Semantics and Pragmatics Commons^™

Politeness In Malaysian Esl Classroom Directives., Khaw Aun Nee

Student Works (2010-2019)

The present study investigates teachers’ and students’ use of directives and politeness strategies in realising directives in Malaysian ESL classrooms. Using Bach and Harnish’s (1979) classification of directives and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies as a theoretical framework, audio recordings of three ESL lessons were analysed to examine the types of directives used by teachers and students in Malaysian ESL classrooms and the types of politeness strategies used to realise these directives. Audio recordings of interviews with participants of the current study were then examined to discover the factors that affect teachers’ and students’ use of directives and politeness …

Bahasa Dan Gender Dalam Komik Humor Kanak-Kanak., Mohd Nazim Najmuddin

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research is on language and gender in children’s humorous comic books. The methodology of this research is through analyzing the content of the comic books that is whether they can improve their language skills. This research is limited to Doraemon humorous comic books which are written in Malay because the emergence of various types of comic books which are now available in the market have been of great concern among parents as to whether they should their children to have access to such books. This research focuses on the language aspect used and also on the social behavior characteristics …

Communication Strategies Of International Students : A Study Of Service Encounters., Suo Yan Ju

Student Works (2010-2019)

Communication strategies are important in helping L2 learners to communicate successfully when they are faced with a problem in speech production. This study looked at one of the components in Communication Competence, i.e strategy competence or the use of Communication Strategies (CS) in oral interactions among Middle Eastern students and counter staff in institute of postgraduate studies (IPS) at University of Malay.  Data collected from video-tape and interviews were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. It was found that the most frequently used communication strategy was the use of „modification devices‟. The other strategies used in order of frequency were „interaction strategies‟, …

Investigating Gricean Maxims In Conversations Among Malaysian Women., Lee Pei Ling

Student Works (2010-2019)

In this investigation into the conversations of Malaysian women friends, H.P. Grice’s conversational maxims are analyzed in terms of fulfillment and non-fulfillment. Included are the theoretical aspects and findings of both foreign and local researchers who have done studies pertaining to all female conversations (Coates, 1996; Hafizah Ahamad, 2004) and Grice’s maxims (Rundquist, 1992; Kulasingam, 2004; Brumark, 2006). Data is drawn from audio-tape recordings of different groups of women friends, transcribed and instances of fulfillment and non-fulfillment were singled out in the analysis process. To strengthen the validity of the findings, the recordings were triangulated with onsite observations, field notes, …

A Study Of Refusal Strategies Used By Malaysian Teenagers., Phaveena Primsuwan

Student Works (2010-2019)

The aim of this study is to identify the refusal strategies used by Malaysian students when they make refusals. The data was taken from 80 respondents in one of the universities in Malaysia, where conversations between the researcher and the respondents based on a task that was set by the researcher were recorded. The spoken data was analyzed based on Beebe et. al’s refusal strategies (1990) which consist of direct and indirect refusals. Data was then transcribed using Jefferson’s(1978) transcription conventions. This study found that most of the respondents employed the direct refusal when they refuse. Most of them tend …

A Study Of Epistemic Modality In A Television Interview., Papiya Chakrabarty

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research explores the use of modals such as will, would and shall which are epistemic in nature in an interview from America’s MTP (Meet the Press) of the present millennium which involves five politicians as speakers. It applies a qualitative approach and is a corpus based lexico-grammatical research which plans to identify the modality and its frequency in only one type of discourse. The research tests aims to test why speakers use epistemic modality and how committed they are towards their views, opinions which become truth propositions when involved in a question and answer session with other participants of …

Innovating Superheroes, Alvise Mattozzi

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Introduction]

Superhero comics have changed. They have passed through a Golden Age and Silver Age, they have been transformed, cancelled, revived, killed, deconstructed, reconstructed, revisited, etc. My aim is to account for part of these changes and show how superhero comics have been innovated. In order to track these changes I chose to compare different versions of a few DC Comics series, such as Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Shade, that had been cancelled and then revived and are known to have introduced relevant changes between the earliest and the subsequent versions.

Before tackling the series mentioned, I …

I.A. Richards' Triangle Of Meaning Compared And Contrasted With The Rhetoric Of The Holy Bible, Gregory L. Swango

Masters Theses

It is the Bible's claim to be the inspired word of God. The message from the Scriptures has persuaded millions: from the shepherd of the first century to the business person of our present age. The words chosen, the genres used, and the forms of verbal support employed are prodigious in every way. The rhetorician and linguist, I. A. Richards, has written and spoken on how words come to have meaning, how they are used in context, and how they are used metaphorically. He has developed his ideas through a model called the triangle of meaning. There is justification for …

Pragmatics: The Verbal Expression Of Feelings, Ann Paula Zimmerman

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine at which age levels, between four and eight years, children express Praise, Apology, Commiseration, Blame, Challenge, Endearment, and both a Positive and Negative State.

Subjects were thirty children, six from each age level between four and eight years, selected from an elementary and preschool within the Portland area. Sixteen picture cards and stories were designed to elicit the eight different feelings. Each subject responded to questions at the end of the story and was given two chances to express the appropriate feeling. Each response was judged as appropriate or inappropriate and scored …