Maschler2018
| Maschler2018 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Maschler2018 |
| Author(s) | Yael Maschler, Gonen Dori-Hacohen |
| Title | Constructing a genre: Hebrew ('ani) lo yode'a / lo yoda'at ‘(I) don’t know’ on Israeli political radio phone-ins |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Mental verb constructions, affective and epistemic stance, hedging, self-repair, avoidance strategies, Hebrew |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2018 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | Text & Talk |
| Volume | 38 |
| Number | 5 |
| Pages | 575-604 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2018-0015 |
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Abstract
We explore employment of the Hebrew construction ('ani) lo yode'a / lo yoda'at (lit ‘[I] not m/f-sg.know’), roughly equivalent to English ‘I don’t know’, by callers and hosts in 80 interactions on Israeli political radio phone-in programs, as compared with its functions in casual conversation. Five uses were attested in the corpus of radio phone-ins and correlated with the syntactic form of complementation (if available) for each token of the construction: (i) expressing literal lack of knowledge; (ii) expressing epistemic stance of uncertainty / hedging; (iii) gaining cognitive processing time in the midst of self-repair; (iv) expressing affective stance of contempt or criticism; and (v) avoidance strategies. While most of these uses are common to both genres, some are unattested in casual conversation. By exploring the functions of the ('ani) lo yode'a / lo yoda'at construction and their distribution according to institutional role, the study (i) sheds further light on the use of the construction and its evolvement through use; and (ii) shows how hosts and callers exploit this specific construction in ways that establish the Israeli political radio phone-in institutional genre.
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