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A study of dialogic expansion and contraction in spoken discourse using corpus and experimental techniques

Pöldvere, Nele LU ; Fuoli, Matteo LU and Paradis, Carita LU orcid (2016) In Corpora 11(2). p.191-225
Abstract

This study examines the dialogic functions of EXPANSION and CONTRACTION of first-person epistemic and evidential Complement-Taking Predicate (CTP) constructions, such as I think COMPLEMENT, I suppose COMPLEMENT and I know COMPLEMENT, in spoken discourse. It combines corpus and experimental methods (i) to investigate whether CTP constructions are used to open up the dialogic space for new ideas or counterarguments, or to fend off alternative views, and (ii) to identify what contextual factors play a role in determining the dialogic force of the constructions. First, an exploratory analysis of CTP constructions in the London-Lund Corpus (LLC) of spoken British English is carried out with the aim to identify important contextual factors... (More)

This study examines the dialogic functions of EXPANSION and CONTRACTION of first-person epistemic and evidential Complement-Taking Predicate (CTP) constructions, such as I think COMPLEMENT, I suppose COMPLEMENT and I know COMPLEMENT, in spoken discourse. It combines corpus and experimental methods (i) to investigate whether CTP constructions are used to open up the dialogic space for new ideas or counterarguments, or to fend off alternative views, and (ii) to identify what contextual factors play a role in determining the dialogic force of the constructions. First, an exploratory analysis of CTP constructions in the London-Lund Corpus (LLC) of spoken British English is carried out with the aim to identify important contextual factors and generate hypotheses about their dialogic effects. Then, a laboratory experiment is conducted to test the impact of the three most prominent factors for speakers' interpretations of utterances containing CTPs. The results indicate that CTP constructions do not only serve to expand the dialogic context in which they occur, but also to restrict alternative views. Interlocutor status, the co-occurrence of other stance markers and prosodic marking of first-person CTP are shown to have a significant effect on the dialogic function of the expressions. These findings call into question some claims in APPRAISAL theory about the role of CTP constructions in discourse, and highlight the need for a flexible approach to the analysis of these poly-functional stance expressions.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Stance, complement-taking predicates, epistemic modality, evidentiality, evaluation, intersubjectivity, prosody, Appraisal, inter-coder agreement
in
Corpora
volume
11
issue
2
pages
35 pages
publisher
Edinburgh University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84988883123
  • wos:000384236000004
ISSN
1755-1676
DOI
10.3366/cor.2016.0092
project
Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
39009d6d-e3e1-4956-96ab-b4ed990dda58 (old id 8599552)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:28:42
date last changed
2022-04-04 18:30:28
@article{39009d6d-e3e1-4956-96ab-b4ed990dda58,
  abstract     = {{<p>This study examines the dialogic functions of EXPANSION and CONTRACTION of first-person epistemic and evidential Complement-Taking Predicate (CTP) constructions, such as I think COMPLEMENT, I suppose COMPLEMENT and I know COMPLEMENT, in spoken discourse. It combines corpus and experimental methods (i) to investigate whether CTP constructions are used to open up the dialogic space for new ideas or counterarguments, or to fend off alternative views, and (ii) to identify what contextual factors play a role in determining the dialogic force of the constructions. First, an exploratory analysis of CTP constructions in the London-Lund Corpus (LLC) of spoken British English is carried out with the aim to identify important contextual factors and generate hypotheses about their dialogic effects. Then, a laboratory experiment is conducted to test the impact of the three most prominent factors for speakers' interpretations of utterances containing CTPs. The results indicate that CTP constructions do not only serve to expand the dialogic context in which they occur, but also to restrict alternative views. Interlocutor status, the co-occurrence of other stance markers and prosodic marking of first-person CTP are shown to have a significant effect on the dialogic function of the expressions. These findings call into question some claims in APPRAISAL theory about the role of CTP constructions in discourse, and highlight the need for a flexible approach to the analysis of these poly-functional stance expressions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Pöldvere, Nele and Fuoli, Matteo and Paradis, Carita}},
  issn         = {{1755-1676}},
  keywords     = {{Stance; complement-taking predicates; epistemic modality; evidentiality; evaluation; intersubjectivity; prosody; Appraisal; inter-coder agreement}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{191--225}},
  publisher    = {{Edinburgh University Press}},
  series       = {{Corpora}},
  title        = {{A study of dialogic expansion and contraction in spoken discourse using corpus and experimental techniques}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/12079259/PoldvereFuoliParadis_2016_DialogicExpansionContractionSpokenCorpusExperimental.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.3366/cor.2016.0092}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}