The thesis involves the transcultural pragmatics area of study and focuses in particular on the use of pragmatic resources associated with courtesy in Spanish-speaking learners of Italian. It aims to study the phenomenon of attenuations connected to the communication acts of request and refusal of request in students of Italian as a second language, from both a pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic point of view. To do this, the Discourse Completion Task method (also known by the acronym DCT, or Communication Questionnaires, in Italian) was used, which helped to compare the achievements of a group of learners with two other groups: one of Italian natives, the other of Spanish natives. The situations proposed in the test are sixteen, eight that elicit requests and eight that elicit rejections to requests. The idea of the study stems from a combined interest in pragmatics, interculturalism and learning procedures of the Italian language as L2, as well as its teaching. The choice of Spanish was dictated by the interest in investigating the linguistic resources of subjects who are: 1) moderately experienced in the use of their target language, and 2) speakers of a language typologically similar to it. There is therefore also the curiosity to find out if their communication skills go hand in hand with their language skills or not. The purpose of the research is therefore to investigate the interlanguage and, specifically, the pragmatic skills of a group of learners with an intermediate-high level of knowledge of the language. The answers will be analyzed using the courtesy parameters adopted by the group of Italian natives crossed with the achievements of the group of Spanish natives, in order to outline as complete a picture as possible of the students' pragmatic resources. As for the theoretical foundations of the work, it has its roots in the work Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper, in which, through the study of the linguistic acts of the request and the excuse, they create the basis for the study of Intercultural Pragmatics. This thesis therefore refers to the Cross-Cultural Speech ActRealization Project (CCSARP) and its objectives, namely (Blum-Kulka, 1989, pp. 12-13): 1. Investigate the similarities and differences in the patterns of realization of given speech acts between different cultures, in relation to the same social constraints (intercultural variation). 2. Investigate the effects of social variables in the patterns of realization of data speech acts within specific linguistic communities (sociopragmatic variation). 3. Investigate the similarities and differences in the patterns of realization of given speech acts between native and non-native speakers of a given language, in relation to the same social constraints (interlingual variation). Particular focus will be given to the third point, since the real protagonist is the learner's communicative competence: if, on the one hand, the studies that compare the linguistic aspects of the Italian language with those of the Spanish language are numerous, little attention has been given to the pragmatic interlingual aspect.
La tesi si situa nell’ambito della pragmatica transculturale e si focalizza in particolare sull’utilizzo di risorse pragmatiche connesse con la cortesia in apprendenti ispanofoni di italiano. Essa si prefigge il proposito di studiare il fenomeno delle attenuazioni collegate agli atti comunicativi di richiesta e rifiuto a richiesta in studenti di italiano come lingua seconda, dal punto di vista sia pragmalinguistico che sociopragmatico. Per fare ciò, si è utilizzato il metodo della Discourse Completion Task (conosciuto anche con l’acronimo DCT, o Questionari Comunicativi, in italiano), che hanno aiutato a comparare le realizzazioni di ungruppo di apprendenti con due altri gruppi: uno di nativi italiani, l’altro di nativi spagnoli. Le situazioni proposte nel test sono sedici, otto che elicitano richieste e otto che elicitano rifiuti a richieste. L’idea dello studio nasce da un interesse combinato per la pragmatica, l’interculturalità e le procedure di apprendimento della lingua italiana come L2, oltre che del suo insegnamento. La scelta dello spagnolo è stata dettata dall’interesse di indagare le risorse linguistiche di soggetti che sono: 1) moderatamente esperti nell’utilizzo della loro lingua bersaglio, e 2) parlanti di una lingua tipologicamente simile ad essa. Esiste quindi anche la curiosità di scoprire se le loro capacità comunicative vanno di pari passo con le loro capacità linguistiche o meno. Lo scopo della ricerca è dunque quello di indagare l’interlingua e, nello specifico, le competenze pragmatiche di un gruppo di apprendenti con un livello di conoscenza della lingua intermedio-alto. Verranno analizzate le risposte utilizzando i parametri di cortesia adottati dal gruppo di nativi italiani incrociati con le realizzazioni del gruppo di nativi spagnoli, con il fine di delineare un quadro il più completo possibile delle risorse pragmatiche degli studenti. Per quanto riguarda i fondamenti teorici del lavoro, esso affonda le sue radici nell’opera Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologiesdi Blum-Kulka, House e Kasper, nel quale, attraverso lo studio degli atti linguistici della richiesta e della scusa, vengono gettate le basi per lo studio della Pragmatica Interculturale. La presente tesi si rifà dunque al Cross-Cultural Speech ActRealization Project (CCSARP) ed ai suoi obiettivi, ovvero (Blum-Kulka, 1989, pp.12-13): 1. Investigare le similitudini e le differenze negli schemi di realizzazione di dati atti linguistici tra differenti culture, in relazione agli stessi vincoli sociali (variazione interculturale). 2. Investigare gli effetti delle variabili sociali negli schemi di realizzazione di dati atti linguistici all’interno di specifiche comunità linguistiche (variazione sociopragmatica). 3. Investigare le similitudini e le differenze negli schemi di realizzazione di dati atti linguistici tra parlanti nativi e non nativi di una data lingua, in relazioni agli stessi vincoli sociali (variazione interlinguistica). Particolare focus verrà dato al terzo punto, poiché la vera protagonista è la competenza comunicativa dell’apprendente: se, da una parte, gli studi che comparano gli aspetti linguistici della lingua italiana con quelli della lingua spagnola sono molteplici, poca attenzione è stata data all’aspetto interlinguistico pragmatico.
Aspetti pragmatici in italiano L2: strategie attenuative in richieste e rifiuti a richieste in apprendenti ispanofoni di italiano
GARDELLA, MARCO
2019/2020
Abstract
The thesis involves the transcultural pragmatics area of study and focuses in particular on the use of pragmatic resources associated with courtesy in Spanish-speaking learners of Italian. It aims to study the phenomenon of attenuations connected to the communication acts of request and refusal of request in students of Italian as a second language, from both a pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic point of view. To do this, the Discourse Completion Task method (also known by the acronym DCT, or Communication Questionnaires, in Italian) was used, which helped to compare the achievements of a group of learners with two other groups: one of Italian natives, the other of Spanish natives. The situations proposed in the test are sixteen, eight that elicit requests and eight that elicit rejections to requests. The idea of the study stems from a combined interest in pragmatics, interculturalism and learning procedures of the Italian language as L2, as well as its teaching. The choice of Spanish was dictated by the interest in investigating the linguistic resources of subjects who are: 1) moderately experienced in the use of their target language, and 2) speakers of a language typologically similar to it. There is therefore also the curiosity to find out if their communication skills go hand in hand with their language skills or not. The purpose of the research is therefore to investigate the interlanguage and, specifically, the pragmatic skills of a group of learners with an intermediate-high level of knowledge of the language. The answers will be analyzed using the courtesy parameters adopted by the group of Italian natives crossed with the achievements of the group of Spanish natives, in order to outline as complete a picture as possible of the students' pragmatic resources. As for the theoretical foundations of the work, it has its roots in the work Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper, in which, through the study of the linguistic acts of the request and the excuse, they create the basis for the study of Intercultural Pragmatics. This thesis therefore refers to the Cross-Cultural Speech ActRealization Project (CCSARP) and its objectives, namely (Blum-Kulka, 1989, pp. 12-13): 1. Investigate the similarities and differences in the patterns of realization of given speech acts between different cultures, in relation to the same social constraints (intercultural variation). 2. Investigate the effects of social variables in the patterns of realization of data speech acts within specific linguistic communities (sociopragmatic variation). 3. Investigate the similarities and differences in the patterns of realization of given speech acts between native and non-native speakers of a given language, in relation to the same social constraints (interlingual variation). Particular focus will be given to the third point, since the real protagonist is the learner's communicative competence: if, on the one hand, the studies that compare the linguistic aspects of the Italian language with those of the Spanish language are numerous, little attention has been given to the pragmatic interlingual aspect.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/230