Emphasis

Gerda Eva Lauerbach
Table of contents

Emphasis, from Greek emphaínein ‘to exhibit, to indicate’, is a complex phenomenon. Historically it has its roots in ancient rhetoric, where it refers to the exceptional force, intensity or otherwise unusual form of expression on the part of speakers or writers which serves to indicate or attract attention to special meaning, importance, or prominence of their words, feelings or actions. The nature of the particular meaning, importance or prominence in any specific instance of use has to be inferred. Emphasis fulfils two main functions. Firstly, to aid recipients in better comprehending utterances and texts. Secondly, to facilitate the audience’s adoption of certain opinions, beliefs and desires. Thus, cognition and affect are involved, and the two main communicative strategies of informing and persuading or influencing (Schirren 1994). Emphasis is also a topic in literary and general stylistics, as well as in linguistic stylistics (Crystal & Davy 1969; Leech & Short 1981; Enkvist 1987; Esser 1993; Selting 1994). It has been studied in Prague School functional linguistics (Mathesius 1964), and in systemic functional linguistics (Halliday 1994). In linguistics emphasis is associated with information structure (Halliday 1994), prosody (Cutler & Ladd 1983; Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg 1990), markedness (Levelt 1991), and salience (Levelt 1991; Giora 2002) – topics that are dealt with in other entries in this Handbook. Although these aspects have become particularly relevant for cognitive science and automatic speech processing, these fields will not be dealt with here (but cf. Special Issue on Dialogue and prosody of Speech Communication 36, 2002; Hirschberg 2002; Shriberg et al. 1998). Due to its implicit nature, an account of emphasis will also have to refer to models of inference, for instance those formulated by Grice (1975) and Sperber & Wilson (1995).

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Atkinson, M.
1984 Our masters’ voices. Methuen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M.
1971 Discourse typology. In L. Matejka & K. Pomorska (eds.) Readings in Russian poetics: formalist and structuralist views: 176–196. MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baldry, A.
(ed.) 2000 Multimodality and multimediality in the distance learning age. Palladino Editore.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bateson, G.
1972 Steps to an ecology of mind. Aaronson Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D.
1989 A typology of English texts. Linguistics 27: 3–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Black, M.
1979 More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.): 19–45.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, S., M. Blondheim & G. Hacohen
2002 Traditions of dispute: from negotiations of talmudic texts to the arena of political discourse in the media. Journal of Pragmatics 34(10–11): 1569–1594.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, D.
1972 Accent is predictable (if you’re a mind reader). Language 48: 633–644.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caffi, C. & R.W. Janney
1994 Toward a pragmatics of emotive communication. Journal of Pragmatics 22(3/4): 325–373.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caldas-Coulthard, C.
1994 On reporting reporting: the representation of speech in factual and factional narratives. In M. Coulthard (ed.) Advances in written text analysis: 295–308. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clayman, S.
1988 Displaying neutrality in television news interviews. Social problems 35: 474–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crystal, D. & D. Davy
1969 Investigating English style. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cutler, A. & D.R. Ladd
(eds.) 1983 Prosody: Models and Measurements. Springer.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eggins, S. & D. Slade
1997 Analysing casual conversation. Cassell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enkvist, N.
1987 What happened to stylistics? In U. Fries (ed.) The structure of texts: 11–28. Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Esser, J.
1993 English linguistic stylistics. Niemeyer.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, N.
1988 Discourse representation in media discourse. Sociolinguistics 17: 125–139.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992 Discourse and text: linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis. Discourse and society 3(2): 193–217.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, C.E. & S.A. Thompson
1996 Interactional units in conversation: syntactic, intonational, and pragmatic resources for the management of turns. In E. Ochs, E. Schegloff & S.A. Thompson (eds.) Interaction and grammar: 134–184. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gill, A. & K. Whedbee
1997 Rhetoric. In T. Van Dijk (ed.): 157–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E.
1974 Frame analysis. Penguin.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1981 Footing. In Forms of talk: 124–157. Blackwell.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, M.H., C. Goodwin & M. Yaeger-Dror
2002 Multi-modality in girls’ game disputes. Journal of Pragmatics 34(10–11): 1621–1649. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H.P.
1975 Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds.) Syntax and semantics, vol 3: speech acts: 41–58. Academic Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giora, R.
2002 On our mind. Salience, context and figurative language. Oxford University Press.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, J.
1982 Discourse strategies. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992 Contextualization and understanding. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds.) Rethinking context. Language as an interactive phenomenon: 229–252. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K.
1970 A course in spoken English: intonation. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994 Introduction to functional grammar. Edward Arnold.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & R. Hasan
1985 Language, context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Deakin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, J. & D. Greatbatch
1986/87 Generating applause: a study of rhetoric and response at party political conferences. American Journal of Sociology 92: 110–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hirschberg, J.
2002 Communication and prosody: functional aspects of prosody. Speech Communication 36: 31–43.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunston, S.
2000 Evaluation and the planes of discourse: status and value in persuasive texts. In G. Thompson & S. Hunston (eds.): 176–207.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaufmann, A.
2002 Negation and prosody in British English: a study based on the London-Lund Corpus. Journal of Pragmatics 34(10–11): 1473–1494.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klewitz, G. & E. Couper-Kuhlen
1999 Quote-unquote? The role of prosody in the contextualization of reported speech sequences. Pragmatics 9: 459–485. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kotthoff, H.
(ed.) 1988 Das Gelächter der Geschlechter. Humor und Macht in Gesprächen von Frauen und Männern. Fischer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, G. & T. Van Leeuwen
1996 Reading images. The grammar of visual design. Routledge.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G.
1971 Presupposition and relative well-formedness. In D. Steinberg & L. Jakobovits (eds.) Semantics. An interdisciplinary reader in philosophy, linguistics and psychology: 63–72. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1993 The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.): 202–251.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson
1980 Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, G. & M. Short
1981 Style in fiction. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lerner, G.H.
1991 On the syntax of sentences-in-progress. Language in Society 20(3): 441–458. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levelt, W.J.M.
1991 Speaking. From intention to articulation. MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levelt, W.J.M. & A. Cutler
1983 Prosodic marking in speech repair. Journal of Semantics 2: 202–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, S.
1979 Activity types and language. Linguistics 17(5): 365–399.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J.
2000 Beyond exchange: appraisal systems in English. In G. Thompson & S. Hunston (eds.): 142–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mathesius, V.
1964 [1939] Verstärkung und Emphase. In J. Vachek (ed.) A Prague School reader in linguistics: 426–432. Indiana University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Minsky, M.
1975 A framework for representing knowledge. In P.H. Winston (ed.) The psychology of computer vision: 211–280. McGraw-Hill.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ortony, A.
(ed.) (1979, 2 1993) Metaphor and thought. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J. & J. Hirschberg
1990 The meaning of intonational contours in the interpretation of discourse. In P. Cohen, J. Morgan & M. Pollack (eds.) Intentions in communication: 271–311. MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rumelhart, D.E. & A. Ortony
1977 The representation of knowledge in memory. In R.C. Anderson, R.J. Spiro & W.E. Montague (eds.) Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge: 99–135. Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, H.
1987 On the preferences for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation. In G. Button & J.R.E. Lee (eds.) Talk and social organisation: 54–69. Multibilingual Matters.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.
1972 Sequencing in conversational openings. In J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (eds.) Directions in sociolinguistics: 346–380. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979 Identification and recognition in telephone conversation openings. In G. Psathas (ed.) Everday language: studies in ethnomethodology: 23–78. Irvington.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. & H. Sacks
1973 Opening up closings. Semiotica 7(4): 289–327.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schirren, T.
1994 Emphase. In G. Ueding (ed.) Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik: 1121–1123. Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schütz, A.
1962 Collected papers. The Hague.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R.
1998 Mediated discourse as social interaction – a study of news discourse. Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selting, M.
1994 Emphatic speech style – with special focus on the prosodic signalling of heightened emotive involvement in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 22(3/4): 375–408. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Short, M.
1988 Speech presentation, the novel and the press. In W. Van Peer (ed.) The taming of the text: 61–81. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shriberg, E. et al.
1998 Can prosody aid the automatic classification of dialog acts in conversational speech? Language and Speech 41(3–4): 443–492.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sinclair, J.
1991 Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, D. & D. Wilson
1995 Relevance – communication and cognition. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swerts, M. & J. Terken
2002 Dialogue and prosody. Speech Communication 36: 1–3. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, D.
1979 What’s in a frame? Surface evidence for underlying expectations. In O. Freedle (ed.) New directions in discourse processing, Vol. 2: 137–182. Ablex.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989 Talking Voices: Repetition, dialogue and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002 Agonism in academic discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 34(10–11): 1651–1669.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.) 1993 Framing in discourse. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, G. & S. Hunston
(eds.) 2000 Evaluation in text. Authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toulmin, S.
1969 The uses of argument. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Dijk, T.
1998 Opinions and ideologies in the press. In A. Bell & P. Garrett (eds.) Approaches to media discourse: 21–63. Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.) 1997 Discourse as structure and process. Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Eemeren, F.H. & R. Grootendorst
1992 Argumentation, communication, and fallacies: a pragma-dialectical perspective. Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Eemeren, F.H., R. Grootendorst, S. Jackson & S. Jacobs
1997 Argumentation. In T. Van Dijk (ed.): 208–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Eemeren, F.H. & P. Houtlosser
2002 Strategic maneuvering: maintaining a delicate balance. In F.H. Van Eemeren & P. Houtlosser (eds.) Dialectic and rhetoric: the warp and woof of argumentation analysis: 131–159. Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, J.
2002 Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use. Pragmatics 10: 439–456.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, P.
2000 Dialogue and intersubjectivity: reinterpreting the semantics of modality and hedging. In M. Coulthard, F. Cotterill & F. Rock (eds.) Dialogue analysis VII: Working with dialogue: 67–80. Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yaeger-Dror, M.
2002 Register and prosodic variation, a cross language comparison. Journal of Pragmatics 34(10–11): 1495–1536.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue