Elastic Language in Persuasion and Comforting

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 1-9

3. Theoretical Foundations

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 11-60

4. Methodology

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 61-82

5. Elastic Language in the Chinese Data

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 83-161

6. Elastic Language in the English Data

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 163-229

7. Comparison Between the Chinese and English Findings

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 231-257

8. Elastic Language and Impact Factors

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 259-271

9. Conclusions

   • Grace Zhang, Vahid Parvaresh

   Pages 273-279

10. Back Matter

    Pages 281-297

    PDF

This innovative book examines the discourse of reality television, and the elasticity of language in the popular talent show The Voice from a cross-cultural perspective. Analysing how and why elastic language is used in persuasion and comforting, a comparison between Chinese and English is made, and the authors highlight the special role that elastic language plays in effective interactions and strategic communication. Through the lens of the language variance of two of the world’s most commonly spoken languages, the insights and resources provided by this book are expected to advance knowledge in the fields of contrastive pragmatics and cross-cultural communication, and inform strategies in bridging different cultures. This study highlights the need to give the elastic use of language the attention it deserves, and reveals how language is non-discrete and strategically stretchable. This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students engaged in elastic/vague language studies, cross-cultural pragmatics, media linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and communication studies.

• Pragmatics
• Pragma-linguistic analysis
• Language stretching
• Lexical patterns
• The Voice
• Language variances
• Cross-cultural communication
• discourse analysis
• chinese

“This empirical data-rich book provides a helpful contribution to the field of cross-cultural pragmatics … . It succeeds in deepening readers’ understanding of the linguistic features of EL … . Its exploration into the speech acts of persuasion and comforting enriches the study of language elasticity. The evidence-based findings of the book bring far-reaching insights … . Those who take an interest in contrastive pragmatics, language stretching, VL/EL, and cross-cultural communication will find the book valuable and beneficial.” (Shuangshuang Lu, Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 187, 2022) “Elastic Language in Persuasion and Comforting: A Cross-Cultural Perspective is an inspiring contribution that opens new avenues for the study of elastic language in cross-cultural communication. The multifaceted analysis of this language phenomenon in terms of speech act theory provides new insights into the investigation of elastic language. This excellent piece of scholarship is highly recommended to all involved in pragmatics and cross-cultural communication.” (Peyman G.P. Sabet, ESL Teaching Academic, Curtin University, Australia)

• School of Education, Curtin University, Bentley, Australia

  Grace Zhang

• School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

  Vahid Parvaresh

Grace Zhang is Professor in the School of Education at Curtin University, Australia.

 

Vahid Parvaresh is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. 

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