Pragmatic Markedness in the ELF- Mediated Discourse of Legal Counseling to West-African Female Migrants


Abstract


This paper introduces a cognitive model of pragmatic markedness for the analysis of the ways in which non-native speakers of English as a lingua franca (ELF) differently interpret situations of legal counseling they are involved in. It will be argued that interpretative divergences are to be ascribed to the participants’ different ‘schematic representations’ of the same situations which may come into conflict, thus causing misunderstanding. In this paper, misunderstanding is investigated in relation to a number of case studies regarding asymmetric situations in which West-African (Nigerian) female migrants, using their pidgin/creole-English varieties as ELF variations, should be assisted – but actually are disregarded – by Western (Italian) ELF-speaking legal advisors who are biased against them. The assumption is that the participants ‘transfer’ their respective native linguacultural features to their ELF variations, which are perceived as ‘deviant’ – and, therefore, ‘marked’ – by the other participants in the same situations of intercultural communication.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i22390359v52p145

Keywords: Pragmatic markedness; English as a Lingua Franca; Schema Theory; migration encounters; legal discourse

References


Agbo M. 2009, Subject-Object Switching in Igbo Verbs: A Revisit, in “Iranian Journal of Language Studies” 3, pp. 209-224.

Anagbogu P.N. 1995, The Semantics of Reduplication in Igbo, in “Journal of West African Languages” 25, pp. 43-52.

Bardovi-Harlig K. 1987, Markedness and Salience in Second Language Acquisition, in “Language Learning” 37, pp. 385-407.

Blommaert J. 1997, The Slow Shift in Orthodoxy: (Re)formulations of ‘Integration’ in Belgium, in “Pragmatics” 7, pp. 499-518.

Carrell P.L. and Eisterhold J.C. 1988, Schema Theory and ESL Reading Pedagogy, in Carrell P.L., Devine J. and Eskey D. (eds.), Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 73-92.

Coulthard M. 2000, Whose Text Is It? On the Linguistic Investigation of Authorship, in Sarangi S. and Coulthard M. (eds.), Discourse and Social Life, Longman, London, pp. 271-287.

Eckman F. 1977, Markedness and the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, in “Language Learning” 27, pp. 315-330.

Edwards D. 1997, Discourse and Cognition, Sage, London.

Ericcson A.K. and Simon H.A. 1984, Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data, The MIT Press, Cambridge.

European Communities 2003, Joint Practical Guide of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission for Persons Involved in the Drafting of Legislation within the Community Institutions, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

Faerch C. and Kasper G. 1987, Perspectives on Language Transfer, in “Applied Linguistics” 8, pp. 111-136.

Gass S. 1979, Language Transfer and Universal Grammatical Relations, in “Language Learning” 29, pp. 327-344.

Gibbons J. (ed.) 1994, Language and the Law, Longman, London.

Guido M.G. 2008, English as a Lingua Franca in Cross-cultural Immigration Domains, Peter Lang, Bern.

Guido M.G. 2018, English as a Lingua Franca in Migrants’ Trauma Narratives, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Greenberg J.H. 1973, Some Universals of Grammar with Particular Reference to the Order of Meaningful Elements, in Greenberg J.H. (ed.), Universals of Language, The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 73-113.

Grice H.P. 1975, Logic and Conversation, in Cole P. and Morgan J.L. (eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Speech Acts, Academic Press, New York, pp. 41-58.

Gumperz J.J. 1982, Discourse Strategies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hymes D. 2003, Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

Kasper G. 1992, Pragmatic Transfer, in “Second Language Research” 8, pp. 203-231.

Lakoff G. 1987, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Mazurkewich I. 1985, Syntactic Markedness and Language Acquisition, in “Studies in Second Language Acquisition” 7, pp. 15-35.

Moerman M. 1988, Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

Nwachukwu P.A. 1976, Stativity, Ergativity and the –rV suffixess in Igbo, in “African Languages” 2, pp. 119-143.

Ringbom H. 1992, On L2 Transfer in L2 Comprehension and L2 Production, in “Language Learning” 42, pp. 85-112.

Rutherford W.E. 1982, Markedness in Second Language Acquisition, in “Language Learning” 32, pp. 85-108.

Scotton C.M. 1983, The Negotiation of Identities in Conversation: A Theory of Markedness and Code Choice, in “International Journal of the Sociology of Language” 44, pp. 116-136.

Selinker L. 1969, Language Transfer, in “General Linguistics” 9, pp. 67-92.

Slembrouck S. 1999, Translation, Direct Quotation and Recontextualization, in “Perspectives: Studies in Translatology” 7, pp. 81-108.

Tarone E. 1980, Communication Strategies, Foreign Talk, and Repair in Interlanguage, in “Language Learning” 30, pp. 417-431.

Thomas J.A. 1983, Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure, in “Applied Linguistics” 4, pp. 91-112.

Urban G. 1996, Entextualization, Replication and Power, in Silverstein M. and Urban G. (eds.), Natural Histories of Discourse, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 21-44.

Widdowson H.G. 1994, The Ownership of English, in “TESOL Quarterly” 28, pp. 377-389.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.