A descriptive and analytical study of the communicative functions and the pragmatic force of the exclamatory sentences in written discourse

Abstract

The present research work is an examination of exclamatory sentences from a pragmatic perspective. It aims at delineating these sentences place in Speech Act Theory. It also aims, through an experimental study, at verifying the efficacy of training third-year students at the Department of English, University of Jijel, to decipher the pragmatic force of exclamatory sentences in literary excerpts by means of the heuristic strategy and its influence on their written discourse. It has been hypothesised that using exclamatory sentences effectively in written discourse is only possible when the students have the necessary intake of adequate knowledge about the pragmatic force of these sentences. The outperformance of the experimental group over the control group in the post-test results and their effective use of exclamatory sentences in their post-test writing task confirmed this research hypothesis. This research work additionally encompasses a descriptive study which aims at revealing thirdyear students’ problems at the level of exclamatory sentences form-function pairing when realising the expressive speech act by virtue of a written discourse completion test and two questionnaires. The test detected the existence of such problems and the questionnaires divulged that the students’ lack of pragmalinguistic competence as far as the exclamatory sentences are concerned is ascribed to their poor reading practice on one hand, and their Written Expression teachers’ negligence in allocating attention to sentences meaning and context when teaching writing on the other. Accordingly, Written Expression teachers are called to integrate pragmatics into teaching writing for attaining the circumvention of their students’ pragmalinguistic problems.