Title

Gambits Across Genres: A Corpus-based Study.

Authors

Nikmehr, Amir; Yazdanimoghaddam, Massood

Abstract

Gambits are not randomly assigned to utterances, but are appropriately used under precise and well-defined conversational conditions. These conversational conditions may comprise a specific genre that in turn may lead to specific gambit employment. As a means to an end, a corpus of fifteen films pertaining to action, comedy, and romance genres was analyzed to uncover the underlying gambits in each genre. To our surprise a low association was found between gambit types and genres, that is, the type of gambits did not vary with genre alteration, while their frequency differed. The long lasting belief that 'cajolers' are the most frequent gambit type was challenged thus, shedding light on chronological language change. The results may also prove pedagogically fruitful in that teachers could find it useful to be mindful of prioritizing which gambits to teach especially in EFL contexts where time is a never resolving issue.

Subjects

GENRE studies; CONVERSATION method (Language teaching); LINGUISTIC change

Publication

Linguistics Journal, 2017, p151

ISSN

1718-2301

Publication type

Academic Journal