Manipulations in argumentation

In public and political practice, argumentation involves verbal manipulations, which have not been sufficiently studied in modern argumentation theory. This paper proposes to analyse such manipulations as speech acts, by means of the pragmadialectical theory of argumentation.     

Ethos,pathos and logos in Aristotle's Rhetoric: A re-examination

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, logos must be conceived as enthymematical argumentation relative to the issue of the case. Ethos and pathos also can take the form of an enthymeme, but this argumentation doesn't relate (directly) to the issue. In this kind of enthymeme, the conclusion is relative to the ethos of the speaker or (reasons for) the pathos of the audience. In an ideal situation — with a good procedure and rational judges — logos dominates and in the real situation of Aristotle's time — with an imperfect procedure and irrational judges — ethos and pathos prevail.I should like to thank R. Berkenbosch and J. Wisse for their comments.     

Rules for argumentation in dialogues

In this article it is pointed out what kind of rules for communication and argumentation are required in order to make it possible to resolve disputes in an orderly way. In section 2, Gricean maxims and Searlean speech act conditions are integrated in such a way that five general rules for communication can be formulated. In section 3, starting from Lewis's definition of convention, it is argued that the interactional effect of accepting is conventionally linked with the complex communicative act complex of argumentation. In section 4, the rules for argumentation are placed in a dialogical perspective.     

Conversation,relevance, and argumentation

This paper deals with the explanation the maxim of relevance provides for the way utterances in argumentative discourse follow each other in an orderly and coherent fashion. Several senses are distinguished in which utterances can be considered relevant. It is argued that an utterance can be considered relevant as an interactional act, as an illocutionary act, as a propositional act, and as an elocutionary act. These four kinds of relevance manifest the rational organization of discourse, which is aimed at bringing about mutual alignment between the participants, enabling them jointly to work out certain interactional outcomes that are acceptable to both of them.     

工作记忆中的语音回路对汉语阅读理解的影响

语音回路是工作记忆中一个重要的组成部分,主要负责加工和存储语音信息。采用混合实验设计,以正确数和反应时 为指标,汉语语篇为阅读材料,探讨工作记忆中的语音回路对汉语阅读理解的影响。本研究包括两个实验,实验一采用发音抑制的范式,结合错误干扰考察了语音回路中的发音复述装置对汉语阅读理解的影响;实验二采用无关言语的范式,结合错误干扰考察了语音回路中的语音存储装置对汉语阅读理解的影响。结果表明：(1)通过发音抑制和无关言语的方法证明,语音回路中的发音复述装置和语音存储装置在汉语阅读理解中起着重要作用。(2) 字音和字形都影响汉语的阅读理解,但字形比字音起着更大的作用,而且它们的作用机制也不相同,字音直接进入语音存储装置,而字形要经过字音的转换进入语音存储装置。(3) 词频与语音回路有密切关系,语音回路中的发音复述装置的作用在高频词上有明显的表现。(4) 词频与字形、字音也有密切关系,在低频词的条件下,字形的作用大于字音的作用     

Infant Directed Speech in Natural Interaction—Norwegian Vowel Quantity and Quality

An interactive face-to-face setting is used to study natural infant directed speech (IDS) compared to adult directed speech (ADS). With distinctive vowel quantity and vowel quality, Norwegian IDS was used in a natural quasi-experimental design. Six Norwegian mothers were recorded over a period of 6 months alone with their infants and in an adult conversation. Vowel duration and spectral attributes of the vowels /a:/, /i:/ and /u:/, and their short counterparts /a/ /i/ and /u/ were analysed. Repeated measures analyses show that effects of vowel quantity did not differ between ADS and IDS, and for back vowel qualities, the vowel space was shifted upwards in IDS compared to ADS suggesting that fronted articulations in natural IDS may visually enhance speech to infants.     

Vocal indicators of facilitative interpersonal skills

The facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS) method uses simulations of difficult client moments as a test of helpers' ability to remain therapeutic in therapeutically stressful situations. A total of 135 participants completed the FIS task as part of a training in helping skills and provided verbal responses that were assessed by trained raters for interpersonal skills. Audio recordings of these verbal responses were then analysed acoustically for fundamental frequency (F0), spectral slope and F0 range. Mean F0 and F0 range were more highly associated with trained raters' ratings of FIS for female participants than for male participants, although F0 range was associated with FIS of both males and females. The results suggest that F0 is associated with FIS for females, especially the FIS items that are indicative of emotional expression and verbal fluency. Findings are discussed as possibly indicating that some expression of higher F0 in response to distressed client situations may be part of interpersonal skills, such that more skilled therapists respond to stressful client situations with a higher F0.     

Sharing

This paper addresses the status of the act of sharing a message in a social network. Scholars do not agree on what kind of act sharing is and what kind of communicative and illocutionary act is performed when a post is shared. We defend the view that sharing is an act similar to photocopying and distributing a document. Such an act is a basic act that can be used for communicative aims in certain contexts but that is not necessarily communicative. One can repost for several reasons—to manifest agreement or derision, to inform, to please the author, to show activity on social networks, to have an economic return—and only some of them are communicative. However, even when reposters do not perform a communicative act, they are not relieved of every responsibility; in fact, the responsibilities of reposters are like those of the persons who copy and distribute something.     

The effect of manual movements on stuttering in individuals with down syndrome

PurposeStuttering may disrupt the speech of individuals with Down syndrome (DS), but standard stuttering therapies may be less adapted to these clients’ needs. This study examined if their strength in gesture use can lead to the development of a new stuttering therapy.MethodEighteen individuals with DS who stutter participated in an experimental task. During this task, they produced sentences in three different conditions: once without the ability to use gestures, once while moving the mouth of a hand puppet synchronous with their speech, and once while making beat gestures along their speech. Stuttering frequency was measured and compared between conditions while controlling for the effect of articulation rate.ResultsThe experimental hand puppet and beat condition did not affect the stuttering frequency, but the covariate articulation rate did. An exploratory posthoc analysis showed that the articulation rate decreased during the experimental hand puppet and beat condition. Manual movements in the present task might only induce fluency through articulation rate reduction. However, analyses at individual level show significant interindividual variability.ConclusionIndividual analyses show that effect on stuttering frequency cannot be attributed entirely to articulation rate reduction and that beat gestures might still play a role. However, at this point, there is not enough direct evidence to implement beat gestures in current stuttering therapy.