In:Local Grammar Approaches to Speech Act Studies: Apology in contemporary spoken British English
Hang Su
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 123] 2025
► pp. vii–xii
Table of contents
List of tablesXIX
List of figuresXIX
Preface and acknowledgementsXXI
Chapter 1.Introduction1
1.1Corpus linguistics2
1.2Pragmatics4
1.3Corpus pragmatics6
1.4Speech acts8
1.5Corpus approaches to speech act studies10
1.6Apology12
1.7Overview of the book14
Chapter 2.Local grammar17
2.1Introduction17
2.2Local grammar17
2.2.1Defining local grammar17
2.2.2Methodological issues concerning local grammar research22
2.3Local grammar and related concepts32
2.3.1Local grammar and FrameNet32
2.3.2Local grammar and corpus pattern analysis33
2.3.3Local grammar and transitivity in systemic functional linguistics34
2.3.4Local grammar and construction grammar35
2.4Implications and applications of local grammar research36
2.4.1Local grammar vs. functional grammar36
2.4.2Local grammar vs general grammar38
2.4.3Local grammar and language teaching40
2.4.4Local grammar and natural language processing41
2.5Local grammars and speech act studies42
2.6Summary44
Chapter 3.A local grammar approach to speech act annotation46
3.1Introduction46
3.2Issues concerning speech act annotation47
3.2.1Speech act types47
3.2.2Unit of speech act annotation50
3.2.3Delicacy of speech act annotation51
3.3Speech act annotation schemes: An overview52
3.3.1Dialogue act annotation52
3.3.2The speech act annotated corpus53
3.3.3The dialogue annotation and research tool54
3.3.4The SPICE-Ireland annotation scheme58
3.3.5An interim summary59
3.4A local grammar approach to annotating speech acts60
3.4.1A local grammar annotation of apology60
3.4.2A local grammar annotation of request62
3.4.3Can the local grammar annotation of speech acts be automated?65
3.5A local grammar approach to speech act annotation: Potentials and challenges66
3.5.1Potentials66
3.5.2Challenges69
3.6Summary70
Chapter 4.Developing local grammars of speech acts72
4.1Introduction72
4.2Why a local grammar approach to account for speech act realisations?72
4.3Corpora and methodology75
4.3.1The corpora75
4.3.2Data retrieval75
4.4Local grammar analyses of apologies77
4.4.1Set 1: Simple patterns78
4.4.2Set 2: Slightly modified patterns78
4.4.3Set 3: Relatively complex patterns80
4.4.4Set 4: More complex patterns82
4.4.5Set 5: Highly complex patterns83
4.4.6An overview of the local grammar of apology in contemporary spoken British English84
4.4.7General discussion86
4.5Local grammars of speech acts in languages other than English87
4.5.1The local grammar of exemplification in Chinese88
4.5.2The local grammar of apology in Italian92
4.5.3An interim summary95
4.6Developing local grammars of speech acts: Benefits and challenges96
4.6.1Benefits96
4.6.2Challenges98
4.7Summary100
Chapter 5.A local grammar approach to identifying speech act constructions103
5.1Introduction103
5.2Local grammar and construction grammar revisited104
5.2.1Revisiting the concept of local grammar104
5.2.2An introduction to construction grammar105
5.2.3Why and how to identify speech act constructions?107
5.3Local grammar and construction grammar approaches to speech act studies110
5.3.1An overview of the local grammar approach to speech act studies110
5.3.2An overview of the construction grammar approach to speech act studies111
5.4Identifying apology constructions via the lens of local grammar113
5.4.1A brief note on the data113
5.4.2Local grammar patterns of apology in the Spoken BNC2014114
5.4.3Generalising apology constructions from local grammar patterns of apology117
5.4.4General discussion120
5.5Summary125
Chapter 6.A local grammar approach to diachronic speech act analysis: Changing patterns of apology in contemporary spoken British English128
6.1Introduction128
6.2Diachronic speech act studies129
6.2.1An introduction to diachronic speech act analysis129
6.2.2Methodological issues concerning diachronic speech act studies130
6.2.3Diachronic investigations into apologies131
6.3Local grammar analyses and the quantification of speech act realisations135
6.3.1Utterances containing different IFIDs may realise the same pattern136
6.3.2Utterances containing the same IFID may realise distinct patterns137
6.3.3An interim summary139
6.4Changing patterns of apology in contemporary spoken British English140
6.4.1Apology in the British society140
6.4.2Data and method141
6.4.3Data analyses143
6.4.4Results and discussion144
6.4.5General discussion150
6.5Summary151
Chapter 7.A local grammar approach to contrastive speech act analysis: The impact of speaker sex and culture on apology153
7.1Introduction153
7.2Sex differences in apology behaviour154
7.3Revisiting the local grammar approach to quantifying speech act realisations156
7.4Sex differences of apology and their diachronic changes in contemporary spoken British English157
7.4.1Corpora157
7.4.2Data retrieval157
7.4.3Data analyses158
7.4.4Distribution of the local grammar patterns across the four sub-corpora162
7.4.5Results and discussion164
7.5Local grammar and intercultural speech act studies168
7.5.1Background168
7.5.2A brief note on data and method169
7.5.3Analyses, results, and discussion172
7.6Summary178
Chapter 8.Conclusion180
8.1Introduction180
8.2Recapitulating the local grammar approach to speech act studies180
8.2.1The local grammar approach to speech act annotation180
8.2.2The development of local grammars of speech acts182
8.2.3The local grammar approach to identifying speech act constructions185
8.2.4The local grammar approach to contrastive speech act studies186
8.3Implications and applications187
8.3.1From local grammars of speech acts towards a function-based communicative grammar188
8.3.2Speech act teaching and learning within the framework of local grammar192
8.4Final remarks195
References197
Appendices213
Name index
Subject index
