouns, verbs and extenders. Describing German vague language, they mentioned vague non-verbal indicators, vague responses to health enquiries, and vague epistemic stance indicators that indexed explicitly a lack of knowledge. They emphasised that these forms are reserved for family and close friends, and expressing closeness. They believed that they were not appropriate in formal settings, being associated them with a low level of education and youth talk. They also pointed to negative connotations of indifference, and impressions of laziness and incompetence that vague language can create. The paper suggests applications of findings for language educators.

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About his friend, how good she is, and this and that: General extenders in native Persian and non-native English discourse

Cited by 24 publications

References 17 publications

Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders

Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders

General extender use in spoken Peninsular Spanish: metapragmatic awareness and pedagogical implications

Dingsbums und so: Beliefs about German vague language

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