Vagueness expressions in Italian, Spanish and English task-oriented dialogues

Abstract

In this article, we present a corpus-based analysis on the use of Vagueness Expressions (VEs) in Italian, Spanish and English in Task-oriented Dialogues. Following the distinction among informational, relational and discourse vagueness (Voghera 2012), we compare the width of the functional space of the most frequent VEs. In particular we investigate whether and to what extent the VEs cover all the types of vagueness in the three languages. Quantitative and qualitative analysis brings evidence about a high convergence in the vagueness functions expressed by the VEs of the three languages.

Discourse markers in L1 and L2 Italian: A cartographic analysis of the sentence-internal position

“…An interesting property emerging from the analysis of the L2 corpus is that DMs often occur together with hesitations. In (iii) and (iv), for example, diciamo and praticamente express 'discourse vagueness' (Voghera and Borges, 2017) (Section V.1.b), and they are used as types of filler:…”

“…Diciamo can assume interactive or meta-discursive functions, ‘realizing a scale of intensity with respect to the illocutionary force’ (Bazzanella, 1995: 250). Specifically, according to Voghera and Borges (2017: 57), diciamo expresses three types of vagueness: (1) ‘informational vagueness’: the DM expresses the ‘uncertainty in linguistics uses’ and conveys metalinguistic approximation; (2) ‘relational vagueness’: the DM is used as a meta-communicative marker ‘signaling to the interlocutor that the speaker is making hypotheses about what is being described’ or introducing the speaker’s point of view; (3) ‘discourse vagueness’: it is used at a discourse level as a filler, together with hesitations. The different types of vagueness often overlap and combine in the same context.…”

“…As Voghera and Borges (2017: 72) point out, for diciamo ‘the position does not seem to have a distinctive role’. As a matter of fact, in the CLIPS the function of diciamo does not change together with the syntactic position, as shown in (10) and (11):(10) p2G#126 diciamo un paio di centimetri più su delle pallette spostati verso destra ‘ let’s say a couple of centimeters higher than the little balls go on the right’(11) p1G#77 intorno alla punta della barca diciamo ‘around the tip of the boat let’s say ’…”

The role of diminutive suffixes in the Italian Time Nouns constructions: From approximation to focus?

“…Most VEs are polyfunctional. As noted in studies based on Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German corpora, from a diachronic point of view, there is a path of development, according to which expressions that originally express informational vagueness can evolve towards the expression of relational vagueness and subsequently towards the expression of discursive vagueness (Jucker et al 2003;Mihatsch 2020;Ghezzi 2013;Voghera 2014Voghera , 2022Voghera & Borges 2017;Voghera & Collu 2017). In other words, the expression of relational and discursive vagueness is expressed by refunctionalising constructions originally used to vehiculate information vagueness.…”

“…This article deals with some Italian constructions with time nouns (TNs), minuto ('minute'), momento ('moment'), attimo ('instant') that, besides expressing a temporal meaning, have developed functions and meanings ranging from intentional vagueness to focus, as it happens to many pragmatic markers (Underhill 1988;Miller & Weinert 1995;Mihatsch 2020;Voghera 2017Voghera , 2022Voghera , 2023Voghera & Borges 2017). In particular, I investigate why the diminutive forms of the considered TNs are only allowed in some TN constructions (CxsTN).…”