28.118, FYI: CfP: Vague item ‘sort of’ (Special Issue)

Fri Jan 6 20:12:15 UTC 2017

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-118. Fri Jan 06 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.118, FYI: CfP: Vague item ‘sort of’ (Special Issue)

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Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 15:12:03
From: Vahid Parvaresh [Vahid.Parvaresh at anglia.ac.uk]
Subject: CfP: Vague item ‘sort of’ (Special Issue)

Call for Papers:

''Vague item ‘sort of’ across languages of the Asia-Pacific region''

Special Issue of the ''Journal of Asian Pacific Communication''

Guest Editors: 

Dr. Vahid Parvaresh (Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom)
Prof. Grace Zhang (Curtin University, Australia)

It has been widely established that, without vague language (e.g. ‘things’,
‘sort of’), interactants would not be able to achieve the same range of
interactional goals (e.g. Jucker, Smith & Lüdge, 2003). However, despite the
recent rise in the number of studies devoted to vague language (Channell,
1994; Cutting, 2007; Parvaresh & Ahmadian, 2016; Zhang, 2011, 2014, 2015;
Zhang & Sabet, 2016, to name only a few), a gap still exists when it comes to
the investigation of vague expressions cross-linguistically. The proposed
special issue would be a step in this direction. It will focus on the vague
item ‘sort of’, which plays an important role in mitigation and the like.
While there have been studies on the item (e.g. Aijmer, 1984; Fetzer, 2010;
Holmes, 1988; Kay, 1984), the current project aims to provide a comprehensive
account of the use of ‘sort of’ from cross-linguistic and Asia Pacific
perspectives. We are particularly interested in contributions that address one
of the languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region (e.g., Australian English,
Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese). To make cross-linguistic comparisons
possible, we have decided to (a) encourage contributions whose data sources
are similar (i.e., data from TV discussions on social issues), and (b) focus
exclusively on the vague language item ‘sort of’. The studies published in
this special issue will examine the linguistic behaviour of ‘sort of’ in TV
discussion discourse. The focus will be on the pragmatic functions of ‘sort
of’, although other issues such as frequency, form and clustering may also be
investigated. 

Timeline:

Potential contributors are encouraged to send an abstract of 300-500 words and
a 200-word bio blurb to Dr. Vahid Parvaresh (Anglia Ruskin University): 
Vahid.Parvaresh at anglia.ac.uk 

Abstracts are expected to be submitted not later than February 2017
Draft papers are expected to be submitted not later than December 2017
The first round of reviews is expected to be completed by April 2018 
Accepted papers are expected to be submitted for publication by October 2018

Please note that all papers will undergo a strict peer review process.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr Vahid Parvaresh at
Vahid.Parvaresh at anglia.ac.uk

References:

Aijmer, K. 1984. “Sort of” and “Kind of” in English Conversation. Studia
Linguistica 38: 118-128.
Channell, J. 1994. Vague Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cutting, J., ed. 2007. Vague Language Explored. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Fetzer, A. 2010. Hedges in context: Form and function of ‘sort of’ and ‘kind
of’.  In Gunther Kaltenböck, Wiltrud Mihatsch, Stefan Schneider (eds.) New
Approaches to Hedging, pp. 35-48. Bingley (UK): Emerald.
Holmes, J. 1988. ‘Sort of’ in New Zealand women’s and men’s speech. Studia
Linguistica 42(2): 85–121.
Jucker, A. H., S. W. Smith and T. Lüdge 2003. Interactional strategy:
Interactive aspects of vagueness in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 35:
1737–1769.
Kay, P. 1984. The kind of/sort of construction. Proceedings of the Tenth
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, pp. 157-171. 
Parvaresh, V. and M. J. Ahmadian 2016. The impact of task structure on the use
of vague expressions by EFL learners. The Language Learning Journal 4:
436-450.
Zhang, G. 2011. Elasticity of vague language. Intercultural Pragmatics 8:
571-599.
Zhang, G. 2014. The elasticity of ‘I think’: Stretching its pragmatic
functions. Intercultural Pragmatics 11(2): 225–257.
Zhang, G. 2015. Elastic Language: How and Why We Stretch Our Words. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, G. and P. Sabet 2016. Elastic ‘I think’: Stretching over L1 and L2.
Applied Linguistics 37: 334–353.

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics

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