2011
170 pp.
1 colour map, 20 colour photos, numerous tables and charts
Text language: English
Originally, research into speech acts and their theoretical framework(s) was mainly developed in the context of the English language, while suggesting universal application of certain parameters across the world’s languages. In the meantime, this universality has been called into doubt by research findings based on empirical work being carried out in speech communities all over the world.
As a consequence, intercultural pragmatics has become an important field, showing, among other things, the cultural relativity of concepts such as speech act framing, social distance and balance, directness / indirectness and politeness / face. However, African languages and cultures are still an under-researched area in this respect. Therefore, this proceedings volume aims at exploring in more detail how speech acts and speech events are embedded in different socio-cultural contexts in Africa, and how how they are linguistically encoded in various African languages.
CONTENTS
Gabriele Sommer / Clarissa Vierke: Speech Acts and Speech Events in African Languages
Luanga A. Kasanga: Face, politeness, and speech acts – Reflecting on inter-cultural interaction in African languages and varieties of English
Daniël Van Olmen / Maud Devos: An Explanation of the Prohibitive in Hunde, Havu and Shi?
Roland Kießling / Britta Neumann / Doreen Schröter: “O owner of the compound, those things you are saying – it is the talk of vagueness!” – Requesting, Complaining and Apologising in two Languages of the Cameroonian Grassfields
Anne-Marie Fehn: Some Notes on Traditional Ts’ixa Gesture Inventories
Under these links you will find further studies of linguistic pragmatics and sociolinguistics in several African languages:
