Language Research

Abstract The aim of this article is to explain the construction of euphemistic meaning via the process of negation from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The main question of the present study is how the cognitive mechanism of negation acts for constructing euphemistic meaning and consequently for motivating euphemistic linguistic structures. The present research explains euphemism in Persian by a descriptive-analytical method. Data were also collected manually from mostly library resources containing several Persian-language dictionaries. In this study, it is shown that the cognitive process of negation is volitionally applied to a conceptual content by the conceptualizer and consequently a pleasant conceptual content is activated and attention is drawn toward it. Based on the negation process, the negated pleasant concept is represented phonetically and the strength of attention over the unpleasant content which has not been represented at the linguistic level will decrease. Due to the representation of the negated pleasant concept at the linguistic level and based on the type of guided attention distribution pattern encoded in the negative linguistic forms, the speaker tries to distribute a portion of the listener's attention sources over the pleasant content and he/she tries to decrease the strength of attention on the unpleasant concept. In fact, instead of directly encoding an unpleasant concept at the linguistic level, the speaker uses indirect methods and encodes "the negated pleasant concept". By this indirect reference, lesser attention is assigned to the unpleasant concept than when the concept is directly represented in the language. Therefore, linguistic negations structure the concepts in such a way that the window of attention does not open on the unpleasant aspects of the entity in question and does not put them at the center of attention, and through this way, euphemistic meaning will be constructed. It should be noted that the present study re-emphasizes on the interaction and overlap of language and other general cognitive abilities.

Abstract This paper deals with the sincerity of Persian language Ta’arofs across genders. The sincerity is evaluated by means of cultural schemas. Data that is gathered from different conversational contexts and Iranian films is analyzed by conversation analysis method. Using emic approach, the researchers identify fifteen underlying cultural schemas for Persian Ta’arofs and represent a model. To fulfill this aim, the Ta’arofs with similar illocutionary forces are identified and classified as cultural micro-schemas. Each class is given a title and the first encoding is done. To make sure about the validity of the classifications two inter-raters are employed. Then the concepts which are considered as the basis for these micro-schemas in Iranian culture are identified and labeled as macro-schemas. The Ta’arofs are evaluated in questionnaires in terms of sincerity they are associated with across genders. Ta’arofs and their contexts are presented in the questionnaire and the subjects are asked to evaluate the sincerity of Ta’arofs. Ta’arofs are chosen from both genders’ conversations equivalently and distributed in the questionnaire with different cultural schemas. The evaluation of data demonstrates that despite the common belief that men’s Ta’arofs are more sincere than women’s, there wasn’t any significant difference between their degrees of sincerity. Moreover, considering that the most and the least sincere Ta’arofs belong to women, we can say that the range of sincerity of Ta’arofs is wider in women than in men. The underlying micro-schemas of the most sincere Ta’arofs in women and men are respectively sympathy (Hamdeli) and compliment (Tahsin); and, the underlying micro-schemas of the least sincere Ta’arofs are respectively hospitality (Mehmannavazi) and Shekastehnafsi in women and men. Although the underlying micro-schemas of the most (in) sincere Ta’arofs are different in the two genders and reflect social and psychological differences between them, the underlying macro-schemas obey the notion of distributive cognition.

Abstract Providing knowledge for effective communication cannot just be limited to teaching linguistic information, and pragmatic competence should also be considered. Since the main goal of teaching foreign languages is related to teachers, their proficiency and pragmatic awareness are very important; Nevertheless, the conditions for the acquisition of speech acts  is not provided adequately. In this regard, the present study aims to analyze the pragmatic competence of Iranian EFL teachers considering the strategies of expressing speech act gratitude in English.  In order to evaluate the use of strategies of expressing gratitude, a Discourse Completion Task questionnaire (DCT) and a coding scheme proposed by Cheng were used.  Also, the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6) was employed to study the influence of personality on expressing gratitude. The questionnaires were distributed randomly, and the male and female participants were asked to fill the discourse completion task. They were expected to write down as many words or utterances as they wanted to express their gratitude towards the situation in a limited time. Finally, 133 completed questionnaires were collected. Then, responses were coded based on the Cheng coding scheme.  The findings showed that all 8 gratitude strategies of the Cheng model were applied by teachers. The "Thanking" strategy was the most frequent (39.9%). Also, the results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that the three groups of instructor's field of study (academic discipline) do not show any significant difference in expressing their gratitude strategies.