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The Structural Design of Language

By Thomas S. Stroik, Michael T. Putnam

In this book, Stroik and Putnam take on Turing's challenge. They argue that the narrow syntax – the lexicon, the Numeration, and the computational system – must reside, for reasons of conceptual necessity, within the performance systems.

Summary Details


Query:   (Un)certainty
Author:  Henny Klein
Submitter Email:  click here to access email
Linguistic LingField(s):   Discourse Analysis
Semantics

Summary:   SUMMARY: (UN)CERTAINTY

THE QUESTION:
We work at a project of information retrieval in the medical field.
Right now, we (try to) develop methods to indicate how CERTAIN the
writers of scientific texts are about phenomena they discuss, such as
the fysiological or clinical effect of a medicine. In a first
screening of texts we have found all sorts of lexical clues that may
be used to assess this certainty, like adverbs of degree, modal verbs
(MAY, MUST), certain other groups of verbs (DOUBT, SUGGEST, CONCLUDE),
and modification operators (ALTHOUGH, ESPECIALLY). Of course we are
not the first interested in how people express the certainty of their
statements, and how such expressions can be scaled, so we want to
search the literature. The fields of linguistics that may be of
interest to us seem manyfold (lexical semantics, discourse analysis,
information retrieval?), so we feel it is difficult to start and easy
to miss important information. I should appreciate it very much if you
could help us with suggestions of books and papers that deal with the
linguistic means to convey (un)certainty about facts and ideas.

THE ANSWERS:
LINGUIST was a GREAT HELP, I got many references and reading those
found others again, so I definitely feel ground under my feet (but of
course more suggestions are welcome). I am very grateful to the
respondents:
Prof. R.M. Chandler-Burns
James A. Danowski
Sarah Davies
David Houghton
Henk Pander Maat
Michael Perkins
Linda Stump Rashidi
Gisela Redeker
Susan Scott
Andreas Schramm
Fiona Tweedie
Paul X
Expressions of (un)certainty are on the one hand discussed as
epistemic modality, and on the other hand linked to pragmatic
functions such as hedging and face-saving. The references include
studies on modality in general as well as studies about scientific
(and even especially medical) discourse. Some references I got more
than once, so I made one list of them, including books/papers I found
myself. Comments as given are added, sometimes I provide a short
summary. The references are alfabetically, with exception of some
related by comments. Jim Danowski send me a long list of references to
`language intensity', since this seems a separate - though certainly
related - subject these are attached at the end of the list below.

REFERENCES:

Adams-Smith, D.E. (1984). Medical Discourse: Aspects of Author's
Comment. The ESP Journal 3 (1984) 25-36. The occurrence of
subjective statements in medical texts: differences between
categories of articles (clinical case notes, research papers and
editorials), differences between sections (methods/results/reports
versus discussion/comment)

Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1988). Adverbial stance types in English.
Discourse Processes, 11,1-34.
(Stance: the lexical and grammatical expression of attitudes,
feelings, judgments or commitments concerning the propositional
content of a message HK)
One thing the 1988 article notes is that people, especially when put
on the spot, tend to use certainty adverbs "in marked contrast to the
actual certainty of their discourse" (p. 115). This seems to be the
case as well in my dissertation data (Suzanne Scott) , which looks at
the language of disagreement (although I did not empirically examine
the certainty adverbs; this is an impressionistic comment).

Biber has a chapter on the grammatical coding of stance that was in
preparation last spring, due out from Longman in (this may have been
only a working title) I don't know, however, when that is due out:
Biber, Johansson, Leech, Finegan, & Conrad (?) The Longman grammar of
spoken and written English

Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1989). Styles of stance types in English:
Lexical and grammatical marking of evidentiality and affect. Text,
9(1), 93-124.
12 types of `stance markers' based on semantic and grammatical
criteria are discerned. By means of a cluster analysis 6 stance
styles are identified.

Christopher Butler (1990) `Qualifications in science: modal meanings
in scientific text' In: The Writing Scholar, Walter Nash, Sage,
137-170 Types of use of modal auxilliaries and their collocation with
main verbs, distribution of modals in various text sections.

Chafe, W. (1986). Evidentiality in English conversation and academic
writing. In W. Chafe and J. Nichols (Eds.), Evidentiality: The
linguistic coding of epistemology (pp. 261-272). Norwood, NJ: ABLEX.

Systemic functional linguists have been working and publishing in the
area of modality/certainty for quite some time. The basic reference
here is MAK Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, but a
fairly extensive bib of SF works can be accessed on SF website:
http://minerva.ling.mq.edu.au/Resources/Network/Network.html Halliday,
MAK (1985) An In troduction to Functional Grammar. Edward Arnold.

Hoye, L. (1997) Adverbs and Modality in English. Longman.
Collocations of modal auxilliaries and modal adverbs in epistemic and
non-epistemic modality.

Hyland, K. (1996) `Writing without conviction? Hedging in science
research articles.' Applied Linguistics, 1996, 17 (4) 433-454
A classification of different pragmatic functions of hedging based
on a contextual analysis.

Markkanen R. and H. Schroeder (1997). Hedging and Discourse:
Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic
Texts. Hedging strategies in academic discourse; interactive aspects
of hedging;cross-cultural aspects of hedging; hedging: the concept,
its origins and a bibliographic guide.

Myers, G.(1989) `The Pragmatics of Politeness in Scientific Articles.'
Applied Linguistics 10 (1), 1-35 Politeness strategies in claims and
denial of claims, with devices such as use of pronouns, passives, use
of adverbs.

Mosteller and Youtz (1990) Quantifying Probabilistic Expressions.
Statistical Science 5, 2--12 (comments 12-34)

Palmer, F.R. (1986) Mood and Modality. Cambridge, C.U.P.

Perkins, M. R. (1983) 'Modal Expressions in English' London: Pinter
In my book I proposed a far ranging typology for the kinds of
expressions you mention. The notion of scales of
tentativeness/uncertainty etc is elaborated in:
Perkins, M. R. (1988) Modality and explicitness. In C. Fuchs (Ed)
Actes du Colloque Internationale Ambiguite-Paraphrase. Caen:
Universite de Caen/CNRS, France. 89-97.
This general approach has also been adapted for other languages -
e.g.:
Kangasniemi, H. (1992) Modal Expressions in Finnish. Helsinki:
Suomalaisen 0Kirjallisuuden Seura.
and has been incorporated into a systematic scheme for translation
in:
Gutknecht, C. and Roelle, L. J. (1996) Translating by Factors. New
York: State University of New York Press.

My own MA thesis (Linda Stump Rashidi)--unpublished and done ages
ago--makes extensive use of the Systemic Functionalists' model to
analyze signals of (un)certainty in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. A
published paper based on this thesis is: Linda Stump Rashidi
"Complexity of Reality in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet" in Systemic
Perspectives on Discourse eds. J. Benson and W. Greaves. Ablex.
1985.

Do an AltaVista search for Salager-Meyer and you will find everything
that you need as she (Francoise) is a linguistic doing exactly what
you are looking for. Salager-Meyer, F. (1991) `Medical English
Abstracts, how well are they structured?' Journal American Society for
Information Science 42 (7) 528-531

Salager-Meyer, F. (1994) `Hedges and textual communitative function in
medical English written discourse' English for Specific Purposes 13
(2) 149-170 The distribution of 5 hedging categories over the
different rhetorical sections of research papers and case reports.

Jose Sanders and W. Spooren, Perspective, subjectivity and modality
from a cognitive linguistic point of view. In: WA Liebert, G Redeker
and L Waugh, Discourse and perspective in cognitive linguistics.
Benjamins, 85-112.
with many references

Swales, J. & C. Feak. 1994. "Academic Writing for Graduate Students."
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan PRess. It is a course book for
technical writing. The book talks about exactly the kinds of language
forms you are interested in. It should also have further references to
literature, since J. Swales has been working in this area for a while.
You might want to check out his "Genre Analysis" book as well.

John M. Swales (1990). Genre Analysis. English in academic
and research settings. Cambridge: CUP.
on p 131-2 he gives an overview of textual studies of English
research articles, on different aspects, a.o. the use of modals. Part
of these studies concern medical texts.

Thomas, S. and T.P. Hawes (1994) Reporting Verbs in Medical Journal
Articles. English for Specific Purposes 13/2 (1994) 129-148. Verbs
authors use in reporting/ citing previous studies, dependent on the
rhetorical function: reporting consensus views (cognition verbs),
generalized conclusions (tentative verbs), or specific results and
findings (certainty verbs).


LANGUAGE INTENSITY:

In looking for the Burgoon reference I found that there were more
studies on language intensity (mostly by his former students). These
studies are in the context of persuasion, yet the measurement
processes may be of interest to you for scaling uncertainty rather
than intensity.

1 OF 17
AU Rogan-Randall-G. Hammer-Mitchell-R.
TI Assessing message affect in crisis negotiations: An exploratory
study.
SO Human Communication Research.
1995 Jun Vol 21(4) 553-574.
YR 1995.
CC 3370.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 30980 33230 27740 12510.
MJ MESSAGES. NEGOTIATION. LANGUAGE. CRISIS-INTERVENTION.
ID language intensity & message valence, message affect behavior in
crisis negotiations, negotiators.
CT HUMAN.
AB Examined patterns of perpetrator and negotiator message affect
behavior, which consists of language intensity and message
valence, in 3 actual crisis negotiation incidents (Suicide,
Mental/Emotional Instability, and Domestic). This exploratory
study investigated the following 3 ideas: (1) levels of message
affect of perpetrators and negotiators, (2) relationship between
perpetrator and negotiator message affect behavior, and (3)
reliability of language intensity and message valence in
assessment of message affect. 1,814 speech acts were analyzed.
The Michigan State Police 4-stage strategic model of negotiation
(Introduction and Establishing Contact, Relationship Building,
Problem Negotiation, and Resolution) served as a template.
Results support language intensity and message valence as coding
schemes which were employed to measure message affect. (PsycINFO
Database Copyright 1996 American Psychological Assn, all rights
reserved).
*********************************************************************
***
2 OF 17
AU Aune-R-Kelly. Kikuchi-Toshiyuki.
TI Effects of language intensity similarity on perceptions of
credibility, relational attributions, and persuasion.
SO Journal of Language & Social Psychology.
1993 Sep Vol 12(3) 224-238.
YR 1993.
CC 3040.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 38010 48320 16765 57227 26240 04525 12400 30980 01150.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. SOCIAL-PERCEPTION. EMOTIONAL-CONTENT.
WRITTEN-COMMUNICATION. INTERPERSONAL-INFLUENCES.
MN ATTRIBUTION. CREDIBILITY. MESSAGES. ADULTHOOD.
ID language intensity similarity of source & receiver of persuasive
message, perception of credibility & relational attributions &
persuasion, college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Communication accommodation theory was used to predict
relationships
between the degree of similarity of a source's and receiver's use
of language intensity and attributions made about the source of a
message. 286 undergraduate Ss, whose use of language intensity
had been assessed, read a persuasive message written with either
high or low language intensity. Actual similarity between
respondents' and stimulus language intensity was positively
correlated with perceptions of source credibility
(sociability/character, extraversion) and immediacy, and
negatively correlated with arousal. Perceived similarity in
language intensity was also positively correlated with credibility
perceptions (competence, sociability/character, composure), as
well as immediacy and intimacy, and negatively correlated with
arousal. (PsycINFO Database Copyright
1


1994 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
3 OF 17
AU Rogan-Randall-G.
TI An interaction analysis of negotiator and hostage-taker identity
goal, relational goal, and language intensity message behavior
within hostage negotiations: A descriptive investigation of three
negotiations.
SO Dissertation Abstracts International.
1991 Jun Vol 51(12-A, Pt 1) 3957.
YR 1991.
CC 3020 3236.
PT Dissertation Abstracts International (61).
SC 21240 55520 11250 23347 33230 27740 01150.
MJ GOALS. VERBAL-COMMUNICATION. CONFLICT. HOSTAGES. NEGOTIATION.
MN LANGUAGE. ADULTHOOD. ID description of hostage negotiations as
functional goal based
interactions marked by patterns of language intensity.
CT HUMAN.
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
4 OF 17
AU Hamilton-Mark-A. Hunter-John-E. Burgoon-Michael.
TI An empirical test of an axiomatic model of the relationship
between
language intensity and persuasion.
SO Journal of Language & Social Psychology.
1990 Vol 9(4) 235-255.
YR 1990.
CC 3020.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 38010 26220 04430 04070 27740 16765 01150.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. INTERPERSONAL-COMMUNICATION.
ATTITUDE-CHANGE. ASSERTIVENESS. LANGUAGE.
MN EMOTIONAL-CONTENT. ADULTHOOD.
ID language intensity, persuasiveness & receiver attitude change,
college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Tested 6 axioms concerning the effect of language intensity on
receiver attitudes in a study with 294 undergraduates. Consistent
with an information processing model based on message discrepancy,
expectancy, and elaboration likelihood theories, intensity
affected attitudes through 3 routes: (1) Intensity increased
attitude change via message clarity, with clarity acting as a
mediator variable. (2) Intensity interacted with discrepancy and
perceived source likability to produce attitude change. (3) The
effect of intensity on attitudes was moderated by source
expectations. Intensity enhanced persuasiveness for a high
credibility source and inhibited persuasiveness for a low
credibility source. Receiver anxiety moderated the effect of
source gender expectations on the intensity-attitude relationship.
(PsycINFO Database Copyright 1991 American Psychological Assn,
all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
5 OF 17
AU Miller-Michael-D. Reynolds-Rodney-A. Cambra-Ronald-E.
TI The influence of gender and culture on language intensity.
SO Communication Monographs.
1987 Mar Vol 54(1) 101-105.
YR 1987.
1


CC 2720.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 23510 42618 30980 38010 41700 04007 56720 22310 18130 01150.
MJ HUMAN-SEX-DIFFERENCES. RACIAL-AND-ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES. MESSAGES.
PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION.
MN PSYCHOLINGUISTICS. ASIANS. WHITES. HAWAII. ETHNOLINGUISTICS.
ADULTHOOD.
ID sex, choice of language intensity for persuasive messages, White
vs
Chinese vs Japanese American college students, Hawaii.
CT HUMAN.
AB Studied the extent to which gender and cultural background
interact
to influence the use of intense language for use in persuasive
messages. Ss were 107 volunteer White-American, Chinese-American,
and Japanese-American undergraduates taking speech courses at the
University of Hawaii. Findings show that while American males and
females did not differ significantly in the level of language
intensity used, both Japanese and Chinese males used significantly
higher levels of language intensity than did their female
counterparts. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1988 American
Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
6 OF 17
AU Traynowicz-Laurel-L.
TI Communication and relationship: The small talk of intimates and
strangers.
SO Dissertation Abstracts International.
1982 Jan Vol 42(7-A) 2934.
YR 1982.
CC 3020.
PT Dissertation Abstracts International (61).
SC 11710 26370 15540.
MJ CONVERSATION. INTIMACY. DYADS.
ID lexical diversity & language intensity & use of ""we-terms'',
intimate vs stranger dyads.
CT HUMAN.
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
7 OF 17
AU Long-Mercedes-L.
TI The effects of active and passive roleplaying, language intensity,
and cognitive complexity on attitude change.
SO Dissertation Abstracts International.
1981 Dec Vol 42(6-A) 2341.
YR 1981.
CC 3020.
PT Dissertation Abstracts International (61).
SC 44860 04430 10060 27740.
MJ ROLE-PLAYING. ATTITUDE-CHANGE. COGNITIVE-COMPLEXITY. LANGUAGE.
ID cognitive complexity & language intensity & role playing activity
level, attitude change.
CT HUMAN.
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
8 OF 17
AU Shapiro-Mitchell-E.
TI The effect of belief type, pretreatment strategy, and language
intensity on the induction of resistance to persuasion.
SO Dissertation Abstracts International.
1979 May Vol 39(11-B) 5663.
1


YR 1979.
CC 3040.
PT Dissertation Abstracts International (61).
SC 38010 04500 04430 27740.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. ATTITUDES. ATTITUDE-CHANGE. LANGUAGE.
ID belief type & pretreatment strategy & language intensity,
resistance
to persuasive messages.
CT HUMAN.
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
9 OF 17
AU Sterrett-John-H.
TI The job interview: Body language and perceptions of potential
effectiveness.
SO Journal of Applied Psychology.
1978 Jun Vol 63(3) 388-390.
YR 1978.
CC 3620.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 06470 26930 48320 29390 37940 23510.
MJ BODY-LANGUAGE. JOB-APPLICANT-INTERVIEWS. SOCIAL-PERCEPTION.
MANAGEMENT-PERSONNEL. PERSONNEL-SELECTION.
HUMAN-SEX-DIFFERENCES.
ID job applicant body language intensities, perceptions of potential
effectiveness, male vs female managers.
CT HUMAN.
AB Videotapes of a male job applicant displaying various intensities
of
body language (length of eye contact, number of hand gestures,
level of dress, and length of pause before answering a question)
were shown to and rated by 160 managers in the insurance industry.
Using a 4 * 2 * 2 factorial design, the hypotheses that different
body language intensities affected perceptions of 8 traits
typically considered in the employment process (ambition,
motivational drive, self-confidence, self-organization,
responsibility, verbal ability, intelligence, and sincerity) were
not statistically significant. It was found that women rated
applicants using high-intensity body language low on ambition, and
those using low-intensity body language high on ambition; males
reacted in an opposite fashion. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1979
American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
10 OF 17
AU Bradac-James-J. Hosman-Lawrence-A. Tardy-Charles-H.
TI Reciprocal disclosures and language intensity: Attributional
consequences.
SO Communication Monographs.
1978 Mar Vol 45(1) 1-17.
YR 1978.
CC 3040.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 26370 46250 04525 49070 43340 26150 12400 30980.
MJ INTIMACY. SELF-DISCLOSURE. ATTRIBUTION. SPEECH-CHARACTERISTICS.
RECIPROCITY. INTERNAL-EXTERNAL-LOCUS-OF-CONTROL. CREDIBILITY.
MESSAGES.
ID message intensity & speaker's reciprocity & S's self disclosure
tendencies, attributions of internality & credibility &
appropriateness, college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Examined the personality attributions made of a second speaker
when
(a) he or she reciprocated or failed to reciprocate the intimacy 1


level of a disclosure made by an initial speaker and when (b) he
or she matched or failed to match the initial speaker's level of
language intensity. 122 undergraduates were instructed to read 2
messages in succession, thinking of the 2nd as a response to the
1st. Ss then evaluated the 2nd speaker on several scales,
including 10 items from Rotter's Internal-External Locus of
Control Scale. Results indicate that a speaker's level of language
intensity qualifies to some extent the positive judgments of
reciprocated intimacy and the negative judgments of
non-reciprocated intimacy obtained in previous research. Other
findings indicate that (a) high intimacy and high intensity result
in attributions of high speaker internality and (b) a perceiver's
own tendency to disclose affects his or her judgments of high- and
low-intimacy messages that vary in language intensity. (PsycINFO
Database Copyright 1979 American Psychological Assn, all rights
reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
11 OF 17
AU Chase-Lawrence-J. Kelly-Clifford-W.
TI Language intensity and resistance to persuasion: A research note.
SO Human Communication Research.
1976 Fal Vol 3(1) 82-85.
YR 1976.
CC 3000.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 38010 04430 49070 30980.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. ATTITUDE-CHANGE.
SPEECH-CHARACTERISTICS.
MESSAGES.
ID language intensity in refutational pretreatments &
counterattitudinal
messages, resistance to persuasion, college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Tested 3 hypotheses concerning the specific role of language
intensity differentiation (high, moderate, or low) in both
pretreatment and counterattitudinal messages in 2 studies, using
489 undergraduates. Results indicate that low intensity
pretreatments were more effective than either moderate or high
intensity innoculations in conferring resistance to persuasion.
The findings for refutational pretreatments are, therefore, not
consistent with previous research. Future research in this area
should be characterized by a greater degree of specificity
concerning the possible effects of receiver expectations on
subsequent attitude change. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1978
American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
12 OF 17
AU Greenberg-Bradley-S.
TI The effects of language intensity modification on perceived verbal
aggressiveness.
SO Communication Monographs.
1976 Jun Vol 43(2) 130-139.
YR 1976.
CC 2720.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 01390 55520 01180 00830 49070 56980.
MJ AGGRESSIVE-BEHAVIOR. VERBAL-COMMUNICATION. ADVERBS. ADJECTIVES.
SPEECH-CHARACTERISTICS. WORD-MEANING.
ID language intensity modification, perceived verbal aggressiveness,
college students.
CT HUMAN.
1


AB Examined the effects of variation in language intensity on the
perceived aggressiveness of sentences representing 5 empirically
established levels of verbal aggression. After a pretest with 39
undergraduates, the main experimental group of 103 undergraduates
read and rated the aggressiveness of replicated sentences in which
the level of verbal aggression and language intensity had been
systematically varied. Tests of the hypothesized relationship
between language intensity, verbal aggression, and perceived
aggressiveness suggested that frequency adverbs do affect the
perceived aggressiveness of sentences at most levels of verbal
aggression. Increasing language intensity increased perceived
verbal aggression only at low levels of verbal aggression;
decreasing language intensity was most effective at higher levels
of verbal aggression. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1978 American
Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
13 OF 17
AU Miller-Michael-D. Burgoon-Michael.
TI Predictors of resistance to persuasion: Propensity of persuasive
attack, pretreatment language intensity, and expected delay of
attack.
SO Journal of Psychology.
1977 Jan Vol 95(1) 105-110.
YR 1977.
CC 3000.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 04430 38010 30980 16765.
MJ ATTITUDE-CHANGE. PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. MESSAGES.
EMOTIONAL-CONTENT.
ID propensity of persuasive attack & pretreatment language intensity
&
expected delay of attack, prediction of resistance to persuasion,
college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB The present investigation extended earlier research investigating
predictors of resistance to persuasion. Ss were 113 male and
female college students. The 1st hypothesis predicted a
curvilinear relationship between propensity of attack (i.e.,
likelihood of having present attitudes attacked) and expected time
delay of the attack in conferring resistance to persuasion. As
predicted, in the condition of 50% probability of subsequent
attack and no expected delay, maximum resistance to persuasion was
found; moreover, as hypothesized, resistance to persuasion
decreased as expected delay increased. The predicted main effect
for the superiority of moderately intense language in pretreatment
messages did not receive support. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database
Copyright 1977 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
14 OF 17
AU Daly-John-A. Miller-Michael-D.
TI Apprehension of writing as a predictor of message intensity.
SO Journal of Psychology.
1975 Mar Vol 89(2) 175-177.
YR 1975.
CC 3000.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 03310 57230 30980 55560 10130.
MJ ANXIETY. WRITTEN-LANGUAGE. MESSAGES. VERBAL-MEANING.
COGNITIVE-PROCESSES.
1


ID apprehension in writing, message encoding strategies, college
students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Attempted to determine the effects of writing apprehension on
message
encoding strategies. 98 undergraduates completed the Writing
Apprehension Measure (WAT), a test of language intensity and
writing apprehension. As hypothesized, Ss with high apprehension
of writing encoded significantly less intense messages than did
those with low apprehension. The finding offers support for both
(a) a theoretic proposition advanced by M. Burgoon et al (in
press) concerning the role of language intensity in persuasive
messages and (b) the predictive validity of the WAT. (PsycINFO
Database Copyright 1975 American Psychological Assn, all rights
reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
15 OF 17
AU Burgoon-Michael. Chase-Lawrence-J.
TI The effects of differential linguistic patterns in messages
attempting to induce resistance to persuasion.
SO Speech Monographs.
1973 Mar Vol. 40(1) 1-7.
YR 1973.
CC 2700.
PT Journal Article (10).
SC 38010 27740.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. LANGUAGE.
ID supportive vs refutational message type & language intensity,
resistance to subsequent persuasion, college students.
CT HUMAN.
AB Posited an interaction between type of message strategy
(supportive
or refutational) and level of language intensity used in messages
attempting to induce resistance to subsequent persuasive appeals.
114 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 control and 6
experimental conditions. In the experimental conditions a
supportive or refutational pretreatment message was high,
moderate, or low in language intensity. There was a positive
linear relationship between language intensity and resistance to
persuasion when supportive pretreatment messages were employed;
moreover, a predicted curvilinear relationship was found when
differing levels of intense language were used in refutational
pretreatment messages. Results are discussed in terms of the
mediating effects of language variable in inoculation and
congruity theory predictions. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1974
American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
AG ADULT.
*********************************************************************
***
16 OF 17
AU Marks-Russell-R.
TI The effects of language intensity.
SO Dissertation Abstracts International.
1973 Feb Vol. 33(8-A) 4569-4570.
YR 1973.
CC 2900.
PT Dissertation Abstracts International (61).
SC 38010 04480 12400 55560 04430.
MJ PERSUASIVE-COMMUNICATION. ATTITUDE-SIMILARITY. CREDIBILITY.
VERBAL-MEANING. ATTITUDE-CHANGE.
ID language intensity & S's sex & open-mindedness & attitude
similarity,
attitude change persuasiveness & speaker competence & dynamism &
trustworthi

Henny Klein email: hklein@farm.rug.nl
Groningen University Centre for Pharmacy tel: +31 50 3637571
Social Pharmacy and Pharmacoepidemiology fax: +31 50 3633311
A. Deusinglaan 2
9713 AW Groningen, The Netherlands
http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/Klein.html

LL Issue: 9.329
Date Posted: 05-Mar-1998
Original Query: Read original query


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