The illocution-prosody relationship and the Information Pattern in spontaneous speech according to the Language into Act Theory (L-AcT)

Abstract

This paper introduces the question of the definition of reference units for speech, correlating with the necessary condition that they must be an adequate and useful means for analyzing large spoken corpora. According to Language into Act Theory (L-AcT), the utterance is the proper reference unit and the counterpart of the speech act (Austin 1962), being demarcated by prosody within the flow of speech. The pragmatic foundations of the utterance and its information structure will be described and are closely connected to the role of prosody in their identification. The pragmatic and information analysis of English and Romance examples are presented, which are taken from representative spoken corpora (C-ORAL-ROM, C-ORAL-BRAZIL, S. Barbara Corpus). Regarding the information structure, the Comment unit is considered the core of the Information Pattern and since its role is the expression of the illocution it automatically conveys the new information. The Comment may be accompanied and supported by other optional information units which are functionally differentiated. The Information Pattern is systematically demarcated by a Prosodic Pattern within an isomorphic correlation.

L' allocuzione come veicolo di soggettività: tra enfasi e miratività

“…Secondo Cresti (2018), i parentetici sono definiti come unità liberamente inserite nell'enunciato ospite. Tali unità ne esprimono relazione non composizionale con valore, appunto, meta-linguistico (valutazione del parlante); sul piano prosodico, i parentetici -afferma l'autrice -non mostrano prominenza e presentano in genere pause a livello dei confini (Cresti 2018: 52, 53).…”

“…I nostri ragionamenti andranno ampliati alla luce di nuovi dati e di nuove strategie funzionalmente equivalenti quali avverbi paradigmatizzanti e interiezioni. Sarebbe altresì utile analizzare nuovi dati di parlato recente sulla base del modello di Cresti (2018), Language into Act Theory, in base alla nozione di "ausilio dialogico".…”

O corpus C-ORAL-ESQ e a estrutura informacional da fala de pacientes com esquizofrenia

“…O valor ilocucionário de um enunciado e de uma stanza é codificado linguisticamente por meio das propriedades prosódicas de um número reduzido de sílabas do comentário e dos comentários ligados (CRESTI, 2018;ROCHA, 2016). Tais sílabas correspondem sempre a uma proeminência prosódica, constituindo o foco informacional do comentário e dos comentários ligados (CRESTI, 2011).…”

Exploring Prosodic Pragmatics at Affective Level

“…English intonation is often said to be based on three aspects known as tonality (the division of the continuous speech into units), tonocity (the highlighting of particular words and syllables), and tone (the choice of pitch movement) (Paunovic, 2020). Intonation, a distinct phenomenon from tone, is the variation of pitch that indicates speaker's attitudes to signal the illocutionary acts latent in the utterances (Cresti, 2018;Goodhue, Wehbe, Hacquard, & Lidz, 2021). In the English language, there are seven intonation patterns: rising, falling, rising-falling, falling-rising, flat, high, and low, however, the following four intonation patterns are observed as the most significant among other:…”