Eliza Kitis’ publications, reflecting her teaching areas and special interests, are in the areas of pragmatics, semantics and discourse analysis. They range from problems with Grice’s implicature, relevance, conjunction, frame theory to literary discourse, translation, aspect and pragmastylistics, as well as news and advertising discourses, CDA and ideology.
Eliza Kitis
Professor Emerita of Linguistics (MA Essex, Ph.D. Warwick)
Publications
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Semantics: Meaning in Language [reviewed by David Holdcroft]
BookThessaloniki: University Studio Press|ISBN: 978-960-12-2093-2, 2012
Abstract
Meaning is in the essence of the human condition and is most definitively and socially shaped in language. But language can in a way displace ‘reality’ and in this sense it is a metaphor. This book focuses on the fundamental meaning that enables language to ‘stand for the world’, a primary condition for further aspects of encrypted, disrupted and decentered meaning generated in language’s emplacement in society. It aspires to provide a secure grounding for unravelling those further aspects of meaning-making. The book comes complete with power point presentations for each chapter, made available to instructors adopting it as textbook.
Keywords
- Reference
- Semantics
- Lexical Semantics
- History of Semantics
Additional Information
Reviewed by David Holdcroft “Kitis on Meaning in Language.” International Review of Pragmatics, 6:1 (2014), 169-78.
[In Greek: Συνθήματα δρόμου: ένα ιδιαίτερο είδος λόγου]
Abstract
In this paper we engage with street slogans, a distinct type of graffiti of anti-authoritarian content, attributed to anarchist youth; this type of graffiti ‘decorates’ the landscape of many European (and not only) cities, often quite densely, and can be thus considered part of the urban discourse (Scollon and Scollon, 2003). However, street slogans is a dominant characteristic of the modern Greek urban landscape with a concentration in specific areas, e.g., in university campuses, inner city areas, etc. These slogans are often produced during urban events such as demonstrations, or independently, hence their concentration in specific areas (areas of demonstrations such as a campus, inner city, or hangouts of youths, e.g., Exarcheia in Athens, or Ano Poli [upper city] in Thessaloniki).
In this paper we address two issues: 1. Are street slogans a specialised genre? and 2. Do they qualify as anarchist discourse? We will use a corpus linguistics methodology for a quantitative analysis of a corpus of ca 1500 street slogans. We conclude that a quantitative analysis gives evidence for a positive answer to both questions; street slogans are a distinct type of genre, and, indeed, of an anarchist content.
Keywords
- Genre
- Anarchist Studies
- Corpus Linguistics
- Discourse Analysis
- Graffiti
Populism and λαϊκισμός [populism] through the linguist’s lens. Discourse analysis: Theories and Methodologies
Conference paperSociolinguisticsAbstract
As can be appreciated, the linguist is not a sociologist or a political scientist or a philosopher; but s/he can cast the linguist’s glance at the use of words (and linguistic phenomena at large), their place of occurrence, etc., that is, the linguist will try to contextualise as much as availably possible the use of lexis in focus so that they derive as much information as possible for the ‘right’ interpretation. This enterprise will hopefully inform and complement a broader non-linguistic analysis of the use of such terms as per title.
We’ll try to look at what (a linguistic) discourse analysis can contribute to the analysis of lexes, in the case at issue of the word ‘populism’ but also at its Greek ‘equivalent’ term ‘λαϊκισμός’, esp. as we know that word histories have their own stories to tell and translational equivalence is often a myth. We’ll also see if corpus linguistics (a quantitative analysis) has anything to offer in our endeavour.
Keywords
- Critical Discourse Studies
- Rhetoric
- Populism
- Corpus Linguistics
- Discourse Analysis
- Political Discourse Analysis
- Cognitive Lexical Semantics
Additional Information
The Power Point Presentation of the talk is available for download. You can also watch a video of the presentation by using the external link button (Dr. Kitis presentation starts at 2:10:00).
Meaning ruptures and meaningful eruptions in the service of rhetoric: Populist flare-up hits the Greek political pitch
ChapterSociolinguisticsIn Rainer Schulze & Hanna Pishwa (eds). The Exercise of Power in Communication. Devices, Reception and Reaction. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015
Abstract
This article focuses on the use of the term ‘populism’ in the European political scene, and more specifically in the political arena of a European country in crisis, Greece. Its aim is to show how political terms can develop new senses, or even subvert their old ones, and how these terms with the newly acquired sense can be a prime weapon in the rhetorical and ultimately political arsenal of politicians, in order to serve their intents and purposes, create a ‘Self and us’ position vis-à-vis an ‘Other’ position in a polarized antagonistic schema of common sense ‘us’ and extremist ‘them’, discredit ‘other’ policies and rally people around their own ‘common sense’ beneficial policies and practices, forging political ideologies of polarization. In this process, a term signifying a political movement or programme, an ideology or a political practice becomes prey to the purposes of strategic processes of depoliticization adopted by political parties with their own political agendas. The claims are also supported by findings from applying the methodology of Corpus Linguistics. The scope of this article falls squarely within the purview of institutional powerful language use.
Keywords
- Populism
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Modern Greek Politics
- Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
- Mass Media
- Political Discourse
Connectives as constructions: The case of afu
ChapterConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersIn Th.-S. Pavlidou (ed.) (2020) Pragmatic Particles in Greek and Other Languages. Thessaloniki: Institute of Modern Greek Studies. [in Greek]
Eliza Koutoupi-Kitis and Dimitris Kitis (2020). ‘Connectives as constructions: The case of afu’. In Th.-S. Pavlidou (ed.). Pragmatic Particles in Greek and Other Languages. Thessaloniki: Institute of Modern Greek Studies. [in Greek], 92-116.
Hellas. Dialect and school
-Sociolinguistics, Language TeachingJournal paperLanguage International 2, 15-7, 1990
Abstract
This paper discusses the present language situation in the context of Greece with an emphasis on problematic issues in Education. It is stressed that the Greek language is rather homogeneous but it is added that dialectal variation in it has been mostly studied from the point of view of phonetic and morphological or at the most lexical variation while little attention has been paid to sociological correlates of variation. It reviews the present situation in the school context and remarks that appreciation of dialectal variation should be appreciated by educators. To this end attitudes need to be changed towards sociological aspects of language variation.
Keywords
- Multilingualism and Educational Planning in Greece
Additional Information
This is a shorter version of same titled article in Journal of Applied Linguistics (JAL)
Multilingual concepts in Education. Greece
-Sociolinguistics, Language TeachingJournal paperSociolinguistica 7, 119-34, 1993
Abstract
Multilingualism and Education are reviewed within the Greek context. In this connection the paper discusses quantitative and qualitative data of multilingualism, autochthonous and allochthonous languages, principles of territoriality versus individuality, multilingualism in language planning and in language politics, focusing on particularities of the educational system. It gives an overview of the multilingual situation in Greece, discussing minority issues and educational problems in this respect. It also offers a comparison with neighbouring countries on this matter. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation and with a presentation of further perspectives.
Keywords
- Multilingualism
- Sociolinguistics
- Greece
- Educational Sociolinguistics
- Language in Education, Policy and Planning
Metapragmatic awareness in EFL: Reporting speech-acts
-Sociolinguistics, Language TeachingJournal paperInternational Journal of Language Studies, 16(3), 1-32.
Discourse connectors and language learning materials
Connectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersJournal paperJournal of Applied Linguistics 3, 30-50, 1987
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is twofold: On the one hand, it is attempted to draw attention to the fact that there is a significant divergence of functions of connectives in speech from those of their counterparts in written language, and, on the other, to point out that, as learning materials are based mainly on sentence grammars, the former functions are in the main neglected in them. Furthermore, it is shown that most accounts of connectives are either rather general, or inadequate, as they gloss over significant functions of these linguistic items. More particularly, a distinction is drawn between two distinct uses of connectives, one relating to communicated or inferred aspects of the meaning encoded in their utterance acts, the other relating to their employment by participants in structuring and organizing the communication process itself. Finally, a plea is made that these facts be meticulously incorporated in learning materials.
Keywords
- Discourse Analysis
- Connectives
- Discourse Markers
- Discourse Coherence
- Discourse Cohesion
Ads-part of our lives. Linguistic awareness of powerful advertising
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperMultimodality Word & Image 13, 304-13, 1997
Abstract
It has been claimed (Cook 1988, ‘Stylistics with a dash of advertising’ Language & Style) that advertising too, just as literature, is characterized by poetic language, involving deviations such as metaphor, ambiguities, etc. I argue that even in the absence of such literary devices as metaphor, lexical or anaphoric ambiguity, double meanings, etc., advertising discourse still employs stylistic techniques ingeniously used in order to construct prospective consumers (Fairclough 1989, 1992). Moreover, it is suggested that ads are seen and act as powerful rhetorical arguments since their objective is persuasion and seduction.
Keywords
- Semiotics
- Visual Rhetoric
- Multimodal Discourse Analysis
- Multimodality
- Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
- Public Relations
- Advertising
- Advertising Discourse
- Discursive Rhetoric
A comment on the Article
-Semantics/PragmaticsJournal paperProceedings of 1st Symposium on English and Modern Greek. School of English, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 742-54, 1987
Abstract
In an attempt to give a solution to the problem of definite descriptions, Grice treats them as a special subclass of referential expressions whose existential presuppositions can be ‘explained away’ in terms of generalized conversational implicatures. To this end he employs the Russellian tripartite definition of definite descriptions, claiming that the first two clauses of it are regarded by the speaker as common ground, and therefore as not challengeable. He concludes that every use of the definite article implicates that the reference is to be taken ‘on trust’ (my emphasis). I argued that this is a reductionistic approach to the description of the use of the article because it does not address the problem in its right form as the parameters pertaining to the use of the article are, and should be, isolatable from speakers and their erratic or idiosyncratic implicatures and are rather affected by general principles governing their use. The main concern of this investigation, however, is to emphasize the significance of stereotypic knowledge we, as speakers and hearers, bring to bear on our use of the definite article. The relevant linguistic literature is reviewed. It is concluded that, although treating ‘definiteness’ within a sound framework, workers on the topic have in a large measure overlooked this point.
Keywords
- Reference
- H.P. Grice
- Anaphora
- Definite Article
- Frame Analysis
- Article Definiteness
- Keyword Analysis
- Existential Presuppositions
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Anaphoric Cohesive Relations
1995, Discourse Analysis [Ανάλυση Κειμένων]]. [in Greek]
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paper Linguistic Applications [Γλωσσικές Εφαρμογές], 1: 12-13, 1995
Abstract
Presentation of the field of Discourse analysis in a nutshell
Keywords
- Discourse Analysis
The relationship between Systematic Phonemics Phonological Rules and Systematic Phonetics: an overview
Journal paperViews on Language and Language Teaching, V {IX}. τόμ.2 σ.24-30, 1984
In Views on Language and Language Teaching, 1986, V {IX}. τόμ.2 σ.24-30
Why questions? The interrogative mode in Anne Bradstreet's 'The Flesh and the Spirit'
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAConference paperProceedings of 7th International Symposium on English and Greek. Comparison of the two languages. Thessaloniki: 29-44, 1993
Abstract
In this paper we examine Flesh’s interrogative mode in the poem. It is demonstrated that Flesh’s probing interrogatives unite form and function. They function to question Spirit about her beliefs through an iterated form of inverting propositional content. Continually hearing such a pattern, the ultimate effect can move spirit to invert normally declarative propositions. Then, ‘I do believe in God’ becomes ‘Do I believe in God?’
Keywords
- Rhetorical Analysis
- Linguistic Stylistics
- Questions
- Rhetorical Questions
- Interrogative Sentence Type
- Anne Bradstreet
- Early America
Concrete vs Abstract Phonology
Journal paperYearly Publication of Philosophy School, 1984 (287-295)
1984
The poetics of the message. [In Greek]
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAChapterIn S. Patsalidis and A. Nicolopoulou (eds). Melodrama: Discursive and Ideological Transformations. Thessaloniki, University Studio Press, 547-578, 2001
Abstract
In this paper I present the melodramatic use of language in various discourse types. I focus primarily on the discourse of advertising, jokes, cartoons, headlinese, fliers and news discourse.
Keywords
- Poetics
- Melodrama
- Linguistic Analysis
- Cognitive Poetics (as such)
- Multimodality
- Social Semiotics
- Advertising Discourse
Logomachia in Anne Bradstreet's 'The Flesh and the Spirit'
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAChapterIn: E. Douka-Kabitoglou (ed.) Logomachia: Forms of Opposition in English Language/Literature. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University, 61-79, 1994
Abstract
This paper proposes a partial linguistic analysis of Anne Bradstreet’s poem. We examine it from the pragmastylistic point of view, not in an interpretative or evaluative fashion, but rather with a view to contributing to a certain level of its interpretation. The linguist’s contribution, as we see it, is to start from an evaluation or a specific level of interpretation of the poem or text and work her way through the means in an effort to enhance appreciation and understanding. The analysis will primarily address the issue of the logomachia between the two sisters and the issue of the substantiality of the Spirit’s claims. It will consider the impact of the lexical choices made as constituting the coordinates of the text which determine the response of the reader.
Keywords
- Linguistic Stylistics
- Deixis
- Spatial Deixis
- Puritan Poetry
- Anne Bradstreet
- Literary Analysis
- Temporal Deixis
- Early America
- The Flesh and the Spirit
- Lexical Opposition
Constructing an identity. The significance of sui-referential markers in 'The Flesh and the Spirit'
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperGramma 3, 27-40, 1995
Abstract
According to a widely accepted interpretation, Bradstreet’s poem ‘The Flesh and the Spirit’ reflects the clash of feeling and dogma in her poetry (Rosenfeld 1983), or it constitutes the “most definite statement of Christian hope”, while at the same time it is “probably her strongest assertion of doubt of the reality of the insubstantial” (Stanford 1974: 85). In earlier work (Kitis and Mehler Language & Style 25, 2; Kitis and Mehler 1994) we argued that this interpretation is sustained and borne out by the discourse of the poem. We offered a linguistic-stylistic analysis of the poem concentrating on the context constructed by the deixis of the discourse. It was also noted there that the use of deictic sui-referential markers generating subject positions is consequential for the same level of interpretation of the poem. However, we did non take up the point in any detail. In this paper, I examine the logomachia between the two sisters, the two sides of a self – the Flesh and the Spirit – through the subject positions generated by the use of deictic self-referential pronouns. A psychoanalytic perspective is adopted.
Keywords
- Linguistic and Literary Stylistics
- Semiotics
- Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
- Puritan Poetry
- Anne Bradstreet
- Deixis and Anaphora
- Sui-Referential Deixis
A frame-theoretic interpretation of Anne Sexton's poem 'Buying the whore'
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAConference paperProceedings of 11th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, ed. S. Efstathiadis and A. Tsangalidis, Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 121-129, 1997
Abstract
This paper provides further evidence that a cognitive approach to poetry interpretation, based on frame theory, as developed within the framework of Cognitive Science, is not only feasible, but also yields new insights. This approach is demonstrated by way of analysing a poem, Anne Sexton’s ‘Buying The Whore’. In this type of interpretation, the emphasis is laid on what can be called existential holism: interpretation, although sparked off by textual elements, is primarily based on shared knowledge of the world and its reception and comprehension in terms of systematically organized components, frames and scripts, rather than on atomistic, often idiosyncratic, inferencing processing. This type of interpretation, therefore, is neither text-centred or -bound, nor inference-centred. It is holistic in that it evolves from systematic and comprehensive shared background knowledge of the surrounding world—the cosmic environment in which the poem is born and sustained in life—and the way this knowledge has to be reorganized on the basis of textual stimuli
Keywords
- Poetry
- Linguistic Stylistics
- Cognitive Linguistics,
- Anne Sexton
- Frame Analysis
- Cognitive Stylistics
Human absurdity and empty idealism in Brendan Behan's 'The Quare Fellow'
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperDepartment of English Yearbook. Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 42-50, 1991
Abstract
Behan’s work, and particularly ‘The Quare Fellow’, shares a twofold message: art is an agent of truth and the truth about society and the individual is that they have lost all moral being. Criticism is directed at both the individual and society for appropriating mechanisms of power and constructs of truth that make life easier but shallower. This claim is substantiated by analysing an excerpt from the play primarily in terms of the characters’ speech acts.
Keywords
- Brendan Behan,
- Speech acts
- Linguistic and Literary Stylistics
- Semiotics
- Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
- The Quare Fellow
A counter-proposal for the translation of poetry. Commenting on David Ricks' translation of Kariotakis
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperTranslation/Pragmatics/CognitionMetafrasi 5, 173-182, 1999
[In Greek, ΜΙΑ ΑΝΤΙΠΡΟΤΑΣΗ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΙΗΤΙΚΗ ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΗ: σχολιάζοντας τη μετάφραση (ή ερμηνευτική μετάφραση) του Καρυωτάκη από τον David Ricks]
Abstract
This is a critical comment on David Ricks’ translation of Kariotakis (1998). I demonstrate that by depriving his translation of the double-speared arrow of the original, pointing both upwards and downwards, Ricks impoverishes the textual world created in his translation and thus reduces the wide range of interpretations sustained by the original. It is argued that translators should pay particular attention to creating equivalently broad textual worlds.
Keywords
- Poetry
- K. G. Kariotakis
- Critical Theory
- Translation Theory
- Cognitive Worlds
- Textual World
The semiotization of frames in interpretation [in Greek]
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAChapterIn: G. Paschalidis and E. Hondolidou (eds) Semiotics and Culture,VI. Thessaloniki, Paratiritis, 212-223, 2001
Abstract
On the assumption that there is hardly a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning, in this study I show how meaning is derived in its contextualization in frames and scripts. I demonstrate this by way of analysing mostly cartoons. I suggest that the nebulous notion of ‘context’ needs to be gradually and systematically replaced by well structured frames.
Keywords
- Contextualization,
- Frames and Scripts
- Frames of Knowledge
Hellas. Dialect and school
-Sociolinguistics, Language TeachingJournal paperJournal of Applied Linguistics 7, 97-113, 1991
Abstract
This paper discusses the present language situation in the context of Greece with an emphasis on problematic issues in Education. It is stressed that the Greek language is rather homogeneous but it is added that dialectal variation in it has been mostly studied from the point of view of phonetic and morphological or at the most lexical variation while little attention has been paid to sociological correlates of variation. It reviews the present situation in the school context and remarks that appreciation of dialectal variation should be appreciated by educators. To this end attitudes need to be changed towards sociological aspects of language variation.
Keywords
- Educational Research,
- Modern Greece
- Multilingual Education
Van Oirsouw on coordinated sentences
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkers Proceedings of 3rd Symposium on the Description and/or Comparison Of English and Greek, School of English, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 304-14, 1989
Abstract
Van Oirsouw (1983) proposes a syntactic criterion to assess semantic relations holding between coordinated sentences. On the basis of this criterion he distinguishes four distinct types of coordination, which he calls: a. Identity, b. Ordered, c. Concomitant and d. Coincidental Coordination. This paper demonstrates that Van Oirsouw’s claim to the four types is unfounded and, hence, his theory is inadequate. Instead, it is argued that his syntactic criteria might at best afford a method whereby coordinated sentences can be classified in order of decreased acceptability.
Keywords
- Connectives
- Coordination
- Conjuctions
Can we define a category of conjunctive elements?
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkers Working Papers in General and Applied Linguistics. 2, ed. A. Kakouriotis, School of English, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 42-50, 1991
Abstract
With relation to conjunction I examine the notion of category and I look at it from different angles in an attempt to define it. I raise the question whether it is worth dealing with categorial notions at all at the more realistic level of investigating language structure-cum-use.
Keywords
- Connectives
Some preliminary remarks on the Greek causal conjunctions jati, dioti and epeidi
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkers Proceedings of 8th International Symposium on English and Greek. School of English, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 305-18, 1994
Abstract
The main causal conjunctions in subordinate structures in Modern Greek according to Tzartzanos (1989) are jati, dioti, epeidi and pu. In this paper I make some preliminary observations on the first three. I examine their distribution and look at their functions and their grammatical properties.
Keywords
- Greek Language,
- Causal Discourse Markers
- Greek causal connectives
Further remarks on causal connectives [in Greek]
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersStudies in Greek Linguistics (ΜΕΓ, Μελετες για την Ελληνικη Γλωσσα) 17, Volume: Studies in Greek Linguistics 17, 424-37,1997
Abstract
This study is a continuation of Kitis (1994). The three main causal connectives, jati, dioti and epeidi are further examined in terms of their distribution and the implications derived thereof. Although they are not freely interchangeable, they are all translated as because in English. I discuss differences of semantic meaning and differences in terms of their function. It is concluded that accounts of their linguistic behaviour can be particularly informed by an appreciation of earlier meanings and processes conjunctions went through.
Keywords
- Causality
- Modern Greek Language
- Causal Connectives
- Greek connectives
2001, Η διδασκαλία των Ξένων Γλωσσών και Επικοινωνία [in Greek]
-Sociolinguistics, Language TeachingConference paperProceedings of annual conference of PALSO, 60 years of Foreign Language Teaching in Greece (2001))
Published version of invited talk to PALSO’s annual conference (1999)
Keywords: ELT
Specific and general remarks on subordinating connectives of Modern Greek
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersStudies in Greek Linguistics (ΜΕΓ, Μελετες για την Ελληνικη Γλωσσα) 20, 222-233, 2000
Abstract
In this study I focus on some phenomena characterizing the use of certain subordinating connectives of Modern Greek, which have not to date been noted in grammar books or studies. More specifically, I consider the nature of connection of what have been traditionally regarded as subordinative connectives (eno), and I claim that there is a shift towards co-ordinate connection in their use in everyday speech, which is associated with semantic bleaching. The findings bear significantly on the widely entertained hypothesis of unidirectionality in grammaticalization processes.
Keywords
- Greek Language
- Connectives
- Greek Grammar
- Subordination
- Discourse Marker
The case of some temporal subordinative connectives: Existential and universal quantifiers [in Greek]
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersProceedings of 4th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, Cyprus, Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 268-276, 2001
Abstract
In this paper, I concentrate on one aspect of the interconnection between two temporal subordinate connectives of Modern Greek, otan and afu, and their translational equivalents in English, when and since. Their distinct uses are accounted for in terms of their potential as quantification operators. Otan is claimed to also function as a universal quantification operator, while afu, on the other hand, is characterized as a bound existential one. Their distinct evolutions are presumed to have played a decisive role in this respect.
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Connectives
- Temporality
- Greek Grammar
- Subordination
- Discourse Connectives
- Modern Greek Language
- Greek subordinators
- Existential and Universal Quantifiers
Review of the linguistics section (2000)
Review5th National Congress of the Hellenic Semiotic Society. IASS-AIS Bulletin-Annual '97-'00
Incorporated in K. Lagopoulou-Boklund “Review of ‘Semiotics and Culture’”, 5th National Congress of the Hellenic Semiotic Society. IASS-AIS Bulletin-Annual ’97-’00
Dynamical systems as a metaphor in linguistics. The case of two connectives of Modern Greek, 'eno' and kathos'
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersIn Eliza Kitis (ed.). The Other Within. VII: Aspects of Language and Culture. Thessaloniki: A.A.Altintzis, 87-102, 2001
Introduction
Introduction
The two connectives: ‘ενώ/eno’ and ‘καθώς/kathos’
‘eno’ and ‘kathos’ as temporal connectives: eno, kathos
‘eno’ as a contrastive connective
‘kathos’ as a causal connective
Language and dynamical systems
Discrete functions
Continuous functions
Conclusion
Works Cited
Keywords
- Greek Language
- Discourse Markers
- Metaphor
- Subordination
- Connectives Eno Kathos
25. Conventional implicature revisited
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDA-Semantics/PragmaticsJournal paper(Excerpt from EK's 1982 thesis), presented at 1st IPrA conference, 1985. Published in Working Papers in Linguistics and Literature, Department of English, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 109-25, 1989.
Abstract
This is a critique of Grice’s proposal to treat both ‘but’ and ‘therefore’ in terms of his account of conventional implicature. ‘Therefore’ and ‘but’, the two paradigms of conventional implicature on Grice’s view, are examined closely and are shown to behave in diverse ways. Firstly, ‘therefore’ is shown to have at least two distinct uses: the explanatory and the inferential. A Gricean account is shown to be unable to satisfactorily handle the inferential use of ‘therefore’. Secondly, ‘but’ and ‘therefore’, which on Grice’s view are instances of the same phenomenon, are clearly shown to exhibit dissimilarities in their behaviour, demolishing his unitary treatment. Various tests are employed to this purpose. Moreover, it is pointed out that Grice is not consistent in his claim concerning what constitutes conventional implicata. His account is found to be partly implausible, as regards his treatment of ‘therefore’, and partly inadequate, as it fails to take into account the wide ranging function of ‘but’ – his paradigm of conventional implicature – but, instead treats its variable meaning aspects as invariable, conventional implicature. (This is an excerpt from EK’s 1982 thesis, presented at 1st IPrA conference, 1985)
Keywords
- Connectives
- Discourse Markers
- H.P. Grice
- Conventional Implicature
- Implicated Meanings
- But and Therefore
Constructional modus ponens: The case of antinomial when-construction
-Semantics/PragmaticsConstruction Grammarunpublished MS, completed 2002
My objective in this paper is to present evidence for the claim that explanatory models of linguistic phenomena need to include constructs whereby a theory can associate semantic and pragmatic interpretation principles with syntactic configurations larger than those corresponding to simple sentences. I focus on a certain type of when-clauses, which cannot be accommodated within current accounts, and try to tease out the various competing forces that contribute to the generation of its construction very much in Kay’s (1997, ch. 8) fashion. I identify and fill in a template, corresponding to the enlarged when-clause’s syntactic pattern coupled with its semantic characteristics and pragmatic interpretation and function.
Moreover, I claim that it is precisely the properties identified here and their concurrent function as a constructional unit that contribute to, and indeed generate, its potential for rhetorical use. In fact, the when-construction that will emerge here is a prime rhetorical construction as well. We will discover that we need to look on when-clauses such as the ones identified here, not in a compositional perspective, but as constructions that would also include the main clause in order to provide an adequate account of their use and rhetorical potential. Moreover, this when-construction is a case of a configuration in which propositional attitude meaning and evaluative attitudes are not encoded or lexicalized, but rather emerge as the sum total of the complex configuration of propositional meaning. Thus this construction can be claimed to constitute a subjectivity structure in the sense that it orients towards certain conclusions.
Introduction. In The Other Within. VII: Aspects of Language and Culture.
-Semantics/PragmaticsConference paperIntroduction. In Eliza Kitis (ed.). The Other Within. VII: Aspects of Language and Culture. Thessaloniki: A.A.Altintzis, 1-8, 2001
Abstract
Put rather crudely, there are two basic ways of analyzing language. One way is to view language as an externalized artifact used by the human being that can be studied in abstraction from other domains of knowledge and in isolation from the human being. Another way is to study it as a body of knowledge within the minds or brains of its users (cf. Jackendoff, 1997). This latter view places the study of language within psychology and not only. Schematizing in a rather relentless way the whole landscape of the study of language, we can assume that in the philosophy of language of primarily the first half of the 20th century, as well as in linguistics of a structuralist bias, it is the former method of analysis that can be regarded as dominant, while more recent trends in linguistics have adopted a perspective more congenial to the latter view. In this introduction, I try to rationalize the title of the volume in the field of linguistics.
Keywords
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Temporality and causality: The case of Greek subordinating connectives
Connectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersJournal paperRevue de Semantique et Pragmatique, 8,121-141, 2000
Abstract
Introduction: Language is the picture of reality. The aim of the paper falls within the framework of examining how this picture of the world is imprinted in linguistic matter. Connectives, as semantic artefacts, connect propositions, the latter depicting events, states of affairs, relations, etc. In this function, connectives function as articulators joining together in a number of relations those propositions portraying the world. It is, therefore, not totally unwarranted to start examining the linguistic connectives by reflecting upon the human perception and conception of physical ‘reality’. Space, time and cause: Teasing out the various strands of relations between events, we can say that the basic primitive relations are the locative or spatial and the temporal. The meanings of various connectives of the Greek language seem to reflect this linear development of relations in the physical and psychological world. Temporal connectives of Modern Greek. Connection of causality Temporal ‘afu’. Causal ‘afu’. The etymology of ‘afu’. The spatial origin of ‘afu’. Temporal connectives of English. Temporal ‘since’. Causal ‘since’. The etymology of ‘since’. The spatial projection of ‘since’. Temporal connectives with causal meanings originating from reference to substantives. Conditionality, contrastingness. From lexical meanings to grammatical categories, From the concrete domain to the abstract domain, From conceptual meaning to procedural meaning. From parataxis to hypotaxis to subordination to coordination. Conclusion. References.
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Connectives
- Discourse Markers
- Temporality
- Ancient Greek Language
- Spatiality
- Spatial and Temporal Reasoning
- Subordination
- Modern Greek Language
- Spatial and temporal metaphor
Connectives and subjectivity: comparison of connectives 'an' and 'ama'
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersStudies in Greek Linguistics (ΜΕΓ, Μελετες για την Ελληνικη Γλωσσα) 22, 365-376, 2002
[in Greek’ ΣΥΝΔΕΣΜΟΙ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΟΚΕΙΜΕΝΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ. ΣΥΓΚΡΙΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝΔΕΣΜΩΝ ΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΆΜΑ ]
Abstract
This paper is motivated by Nikiforidou and Katis’s (2000) (henceforth N&K) claim that the two conditional connectives an(if) and ama(if/when) of Modern Greek differ in respect of subjectivity as involvement signalled by the latter while the former (an) is neutral. They also claim that ama, despite its temporal origin, which they acknowledge, is currently used solely as a conditional connective in non-dialectal speech. I take issue with both their claims and, relying on real data, as indeed they also do, I demonstrate that, first, contrary to
their claims, ama can be used solely as a temporal connective in speech that cannot be judged dialectal. Second, that, if we are to categorize one of these two connectives as signalling speaker involvement with the proposition it introduces, it would be an rather than ama that would lay claim to that, as an is amply used in wishes and emotional speech. I agree, however, that the two connectives cannot often be free variants, but for a totally different reason. An lacks the ‘temporal meaning residue’ of ama, which in my view is the
meaning differential between the two. I substantiate this claim by considering real data and I proceed to enumerate types of conditional construction (symmetrical, rhetorical, cleft, concessive, etc.) in which ama does not have a place or use. I claim that, rather than invoking unnecessarily ad hoc notions, such as speaker involvement, as N&K do, the functions -or their absence- of ama are semantically motivated by its ‘temporal meaning retention’. Besides, ama’s overwhelming use in speech and its almost total absence from written language is attributed by N&K to its marking emotional involvement, while I suggest that an explanation be better sought in the view that spoken language involves the temporal dimension while written language invokes a local spatial metaphor.
Keywords
- Discourse Markers
- Conditionals
- Subjectivity
- Subordination
- Adversative conditional connectives
- Hypothetical If
On the Modern Greek conditional connective an, or towards restoring the image of the Greek culture.
Conference paperConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkers14th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Dept ofEnglish, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, April 2002, Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2002
Abstract
There has been a claim regarding the monosemicity or un-ambiguousness of the connective αν/an of Modern Greek (MG), as compared to its translational equivalent if in English – with the additional claim that the Greek culture is far less ambiguous than the English (Athanasiadou, 1997). In this paper, my aim is to restore the picture of the MG conditional connective αν/an, οn the basis of an examination of real data, demonstrating that, despite the existence of connectives such as ενώ, ‘while’, αφού, ‘since’, and άμα ‘if’[cond.temporal]), MG αν can function, not only as a conditional connective, but also as a concessive and adversative one, signifying factuality as well, just like its English counterpart. Moreover, I will advance the thesis that both English if and MG αν are used in contrastive and concessive contexts, as well as conditional ones, as strategic devices of rhetorical structures.
Keywords
- Discourse Markers
- Conditionals,
- Modern Greek Language,
- Adversativity,
- Adversative conditional connectives,
- Greek subordinators,
- Greek connectives
- Concessive Conditional: Greek
The dependent in subordination. [in Greek]
-Aspect & SubordinationConference paperIn C. Clairis (ed.). Recherches en Linguistique Grecque, VI. Paris: L’Harmattan, 309-312, 2002
Abstract
The dependent, as defined in Holton et al. 1997, may appear in a number of subordinate contexts in which it contrasts not only with various other forms but also with the form tha+dependent. This latter contrast tends to be ignored in earlier and more recent descriptions of the language – and the implication is that there is in fact no contrast involved in the alternation between otan grapso/otan tha grapso, an grapso/an tha grapso. For the most part, this paper is an attempt to investigate the nature of this contrast and to suggest some ways in which the occurrence of the dependent in such contexts may be predicted and its behaviour explained.
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Modality
- Greek Grammar
- Modern Greek Language
- Future Tense
- The Dependent (tense-Aspect)
- TAM-linguistics
Review of 'How to express yourself with a causal connective. Subjectivity and causal connectives in Dutch, German and French' by Mirna Pit, Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2003. 360 pp.
Connectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersJournal paperReviewJournal of Pragmatics, 38(4), 593–599, 2006
Keywords
- Causality
- Causal Connectives
- Causal Discourse Markers
Expressivity as an option of tense-aspect in language: The case of Modern Greek imperfective past
-Aspect & SubordinationChapterIn S. Marmaridou, E. Antonopoulou and V. Nikiforidou (eds). Reviewing Linguistic Thought: Perspectives into the 21st Century. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005, 142-63, 2005
Abstract
There is an extensive literature on the main tense and aspect options and their configurations in Modern Greek (hereafter MG) as well as on their core meanings and functions. In this paper, we examine cases in which the predicted tense-aspect configurations are violated, and highlight the reasons that lead to this violation. We locate the motivation for these violations, on one hand, in the realm of the subjectivity of the speaker or narrator who imposes his/her own stance on what is being said or written, and, on the other, in the realm of rhetoricity. We explore the speaker’s options in registering their perspective of, and comment on, the content of the utterance, as these options are expressed morphologically and / or lexically through the tense-aspect system of the language and specifically of MG. In particular, we are concerned with instances in which the MG tense-aspect system is transcended, or even subverted, rather than observed, in order to project within the bare diegetic axis another dimension, enabling the narrating persona to add a personal commentary on, or an evaluation of, the fabula, or the reported or narrated event, or even to inscribe their own subjective involvement with it. In the realm of rhetoricity, on the other hand, we demonstrate how the speaker can overlay the diegetic voice with another voice reflecting their own stance towards the fabula, or even with a multiplicity of voices or points of view. In effect, we investigate how aspectual configurations that are normally disallowed in the system can be exploited in order to infuse a multiplicity of voices, effecting a multifunctionality of discourse and creating a polyphonic text.
The level that is the focus of our investigation of tense-aspect configurations in MG is not that of referentiality in language but rather that of expressivity. We believe that the former level cannot provide a platform for a fruitful examination of the phenomena observed in our data, while the level of expressivity can accommodate violations of predicted configurations, since such violations are motivated by the subjectivity of the speaking/narrating subject or persona, or by rhetorical expediency. The methodology adopted in our approach blends various levels of analysis as morphological and lexical configurations can often be explained at the intersection of various domains.
Keywords
- Rhetoric
- Tense and Aspect Systems
- Evaluation
- Stance
- Appraisal
- Emotional Expressivity
- Subjectivity in language
Aspect and performativity (in Greek)
-Aspect & SubordinationChapterSixth International Conference of Greek Linguistics
Abstract
The paper discusses the different manifestations of explicit performatives in English and Greek from the point of view of aspectual choices. The two languages seem to select different options: whereas English uses the simple present to guarantee the completion of the act, the use of the imperfective present in Greek seems to be more problematic. It is argued that both languages
favour the morphologically unmarked non-past form to describe a present realis act. Thus, our results corroborate the thesis that performatives need not be analyzed as declarations but can instead be derived from statements.
Keywords
- Performativity
- Tense and Aspect Systems
- Speech Act Theory
- Lexical aspect
- Perfective and Imperfective Aspect
Additional Information
The paper can be accessed online and is also available in CD-ROM format (ISBN: 960-88268-0-2).2004.
Don DeLillo’s 'The Body Artist'. Time, Language and Grief.
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperJanus Head 12: 1, 222-242, 2011
Abstract
Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist portrays a world inhabited by characters whose unified, other-proof subjectivity crumbles around them to reveal the basic fibres of the biological, organicist body as this is mutated across bodies and projected across images. Such sameness and connection are primarily played out in the language and the style used. The paper examines linguistic techniques such as the use of logical conjunction (e.g., ‘and’) and causal connectives, such as ‘because’, which instead of signalling causality, constantly rephrases the same as an expanded other, thus effectively subverting our common sense perceptions. In this context, the absence of representational means of identity resulting in the redefinition of Lauren’s subjectivity on a broader biological plane also reconciles her to the grief felt at her husband’s death. “The Body Artist is about time, language and grief” DeLillo, 27 May 2003
Keywords
- Literary Criticism
- Deixis
- Don DeLillo
- Linguistic and Literary Stylistics
- Semiotics
- Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
- Autistic Language
The pragmatic infrastructure of translation.
Journal paperTranslation/Pragmatics/CognitionTradução e Comunicação - Revista Brasileira de Tradutores 18, 63-86, 2009
Abstract
In this paper, I consider the various levels of analysis of language from a pragmatic viewpoint, and show how they contribute in distinct ways that need to be taken into account in translating into another language. These pragmatic levels are regarded as constituting the infrastructure of the translation process, and, it is claimed, raised awareness of their multifunctionality in this process must be visible in the translation product. We will focus on the lexical level, the phrasal, and then the sentential, but most importantly, we will need to pay particular attention to the level of performativity, as speakers and writers alike perform in language rather than just speak, write/narrate or translate. However, the ultimate concern will be the desired equivalence, not as has been viewed in most cases at the linguistic level, but at the level of cognition. In other words, our concern will be with the desired equivalence between the cognitive world that is constructed by the text-world in the TL (Target Language) and that of the text of the SL (Source Language). This view takes on board that the text worlds created by all the linguistic features in the specific contexts of their production and consumption also construct specific cognitive worlds, and equivalence should be operative at this metalinguistic level. Indeed, particular attention must be paid to the sub-textual level, as unarticulated constituents and other non-encoded, but meant, concepts ‘penetrate’ and shape perceptions and interpretations of texts. These ‘unarticulated’ infiltrations need to be ‘transferred’ into the text in the TL. Keywords: textual world, cognitive world, performativity, speech acts, implicature, unarticulated constituents
Keywords
- Translation Studies
- Pragmatics
- Translation theory
- Translation
- Pragmatics in Translation
Causality and Subjectivity: The causal connectives of Modern Greek
ChapterConnectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersIn Hanna Pishwa (ed.). Language and memory: Aspects of knowledge representation. Series: Trends in Linguistics. Berlin, NY: Mouton de Gruyter, 223-267; ISBN: 978-3-11-018977-3, 2006
Keywords
- Connectives
- Discourse Markers
- Subjectivity In Discourse
- Grammaticalization
- Causality
- Subjectivity
- Discourse Connectives
- Causal Connectives
This 2001 review pdf presents selectively two main strands in pragmatics, that of Speech Act Theory introduced by Austin and developed by Searle, and that of Grice’s Logic and Conversation. However, it is claimed here that these two distinct (but in some ways interconnected) strands in the philosophy of language originally (as at the time there was no field of pragmatics) that opened up new vistas in the field of pragmatics originate and take cue from the two lines of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, the earlier and later Wittgenstein. So this study initially presents the roots of pragmatics as originating from the two Wittgensteins; it presents, in very crude terms, both the earlier and later Wittgenstein, mostly in graphic terms to make content intelligible even if poignantly simplified (it was written to address mainly MA students). It then takes you through the two main theoretical strands in pragmatics connecting them up to each of the two Wittgensteinean philosophies, and ends with relevance theory further developing Gricean pragmatics. Understandably, it is horribly incomplete and selective. There’s an annotated bibliography at the end.
From motion to emotion to interpersonal function. The case of 'fear' predicates.
-Semantics/PragmaticsChapter(pre-publication version with wrong pagination and some mistakes).In Hanna Pishwa (ed.) Language and Social Cognition. Berlin, NY: Mouton DeGruyter, 433-454, 2009
(pre-publication version with slightly wrong pagination and some mistakes)
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Cognitive Semantics
- Fear
- Performativity
- Emotions (Social Psychology)
- Lexical Semantics
- Grammaticalization
- Pragmaticalization and Grammaticalization
- Fear Predicates
Emotions as discursive constructs: the case of the psych-verb 'fear'
-Semantics/PragmaticsChapterIn Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk & Katarzyna Dziwirek (eds). Studies in Cognitive Corpus Linguistics. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 147-172, 2009.
Abstract
In this paper, I concentrate on emotion predicates (fear psych-verbs) and trace back their original meanings to the domain of action (motion) rather than emotion. I show that emotional meanings are initially parasitic on actional predicates denoting external behaviour, whose senses gradually give way to emotional meanings as causative constructions give way to non-causative ones. In this sense, emotion meanings can be seen as outgrowths of action or motion meanings. Moreover, emotion predicates examined here are shown to have developed various syntactic constructions utilized in discourse to express not just emotions, but also a variety of cognitive functions approximating other cognitively weighted verbs of thinking, etc., and specific speech acts. The findings of this study may have implications for Wierzbicka’s research. If the original meanings of emotion verbs are to be found in their initial uses to signify motion rather than emotion, how can we claim that certain configurations of assumed universal cognitive cross-cultural concepts, such as ‘think’ and ‘feel’, will yield the emotion concepts encoded in lexemes fear and afraid? Besides, at which stage can we sever these lexical items (and/or their corresponding concepts) from their evolutionary course and, hence, from their variability of meaning and functions? Moreover, using conceptual primitives may go some way towards constructing a semantic analysis, but leaves off exactly where language takes over, i.e., when language is put to use. I show that emotion terms have multifunctionality in discourse, which remains unaccounted for in Wierzbicka’s theory. Emotions in this perspective can be seen as discursive constructs reflecting institutionalized evolutionary processes. In effect, this paper presents evidence for the need to merge the cognitive with the functional aspects of language
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Corpus Linguistics
- Cognitive Linguistics
- Lexical Semantics
- Action Theory
- Performativity of Language
- Fear Predicates
- Fear Verbs
Connectives and frame theory: The case of hypotextual antinomial ‘and'
Connectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersJournal paperPragmatics & Cognition 8(2):357-409, 2000.
Abstract
In this study I examine some uses of connectives, and in particular co-ordinate conjunction, from a critical discourse perspective; these uses, in my view, cannot find a satisfactory explanation within current frameworks. It is suggested that we need to identify a conceptual level at which connectives function as hypo-textual signals, activating systematic law-like conditional statements (IF-THEN), which form default specifications of consistent structured knowledge frames. I argue that an account of connectives at the conceptual level of their function that does not take into consideration such tightly structured background schemata, representing both general knowledge and ideologies, cannot afford any generality. As a result, `deviant’ or `subversive’ uses of these connectives can neither be identified as such nor find an adequately general explication within existing accounts, whereas in the proposed framework such uses find a ready explanation of sufficient generality. This framework lies at the intersection of disciplines: Linguistic pragmatics (empirical pragmatics, critical discourse analysis), on the one hand, and cognitive science, on the other. Consequently, this proposal, too, can be regarded as a plea for crossing boundaries and joining forces.
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Attribution Theory
- Discourse Markers
- Relevance Theory
- Coordination
- Frame Analysis
- Semantic Change
- Contrastive Connectives
- Conjunctions
- Speaker’s Stance
Read it and believe it: How metaphor constructs ideology in news discourse. A case study
-Discourse Analysis, Stylistics, CDAJournal paperMultimodality Journal of Pragmatics 28, 557-590, 1997
Abstract
Although it may be argued that critical linguistics needs to examine language as discourse, i.e., as text embedded in the social conditions of production and interpretation, to be independently identified and examined as the text is subordinated to them (Fairclough, 1992; Hodge and Kress, 1988), we claim that a thorough linguistic analysis, employing all the methods and tools which the discipline provides, is in a large measure revealing of such conditions. However, to yield such results, i.e., to unravel these conditions and their contribution to the generation of ideological complexes, a linguistic analysis should not be restricted to viewing grammatical units as isolated sentences or smaller structures within the text, as has been the case in traditional approaches, but rather examine such grammatical and lexical structures as being incorporated in the overall formation of the text. Moreover, the focus should be primarily on higher-level organizational features as well as on rhetorical structures and semantic and pragmatic relations as they contribute to the general style of the text, thus yielding desired versions of reality and ideologies.We substantiate this claim by analyzing an article published in Time (October 12, 1992) entitled Greece’s defense seems just silly. While paying close attention to both the grammatical and lexical structures of the text, our analysis views these structures within the framework of a constructed metaphor which not only permeates and dominates the whole article, but also forms the backbone of its argumentative structure. What is foregrounded, moreover, in this multi-level analysis is a preponderance of certain assumptions of an ideological nature, which, although they do not form part of the formal structure of the text, are aspects of interpretations surreptitiously cued into the subtext of the text.
Keywords
- Critical Discourse Studies
- Pragmatics
- Politics
- Political Discourse Analysis
- Journalese English
- Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
On relevance again: From philosophy of language across ‘pragmatics and power’ to global relevance
-Semantics/PragmaticsJournal paperJournal of Pragmatics, 31, 643-667, 1999
Abstract
This paper, largely motivated by Harris (1995), revisits the issue of the Cooperative Prin-ciple and, in particular, relevance. I would, firstly, like to note that even before the emergence of empirical pragmatics and critical discourse analysis there had been raised, albeit within a philosophical perspective, some questions relating to language and power and the universal-ity across discourses of the CP. Secondly, I would like to draw attention to the pervasive nature of the maxim of relevance, which, however, needs to be seen at a global level as a forceful social parameter governing linguistic communication or ‘transaction’ and as contin-gent on typifications of social situations described in terms of cognitive knowledge structures. It is claimed that, just as language is firmly placed within structured social domains or events, so too linguistic behaviour within them is structured and largely predictable as enjoined by the structure of those events and domains, represented in our conceptual world. The paper argues for the postulation of a socially determined supermaxim of Global Relevance, embed-ded within the actional structure of representations of events. As a consequence, a more com-plete account of what has been called the Cooperative Principle has to lie at the intersection of a cognitive theory and a social theory of language use. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Discourse Analysis
- Pragmatics
- Relevance Theory
- Genre Theory
- Frames and Scripts
Conditional constructions as rhetorical structures
Connectives/Subordination/DiscourseMarkersJournal paperWorking Papers in Linguistics. Ed. Eliza Kitis. Dept of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University. Thessalonki: A.A. Altintzis, 30-51, 2004
Abstract
In this paper I will look into conditional constructions as rhetorical constructions used in discourse. Conditionality is almost tantamount to unassertability (Comrie 1986, Dancygier 1998), and hence one would naturally think that in discourse conditional constructions would not have a great role to play in cases in which epistemic distance is not required. While accepting this generally held view in broad terms, I will nevertheless try to demonstrate that despite the common property of unassertability characterizing conditional constructions, in fact, we often use conditional constructions, not in order to register epistemic distance, but rather to enhance the assertability of the apodosic proposition of the construction, and fuse in the if-clause a pluralization of voices. I will argue for a class of conditional constructions whose protasic propositions are not treated as precarious assumptions or context propositions generally presenting insecure knowledge, but rather as exctracted or dislocated constituents of the clause of the apodosis, developed into full conditional clauses and regarded as focalized topics. I will argue that this class of conditionals, which I will call pseudocleft conditionals, needs to be viewed as a separate construction whose analysis will also involve the description of the rhetorical discourse function that determines its construction.
Keywords
- Conditionals
- Conditionals as Rhetorical Structures
- If-Clauses
A comment on John Hawkins' 'A note on referent identifiability and co-presence'
-Semantics/PragmaticsJournal paperJournal of Pragmatics, 1987
Abstract
With reference to John Hawkins’ article ‘A note on referent identifiability and co-presence’ in the Journul of Pragmatics 8: (1984), I would like to point out that the main point therein made by the author, which, although not clearly stated, was basically an improvement on his 1978 thesis, had been previously made in Kitis (1982), although my point of departure there (to criticize Grice’s notion of generalized conversationa! implicature) was quite different; namely Hawkins draws on results from work in the field of Artificial Intelligence in order to explain reference facts which resisted the analysis proposed in his 1978 book. However, Hawkins still overlooks the fact that in (2) (his numbering) (2) ‘The man drove past our house in a car. The dog was barking furiously’. the definite reference ‘the dog’ will be associated not with the ‘car frame’, as Hawkins thinks he is forced to assume (hence the question-mark), but with the ‘household frame’ triggered by the expression ‘house’, i.e., what you have here is the concurrent activation of two scripts, a fact which Hawkins totally overlooks. It is worth noting that most jokes depend on such a concurrent activation of two conflicting frames or scripts within the same talk exchange. Moreover. Hawkins applies the frame idea far too broadly. Arguing against Clark and Marshall’s (1981) condition of indirect identifiability, he claims instead that “what is both necessary and sufficient [for the appropriate use of ‘the’] is recognition of the appropriate uniqueness set or frame” (p. 653). As a result he wants to group together as far as successful/appropriate reference is concerned such cases of definite reference as those in (14), (16) and (I 7) (Kitis (1982)): (14) Don’t go in there, chum. The dog will bite you. (16) Don’t go in there, chum ,?The wolf/mouse will bite you.
Keywords
- Reference
- Anaphora
- Definite Article
- Frame Analysis
- Definiteness
When Relevance saves
-Semantics/PragmaticsConference paperProceedings of 12th International Symposium of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, VI: Papers on Theoretical Linguistics, ed. S. Lambropoulou, 225-35, 1998
Abstract
In this paper I wish to address one or two problems related to the treatment of natural language connectives within the framework of Relevance theory. In particular, I will address the problem of the constrainability of the theory while I will only just raise the problem of globality. I take the view that while Relevance theory may well provide an initial first order treatment of connectives it is incapable of accounting for the most interesting aspects of their meanings and functions on grounds of the maxim of Relevance alone as this would posit no independent constraints beyond the competence of the individual speaker.
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Relevance Theory
- Semantic Change
- Contrastive Connectives
- Temporal Subordinators
The case of 'fovame'[fear/be afraid] and other psychological verbs
-Semantics/PragmaticsConference paperProceedings of 3rd International Conference on Greek Linguistics, Ed. A. Mozer. 131-140. (ICGL3), co-authored, 1999
Keywords
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
- Lexical Semantics
- Grammaticalization
- Psych verbs
- Fear Verbs
As its title, Semantics: Meaning in Language, indicates the focus of this book is on context-less meaning (“narrow semantics”), for all that the intention is to throw light on issues of language use. Two main approaches are discussed in detail. The first has its origin in the philosophy of language, and is concerned with the extra-linguistic relations between units of language and items in the world; key concepts are reference, denotation and truth. The second originates in linguistics and concentrates on intra-linguistic relations such as antonymy and synonymy. However, at many points the question arises whether these approaches to narrow semantics need to be supplemented by pragmatics.
The Other Within. VII: Aspects of Language and Culture
BookThe Other Within. VII: Aspects of Language and Culture, Thessaloniki: A. Altintzis, 2001
Keywords
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Working Papers in Linguistics. Dept of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
BookDepartment of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessloniki, Thessaloniki: Altintzis, 2004
Keywords
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Selected Papers from 19th International Symposium in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
BookThessaloniki: Monochromia, 2011
Keywords
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics