The Pragmeme of Accommodation: The Case of Interaction around the Event of Death (Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 13)

This volume brings together a wide array of papers which explore, among other things, to what extent languages and cultures are variable with respect to the interactions around the event of death. Motivated by J. L. Mey’s idea of the __pragmeme__, a situated speech act, the volume has both theoretical and practical implications for scholars working in different fields of enquiry. As the papers in this volume reveal, despite the terminological differences between various disciplines, the interactions around the event of death serve to provide solace, not only to the dying, but also to the family and friends of the deceased, thus helping them to “accommodate” to the new state of affairs. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Front Matter....Pages 1-13 Catholic Rituals of Death and Funeral Homily: A Socio-pragmatic Survey in Southern Italy....Pages 15-15 Pragmeme(s) of Sympathy Cards in the Midwestern US....Pages 17-44 Grief Interactions Among Emerging Adults on College Campuses....Pages 45-60 Pre-funeral Condolence Visits as Pragmemes....Pages 61-81 Socio-cultural Factors in Analyzing the Pragmeme of Accommodation: A Case Study of the Official Online Eulogy Request System in Taiwan....Pages 83-94 The Pragmeme of Accommodation in Yorùbá Death Events....Pages 95-110 Specifying Pragmemes: The Case of Expressing Condolences in Memorial Advertisements....Pages 111-127 Stories of Grief and Loss: How College Students Learned to Listen....Pages 129-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-159 English vs. Japanese Condolences: What People Say and Why....Pages 161-179 On Death in Artificial Languages....Pages 181-181 Toward a Pragmatic Study of Funeral Discourses in Taiwan: Voice, Shared Situation Knowledge, and Metaphor....Pages 183-202 Accommodating Language: A Comparative Investigation of the Use of Euphemisms for Death and Dying in Obituaries in English and in German....Pages 203-231 Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Perspectives on the Emotional and Pragmatic Expression of Sympathy in Spanish and English....Pages 233-257 Front Matter....Pages 259-276 ‘The Bad Death’: Deciphering and Developing the Dominant Discourse on ‘The Good Death’....Pages 277-299 Closing the Book of Life: The Hospice Discourse and the Construction of the Dying Role: A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis....Pages 301-318 Reclaiming Self by Working Through Loss: A Discourse Analysis of Psychotherapy Sessions....Pages 319-348 Front Matter....Pages 349-349 A Death in Late Victorian Dublin....Pages 351-373 Gray’s ‘Elegy’: A Polyphonous Elegy Sung to the Silence of Death....Pages 375-401 Talking Death: An Analysis of Selected Entries in Frida Kahlo’s Diary....Pages 403-420 ....Pages 349-349