The pragmatics of requests: Naturalized Interactions as an innovative means of collecting cross-cultural data
(2021) 17th International Pragmatics Conference — Location: Winterthur (Suisse) (27.June.2021)
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Marsily, Aurélie 
- Abstract
- Numerous studies in pragmatics have focused on finding the best way to collect data in order to reflect the way learners and native speakers express themselves in authentic situations (House, 2018), since different types of data are retrieved depending on the collecting method. For instance, in our study, the triangulation of methods allows for multiples perspectives on request production and perception, and how these requests are conventionalized and internalized in each culture and across these cultures. The COPINE corpus (Corpus Oral de Peticiones en Interacciones Naturalizadas en Español) comprises naturalized interactions, which is an innovative means of collecting spontaneous speech, where the aim is to distract the informant’s attention in order to collect spontaneous speech. Indeed, the term ‘naturalized’ indicates the degree to which “data approaches natural data” (Tran 2006). The COPINE corpus also comprises written DCT, an online cross-cultural questionnaire and retrospective interviews on politeness issues, in academic settings. Our hypothesis, based on the literature (Blum-Kulka & House, 1989; Bataller, 2013), is that the students perform their requests in a more formal way in the DCT than in the naturalized interactions, and that they perceive the formulation of this speech act differently than what they actually produce. The research questions of this presentation are: (1) How do native and non-native speakers use requests in academic interactions? (2) Which factors influence the way Spanish native and non-native speakers produce requests in naturalized interactions? (3) How do the cultural differences influence the way Spanish native and non-native speakers perceive requests in Spanish? The contrastive analysis of the data shows that indirect strategies are among the preferred requests in the DCT, both from the native and non-native students. Yet in the naturalized interactions, a much wider variety of requests are produced. The questionnaires reveal that native speakers judge requests formulated by native and non-native speakers in different ways. The different methodologies offer promising insights for cross-cultural studies on request pragmatics, and by extension, on translation studies and teaching pragmatics. References Bataller, R. (2013). "Role-plays vs. natural data: asking for a drink at a cafeteria in peninsular Spanish". Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 18(2), 111–126. Blum-Kulka, S. & J. House (1989). Cross-cultural and Situational Variation in Requesting Behavior. En Blum-Kulka, S., House, J. y G. Kasper (eds.) Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, Norwood: Ablex. 123–54. House, J. (2018). Authentic vs elicited data and qualitative vs quantitative research methods in pragmatics: Overcoming two non-fruitful dichotomies. System 75, 4–12. Tran, G. Q. (2006). The naturalized role-play: An innovative methodology in cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics research. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 5(2), 1–24.
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Marsily, A. (2021). The pragmatics of requests: Naturalized Interactions as an innovative means of collecting cross-cultural data. 17th International Pragmatics Conference, Winterthur (Suisse). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/214261