Maggie Fennell’s blog

Japanese Convos

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:20:17 -0400

I thought the article we read about the silence in Japanese language was very interesting. Initially I thought it didn't seem that different from the conversations American speakers have. In other words, I feel like American's use body language once in a while, but now that we read this article, I have been paying attention and I think that it is extremely rare for American speakers to be silent. Silence is usually awkward and filled with a face that represents "this is awkward, what should we say now." After talking with another girl in our class who has witnessed Japanese conversations, she said that they honestly use silence very often and it seems somewhat awkward to American's listening because it makes you wonder why no one is speaking when in reality they are using body language, smiles, nods, etc.. to converse. Just thought I would share my thoughts on that article. :)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Adjacency Pairs

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:14:18 -0400

To make sure I understand adjacency pairs, I've decided to give a few examples.

From class:
How are you?
Fine, thanks. How are you?

Hey, there.
Hey!

You're cute.
Thank you.
(would "your're cute too" be expected as an adjacency pair?)

Let's grab a drink tonight.
Okay, when and where?

What time will you be here on Sunday?
11:00.

I missed you so much!
I missed you too!

So preference organization would be the possibility of having a few different answers to the questions, correct? So for What time will you be here on Sunday? The Preferred answer would be a time. The non-preferred would be something like "oh I"m not coming anymore." Or for You're cute. The preferred answer would be, "Thanks, you're cute too" or "You're not so bad yourself." The non-preferred answer would be "No I'm not" or "Wish I could say the same." Haha.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Niceness rankings

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:18:52 -0400

Clinton should win this Presidency
a.) "No way, a woman couldn't run this country"
b.) "Well, she would make a good leader, but I think McCain would be better."
c.) "I agree."
Order of niceness: c., b., a.

I am finally healed from my facelift.
a.) "It looks great."
b.) "You look so much better than before, you really needed it."
c.) "I can't even tell the difference."
a., b., c.

Rajon Rondo has been such an asset to the Boston Celtics!
a.) He is pretty good, but they have some other really experienced players I think are more well trained."
b.) "He's no Michael Jordan."
c.) "He's amazing, my favorite player to watch, a huge asset to the team and should be breaking records soon."
c., a., b.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Today's Chart

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:11:56 -0400

"To tell someone you love them"

                                              __________________________
                                                    I                                          I
                                        say something                              say nothing
                                      "I love you"                                 Kiss them, hug them, give them "the eye"
                                        I                     I
                               on record             hint
                       "I love you"           "I think we were meant for each other."
                               I                 I
                  face saving        bald
                   ???                "You are the love of my life."
                      I                           I
     pos. politeness    neg. politeness
"Let's make-out."            "I think I'm falling for you."

Did I do this right? I couldn't figure out what face saving would be. Also would the actual words, "I love you" work for say something, on record, bald, etc...?
"I

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Implicature

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:58:49 -0400

Okay I'm going to make sure I know the difference between generalized and particularized implicature.

It is cold outside:   Particularized because you are talking about it being cold to you in the place you are right now.
It is cold in winter:   Genralized because you are saying in general it is more cold during the winter season.
Give me a piece of gum:   Generalized because you aren't specifying the type of gum you want.
Today is my birthday!    Particularized because you are talking about a specific date and it is the birthday of the speaker.
I love buying shoes:   Generalized becuase there are so many types of shoes.
Sports are so much fun to watch:   Generalized because you don't specify the sport.
I predict Kansas will win the NCAA tournament:   Particularized.

Am I doing this right? Thanks!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Cooperative and Politeness principles

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:14:16 -0400

Hello Everyone! I want to make sure I understand the anomalies.

For Cooperative:

Maxim of quality: Roger Clemens is a great baseball player accused of using steroids.
Roger Clemens doesn't use steroids.
(If the speaker believes Roger Clemens is not guilty then they are not saying something they believe to be false.)

Maxim of quantity:   Who do you think will make it to the final four?
                               Well, WVU beat out Duke which was amazing becuase Bob Huggins is a really exciting coach and Duke was seeded number 2 while WVU was seeded number 10, so they have a shot at making it. UNC, Memphis and Kansas are seeded number 1 so they have a good chance of making it. UCLA is probalby going to make it too. They've won the most NCAA tournaments with 13 wins. Davidson beat the number 2 seed, Georgetown so they might make it, because they're hot right now. Another underdog is WKY who has been playing great and has a chance as well. But really, it's hard to tell at this point, because the games are so close that you never know. I thought Kansas St. would have made it with their amazing freshmen Michael Beesley, who will probalby be the number 1 draft pick next year. If I had to make a guess right now though, I would say, probably UCLA, UNC, Kansas and then not sure. The final four has never had four number 1 seed teams so an underdog should be in the prediction.

Maxim of manner:   What did you do today?
                                  I got my nails done around 7 pm. I went to the grocery around 3:00. Ate lunch at Panera with Erica at noon, had class early this morning, then watched a movie before bed.

Maxim of tact:   Could you help me clean out the garage.
                         Clean out the garage please.
                         Get the garage cleaned before this weekend!
                         The garge is a disaster, thanks to you.

Maxim of generosity:   Let me help you out with the medical bills.
                                  I want to help you pay for your medical bills.
                                  Don't worry about the medical bills, I've got them covered.

Maxim of praise:   Did you have a good time on vacation?
                               No it was aweful!
                               Actually it was fun, we just had terrible weather.
                            Can you tell me how to get to the bookstore?
                               No.
                               I would, but I don't know how.

Maxim of modesty:   Congratultions on graduating!
                               Isn't it great, I'm so proud of myself!
                               I am so happy I have made such a wonderful accomplishment!

Maxim of agreement:   Brandon Rush should be the number 1 draft pick and OJ Mayo the number 2.
                                  I agree that they're both great players, but I think Michael Beesley will be picked before the two of them.

Maxim of sympathy:   My dog had babies and only two of them survived the birth.
                                  I am so sorry to her that!
                                  Well that happens in dog births sometimes, at least you have two left.

Maxim of consideration:   I think Nick Lashey is the most handsome man on this planet!
                                     So you want to have sex with Nick Lashey?

Sorry for the extremely long post, just want to make sure I have all of these right. Let me know what you all think.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Locutionary

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:05:16 -0400

I think I understand Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary now. One question I have though, is this: Can any sentence be Locutionary?

So for example,

Maggie will be visiting the Julia R. Ewen elementary school tomorrow to work on her field experience for her education class.

Locutionary: The entire sentence.
Illocutionary: Visiting the school; working on her field experience
Perlocutionary: Trying to fulfill all of her credit hours for her field experience.

Then the deixis for this sentence would be:

Maggie: could be personal deixis
elementary school: social deixis
tomorrow: temporal deixis
her: personal deixis
will be: temporal deixis (future)

Is that correct?

PS: Sorry for being late on my post!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Deixis!

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:03:21 -0400

Hey everyone! Welcom back to Vox. Hope you guys had a great spring break. I thought the deixis conversation was really interesting yesterday but I don't get all of it. So... here's some practice. Let me know what you think.

The Carnival cruise I went on last week had a talent show at the end of our vacation and my friend Sally played Madonna.

Deixis:
    I, our, Sally, Madonna    person deixis
    went on                       temperal deixis (past tense)
    played                           temperal deixis (past tense)
    last week                       extended spacial deixis
    end                                spacial deixis

One question I have is, would Madonna be considered person deixis or does it have to be able to be replaced with a pronoun? Although, I guess you could replace that with her, if it was in responce to someone else's comment.   Are there any I missed and do you all agree with the ones I acknowledged?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Analysis Review: Hierarchy levels

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:24:31 -0500

The four main hierarchy levels are:
Beginner-              Animals
Superordinate-      Lexical Gap
Basic-                     Dogs
Subordinate -             Shitzu

Beginner-               Animals
Superordinate-         Fish
Basic-                      Shark
Subordinate-                Hamerhead shark

Beginner-               Animals
Superordinate-          Birds
Basic-                        Peacock
Subordinate-                  NO SUBORDINATE

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Analysis Crunch: Metaphors vs. Idioms

nobody@vox.com(Maggie Fennell) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:20:11 -0500

I was reviewing for our Analysis and realized I keep getting metaphors and idioms confused. Here are some examples I came up with to help me figure them out.

1.) It's raining cats and dogs-
    metaphore because it is not literal. In it's literal sense, cats and dogs would be falling from the sky.
2.) Iraq's government is in it's infancy-
    idiom because it is more literal than the previous example. Infancy can also be referred to as "beginning of..."            therefore, the statment literally means that Iraq's government is in it's beginning.
3.) The guy is a rock-
     metaphore because he is not literally a rock, he is just very muscular and may feel hard as a rock.
4.) The problem was easy as pie-
    idiom because it's not literally a piece of pie
5.) cry me a river-
    idiom beause rivers are water and therefore it refers to the literal meaning of crying.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend