چکیده:
This paper focuses on some pragmatic expressions that are characteristic of informal spoken English, their possible equivalents in some other languages, and their use by EFL learners from different backgrounds. These expressions, called general extenders (e.g. and stuff, or something), are shown to be different from discourse markers and to exhibit variation in form, function and distribution across varieties of English, as well as in other languages. In EFL contexts, students are reported to use fewer pragmatic expressions and a smaller range of possible forms. They also tend to favor expressions more often associated with writing and formal speaking (e.g. and so on), include literal translation equivalents from their first language that are not used in English (e.g. and, and, and), or used only in restricted contexts (e.g. or so), and often seem not to realize that some forms may carry negative connotations (e.g. and blah, blah, blah). The possibility of fostering better pragmatic awareness among EFL students is discussed in terms of an explicit cross-linguistic focus on the forms and functions of pragmatic expressions.
خلاصه ماشینی:
After looking at some English examples, such as and stuff (like that), or something (like that), and how they are used, I will review some studies of comparable forms in other languages and observations by other scholars on the subtle differences in their uses and the types of difficulties associated with comparing any pragmatic expressions cross-linguistically, or what we might characterize as the problem of determining pragmatic equivalence.
From early studies of the underlying structure of conversational interaction (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974), through investigations of social meaning and how it is signaled (Erman, 1987; Schiffrin, 1985; Schourup, 1985; Tannen, 1984), to the micro-analysis of forms of language previously unexplored (Channell, 1994; Overstreet, 2011), there has been a steady stream of new findings about the complex nature of spoken interaction and the linguistic expressions being used to hold it all together.
In the following discussion, I will focus more on the use of adjunctive general extenders and offer, in Table 1, a list of the four most frequent forms found in detailed studies of Canadian English (Tagliamonte & Denis, 2010), British English (Pichler & Levey, 2011) and American English (Overstreet & Yule, 1997).
Formal expressions such as and so on are more common in academic English, both spoken and written (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999; Simpson, 2004), which may have been the primary input source for these NNS students.