Chapter 3. Towards pragmatic construction typology

Abstract

This paper introduces discourse formulae, i.e. frequently used formulaic replies like No way! or You bet!, as an object for linguistic typology. It demonstrates that the frame methodology (Rakhilina & Reznikova 2016) could be applied to these multi-word pragmatic units. The method implies deducing typical situations of use (frames) for a group of synonymous units, and comparing the distributions of these units across frames in different languages. The pilot data includes discourse formulae of negation in Russian, Polish, Slovenian, and Serbian. Six major frames are established. The distributions are obtained with surveys, with Correspondence Analysis applied to the data. The pragmatic parameters influencing the distributions concern the illocutionary type of the preceding utterance, and the speaker’s role in the dialogue.