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Cohesion in a text can occur through different linguistic devices. Some of these package the propositional content of whole previous stretches of text. In the absence of terminological unanimity, in this paper they will be analyzed under the label nominal encapsulation. The aim of this paper is thus to qualitatively examine the discursive shifts taking part in the translation of encapsulating mechanisms in parliamentary discourses having Spanish as target language and any other of the main European languages (namely English, French, German, Italian) as source language. For this purpose, a corpus-assisted analysis has been carried out. We have studied a parallel corpus containing the Proceedings of the European Parliament between the years 1996 and 2009, called Europarl5 (Koehn, 2005). The results obtained reveal that most of the shifts pertaining to encapsulating devices embody an explicitation process which tends to make the target text in Spanish more evaluative than the source text through discourse labels. This may be partially explained by the conventions that seem to underlie parliamentary discourses in Spanish and partially by the general tendency to explicitation in the translation process that has been traditionally hypothesized in Translation Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper explores the relationship between pragmatic functions on conversational-discursive development and the gestures, within McNeill's (2016) theoretical frame, appeared along with these functions. In order to achieve this, firstly, linguistics structures that carry out pragmatics functions are recognized; secondly, the interrelation that this pragmatically marked structures with gestures is described; and, thirdly, frequent relations are analyzed in terms of the cooccurrence of such communicational resources. Furthermore, it is presented a first attempt to describe sexual variation about the relation between pragmatic management and gestures. The analyses of six conversational narrations conclude there are some relations between given topic (GTop) and completive focus (FocCompl) with various types of gestures. These cooccurrences are nonstatic and should be reviewed in a more extensive corpus. Also, data shows that male-female couples present more pragmatically marked functions than the other groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the linguistic and textual procedures through which adolescent subjects reformulate metaphorical expressions in a conversational context. My purpose is to examine the nature of the resources used in said reformulation, and to specifically analyze the procedures of metadiscursive qualification (Gülich and Kotschi 1995; Ciapuscio 2007a, 2007b) through which speakers comment and/or evaluate metaphorical expressions: the study reviews their presence, distribution and variation in exchanges among adolescent subjects who have been asked to reformulate metaphorical expressions in the context of a face-to-face conversation. My aim is to elucidate the extent to which the type and frequency of metadiscursive qualification accompanying and signaling reformulation processes are correlated with the degree of conventionality of the reformulated metaphorical expressions and, additionally, to contribute to the research on metaphor in a text corpus, especially, to the question regarding the conventional vs. innovative character of metaphors (Hanks 2004, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study starts from the premise that the linguistic skills of grammatical nature involved in speech production of children with Asperger syndrome are shown intact or unaltered, whereas most of the dysfunctions in the discursive dimension are associated to specifically pragmatic skills. This idea is compatible with the underconnectivity theory, according to which there would be a neurophysiological correlate capable of explaining such discrepancies between grammatical and pragmatic skills. Likewise, it is considered that communicative dysfunctions in Asperger syndrome may be due to an integration deficit. In order to support these assumptions, the analysis of different categories is carried out; more exactly, grammatical skills (syntactic complexity and lexical diversity, cohesion and coherence) are compared to pragmatic skills (principle of cooperation and editing tasks). For this, forty recordings transcribed in CHAT format (Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts) were taken into account. Twenty of them came from speakers with Asperger syndrome, and the other twenty, from speakers without this disorder. The results of this analysis reinforce the starting point of the paper, according to which there would be clear dissonances between the structural abilities of language and the communicative ones. Finally, with the ambition to reach a greater comprehension about communication disorders, particularly about Asperger syndrome, this research seeks an interdisciplinary connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a set of narratives on critical episodes by people affected by migraine. The voice of patients has acquired higher relevance in recent years, after being long postponed in the field of medicine. Linguistic research on patients' discourse can contribute to the knowledge on and understanding of this disorder, and even to its diagnosis, as shown among others by the researches on cardiac and convulsive illnesses carried out by German and British teams (Gülich and Schöndienstt, 1999; Schwabe et al., 2008; Schwabe et al., 2007). In this article I present, from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory and of discursive production theory, an analysis of a corpus of patient narratives in which people explain their migraine attacks: I am interested in expanding the knowledge on how these patients conceptualize and transmit their illness and its main symptom, i.e. headache. The analysis of patients' contributions focuses both on the qualitative aspects of pain and on the description of its intensity, which is particularly rich as regards expressive procedures and resources and leads, occasionally, to the thematization of feelings of fear and panic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses what we call discursive formulation and reformulation processes (e.g., (re)formulation instances which are exclusively the result of enunciation processes and hence lack any semantic value) in the frame of a text linguistics model that aims to give a systematic account of very different reformulation facts from a multidimensional perspective. The theoretical considerations supporting our conception of discursive reformulation are submitted to an experimental investigation procedure, whose results substantiate our view that discursive reformulation (a prototypical device for spoken language) is quantitatively and qualitatively different from semantic-argumentative reformulation (the one that has deserved most of the attention in the bibliography). For this reason, we maintain that its study needs analytical procedures and theoretical concepts that differ from the ones already applied to the examination of written texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine the function and the use of un poco and of its morphological alterations (un poquito, un poquitín, etc.) in different levels: in speech acts, in propositions, in speech, in social relationship established between speaker and hearer, and, finally, in context. Theoretical framework of the analysis is, primarily, modality, a notion applying to utterances and indicating the compromise level which the speaker maintains in respect of the utterance faithful. Secondly, I refer to mitigation within the most general theory of Politeness, in which this is a strategy to modulate speech act effects (Lakoff, 1972; Caffi, 1999, 2002, 2007). Here I examine the function of un poco from a semantic-pragmatic perspective also taking into account discourse's dimensión and the situations in which they occur. To study the phenomenon, I use real conversations' data proceeding by the Corpus de Conversaciones Coloquiales Val.Es.Co and by the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual CREA, to which I add some fragments proceeding by conversations that I recorded and transcribed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the use of expressions of exemplification in the Spanish spoken in Caracas. The purpose of this study is to determine what aspects motivate the non-canonical use of por lo menos in place of por ejemplo. For the analysis of this particular use, I have used 24 interviews of Corpus Sociolinguistic of Caracas (1987). The parameters selected are of two types: i) linguistic -values of the expressions of exemplification and of por lo menos ('al menos','como minimo'), evidentiality, and topic proposed in the preceding sentence and in the sequence introduced by expressions of exemplification and by por lo menos-, and ii) social The results show that the use of expressions of exemplification is determined by social factors. Likewise, the use of por lo menos as an expression of exemplification has been motivated by certain semantic-pragmatic and discourse features shared by por lo menos ('al menos', 'como mínimo') and por ejemplo: generalization-particularization relationship, first-hand information and maintenance of the topic addressed in a previous generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In traditional Linguistics, prosody has rarely been considered to identify operating units of analysis. Usually, the initial segmentation establishes linguistic boundaries, based on prior knowledge of the researcher; on the basis of these boundaries, the analysis focuses on the prosodic level. Our proposal is that the unit segmentation starts at the prosodic level (specifically at the acoustic level) and other levels will further complete it. Therefore, our aim is to change the traditional perspective. Additionally, this paper proposes a (semi)automatic segmentation model for the spontaneous oral discourse. Starting from the study of the intonational groups, we present a probabilistic formula (MESTEL) that calculates the likelihood of certain segments of the oral continuum to become intonational group boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work aims at studying the different interactions between means of expression in language (both acoustic and grammatical means), as well as semantic-pragmatic variation, in line with an anti-reductionist approach and using techniques for qualitative research focusing on the semantic-pragmatic inquiry of meaning (or sense, as appropriate) of oral text. An intonation system is defined, based on a set of semantic-pragmatic oppositions which, operating as dynamic attractors, group acoustic realities with similar semantic-pragmatic dynamics. Sense emerges from the processes of semiosis, interactional processes of the different systemic levels, thus revealing the importance of the principle of interaction in the communication analysis being carried out. Such interaction is labeled as dialectical interaction. The Group of Complexity and Language has been studying--as an hypothesis--the link between type of interactional speech act (ISA) and other types of semantic-pragmatic units and with units of a social type. The obvious coincidence of different knowledges, of the development of several linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines, will orient us toward a holistic approach, to an integrated approach to our research, thus allowing us to lay the foundations for a new type of phonology of intonation systems (already argued in previous papers). In our opinion, all of this will lead us to a study of intonation and to a prosody more rooted in ontology, a study of intonation that scientifically explains variation in its unity and diversity of complex systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on two of the major problems that have traditionally hindered the study of the so-called 'colloquial Spanish', namely (i) terminological hesitation and lack of consensus in referring to this linguistic form (designated indistinctly by terms such as 'language', 'speech', 'discourse', etc., on one side, and 'colloquial', 'spoken', 'conversational', etc., on the other side) and (ii) the lack of a clear and unitary definition of the object of study. For this purpose, first the most common designations and the conditions which make it possible to use them as synonymous are identified. Secondly, the conceptual structure of the most famous definitions and the linguistic and extralinguistic features of the object of study which each one of them emphasizes are analyzed. Finally, reasons for the perpetuation of the terminological and conceptual vagueness in the history of Spanish Linguistics are mentioned and a theoretical frame for a better definition of spoken or colloquial Spanish is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]