Istvan Kecskes
Biographic Data
| ID | 460823 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Istvan Kecskes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Istvan |
| FAMILY NAME | Kecskes |
| SIGNATURE | KECSKES I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Albany State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4235-2234 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 256 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
ChatGPT for intercultural pragmatic learning? potentially, but not yet” – The question of using AI to develop students’ intercultural pragmatic competence
The study explores the effectiveness of ChatGPT in fostering intercultural pragmatic competence, focusing on Japanese learners of English. Using Kecskes’ sociocognitive framework, the research examines ChatGPT’s role in conversations involving meaning negotiation and repair mechanisms. The study analyzed over 10,000 responses generated by ChatGPT during interactions with 45 students from different nationalities, ranging from upper-beginner to upp…
Language variation and temporary norm development in intercultural interactions
The paper argues that interlocutors in intercultural interactions rely mainly on co-constructed temporary norms rather than on codified norms of the target language. There is a complex interplay of codified and emergent norms that drives interaction. Temporary norms emerge through temporary communicative extension of the system (TCE) that are expressions, chunks and utterances that violate the existing relatively definable norms and conventions o…
Processing implicatures in English as a Lingua Franca communication
Intercultural Communication and our Understanding of Language
Prendre en compte la recherche en communication interculturelle est nécessaire lorsqu'il s'agit de définir le langage, d'en cerner sa nature et son fonctionnement. Les théories linguistiques et pragmatiques sont en général issues de l'analyse d'une L1 et partent du principe que l'usage du langage repose sur l'existence de points communs partagés par les utilisateurs d'une langue. Ces conventions de langue et d'usage constituent un terrain commun …
The interplay of prior experience and actual situational context in intercultural first encounters
The study aims to investigate how prior experience of interlocutors interacts with actual situational context in intercultural interactions when the latter is represented by a well-known frame: getting acquainted with others. It attempts to demonstrate how the cultural frame of the target language is broken up and substituted with an emergent frame that is co-constructed from elements from prior experience with the target language, the first lang…
“Pragmatics and its interfaces as related to the expression of intention”
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Impoverished pragmatics? The semantics-pragmatics interface from an intercultural perspective
The semantic-pragmatic interface debate is about how much actual situational context the linguistic signs need in order for them to be meaningful in the communicative process. There is evidence that interlocutors in intercultural interactions rely more Some of the ideas in the paper are based on chapter six in Kecskes (2019). on the compositional meaning of linguistic signs (semantics) than contextually supported meaning (pragmatics) because actu…
Odd structures” in English as a lingua franca discourse
A study of the perception of situation-bound utterances as culture-specific pragmatic units by Russian learners of English
The basic interactional competence of language learners
Key Issues in Chinese As a Second Language Research
Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use
Context-dependency and impoliteness in intercultural communication
There has been a great deal of research on impoliteness focusing on one particular language or cross-cultural differences between languages (e.g. Bousfield 2008; Bousfield and Locher 2008; Culpeper 2005, 2009; Haugh 2007, 2011; Kienpointner 1997). However, much less attention has been paid to impoliteness in intercultural communication in which all or some speakers communicate in a language other than their native tongue. On the basis of research…
Situation-bound utterances in Chinese
This article argues that, when analysing formulaic language use in Chinese, besides the three main groups, proverbs (yànyu), idioms (chéngyu), and guànyòngyu compounds, we need to distinguish and pay special attention to a fourth category: situation-bound utterances (qíngjìng zhuanyòngyu). Situation-bound utterances (SBUs) constitute a unique group within idiomatic expressions because their use is tied to particular situations. SBUs fulfil social…
Situation-Bound Utterances in Chinese
How does pragmatic competence develop in bilinguals
This paper aims to discuss how the emerging new language with its own developing socio-cultural foundation affects the existing L1-governed knowledge and pragmatic competence of adult sequential bilinguals. It is assumed that these bilinguals already have an L1-governed pragmatic competence at place, which will be adjusted to accommodate the socio-cultural requirements of the new language. So there is no separate L2 pragmatic competence. What hap…
Intercultural impoliteness
Intercultural Pragmatics
In 'Intercultural Pragmatics', Istvan Kecskes establishes the foundations of the field, boldly combining the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.
A response to the paper “Metaphor interpretation and motivation in relevance theory” by Huaxin Huang and Xiaolong Yang
Why do we say what we say the way we say it
Focus on the speaker: An introduction
Is there anyone out there who really is interested in the speaker
This paper discusses two important issues of current pragmatics research as related to dialogue and discourse: interest in the hearer rather than the speaker, and focus on utterance rather than dialogue and discourse segment. These two issues are intertwined, and they are each other’s consequences. It will be argued that current pragmatic theories appear to be hearer-centered and utterance-centered and they consider communication recipient design…
The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics
Communication is not as smooth a process as current pragmatic theories depict it. In Rapaport's words "We almost always fail [...]. Yet we almost always nearly succeed: This is the paradox of communication" (Rapaport 2003: 402). This paper claims that there is a need for an approach that is able to explain this "bumpy road" by analyzing both the positive and negative features of the communicative process. The paper presents a socio-cognitive appr…
Situation-bound utterances as pragmatic acts
Activating, seeking, and creating common ground: A socio-cognitive approach
This paper argues that current pragmatic theories fail to describe common ground in its complexity because they usually retain a communication-as-transfer-between-minds view of language, and disregard the fact that disagreement and egocentrism of speaker-hearers are as fundamental parts of communication as agreement and cooperation. On the other hand, current cognitive research has overestimated the egocentric behavior of the dyads and argued for…
Dueling contexts: A dynamic model of meaning
The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics
Communication is not as smooth a process as current pragmatic theories depict it. In Rapaport's words "We almost always fail [...]. Yet we almost always nearly succeed: This is the paradox of communication" (Rapaport 2003: 402). This paper claims that there is a need for an approach that is able to explain this "bumpy road" by analyzing both the positive and negative features of the communicative process. The paper presents a socio-cognitive appr…
Situation-bound utterances as pragmatic acts
A cognitive-pragmatic approach to situation-bound utterances
Why do we say what we say the way we say it
On my mind: Thoughts about salience, context and figurative language from a second language perspective
This article discusses three claims of the Graded Salience Hypothesis presented in Rachel Giora’s book On our mind. It is argued that these claims may give second language researchers the chance to revise the way they think about word meaning, the literal meaning-figurative meaning dichotomy and the role of context in language processing. Giora’s arguments are related to recent second language research and their relevance is explained through exa…
The basic interactional competence of language learners
How does pragmatic competence develop in bilinguals
This paper aims to discuss how the emerging new language with its own developing socio-cultural foundation affects the existing L1-governed knowledge and pragmatic competence of adult sequential bilinguals. It is assumed that these bilinguals already have an L1-governed pragmatic competence at place, which will be adjusted to accommodate the socio-cultural requirements of the new language. So there is no separate L2 pragmatic competence. What hap…
Intercultural impoliteness
The state of L1 knowledge in foreign language learners
This paper argues that people with more than one language have different knowledge of their Lis than do monolingual people, and this difference can mainly be due to the effect of subsequent languages on the development and use of the LI skills. In order to investigate the state of the L1 in foreign language learners a longitudinal experiment was conducted with native speakers of Hungarian studying English, French or Russian as a foreign language …
Dual and multilanguage systems
Since ‘multicompetence’ was proposed by Cook, there have been debates about the nature of distinction between monocompetence and multicompetence, the distinctiveness of languages in the mind and the homogeneity of language knowledge across speakers and contexts. The paper will address these issues from a linguistic perspective and make an attempt to define multicompetence. The paper claims that trends in linguistics have affected bi and multiling…
Intercultural Communication and our Understanding of Language
Prendre en compte la recherche en communication interculturelle est nécessaire lorsqu'il s'agit de définir le langage, d'en cerner sa nature et son fonctionnement. Les théories linguistiques et pragmatiques sont en général issues de l'analyse d'une L1 et partent du principe que l'usage du langage repose sur l'existence de points communs partagés par les utilisateurs d'une langue. Ces conventions de langue et d'usage constituent un terrain commun …
Odd structures” in English as a lingua franca discourse
Intercultural Pragmatics
In 'Intercultural Pragmatics', Istvan Kecskes establishes the foundations of the field, boldly combining the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.
Processing implicatures in English as a Lingua Franca communication
Impoverished pragmatics? The semantics-pragmatics interface from an intercultural perspective
The semantic-pragmatic interface debate is about how much actual situational context the linguistic signs need in order for them to be meaningful in the communicative process. There is evidence that interlocutors in intercultural interactions rely more Some of the ideas in the paper are based on chapter six in Kecskes (2019). on the compositional meaning of linguistic signs (semantics) than contextually supported meaning (pragmatics) because actu…
A study of the perception of situation-bound utterances as culture-specific pragmatic units by Russian learners of English
Focus on the speaker: An introduction
The dual language model to explain code-switching: A cognitive-pragmatic approach
The present paper seeks to explain code-switching produced by Spanish- English bilingual speakers from the community of Gibraltar from a cognitive-pragmatic perspective new perspective based on the dual language system developed by Kecskes (1998) and Kecskes and Papp (2000) to account for bi- and multilingual language development and language use. The reasons for code-switching in Gibraltar are provided in Moyer (1992, 1998) in terms of social an…
Context-dependency and impoliteness in intercultural communication
There has been a great deal of research on impoliteness focusing on one particular language or cross-cultural differences between languages (e.g. Bousfield 2008; Bousfield and Locher 2008; Culpeper 2005, 2009; Haugh 2007, 2011; Kienpointner 1997). However, much less attention has been paid to impoliteness in intercultural communication in which all or some speakers communicate in a language other than their native tongue. On the basis of research…
The foreign language perspective
1. Introduction The goal of this special issue is to present current research in the pragmatics of different languages from a foreign language perspective. What we mean by a ‘‘foreign language perspective’’ is the analysis and explication of the use of a particular language in a foreign language setting from the perspective of non-native speakers and / or in relation to other languages. The authors in this issue focus on a variety of languages, i…
Computer programs to develop both accuracy and fluency
The state of L1 knowledge in foreign language learners
This paper argues that people with more than one language have different knowledge of their Lis than do monolingual people, and this difference can mainly be due to the effect of subsequent languages on the development and use of the LI skills. In order to investigate the state of the L1 in foreign language learners a longitudinal experiment was conducted with native speakers of Hungarian studying English, French or Russian as a foreign language …
A cognitive-pragmatic approach to situation-bound utterances
Foreign Language and Mother Tongue
The role of salience in processing pragmatic units
The goal of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it explains the relevance of the Graded Salience Hypothesis (Giora 1997; 2003; Kecskés 2001) to pragmatics research, arguing that although this hypothesis is a psycholinguistic theory it may contribute significantly to our understanding of pragmatic processing. Secondly, it will be claimed and demonstrated through examples that the salient meaning of lexical units constituting utterances in conversation …
Lexical choice as a reflection of conceptual fluency
This pilot study is based on the assumption that the selection of lexical items reveals the level of conceptual fluency in the target language. This assumption is supported by the model of the Dual Language System of Kecskes and Papp (2000) in which the word is an interface between the conceptual level and lexical level which blends information from both levels. To support the hypothesis the authors collected production data in an immersion schoo…
Cognitive approaches to bilingualism: Introduction to the Special Issue
The foreign language perspective
1. Introduction The goal of this special issue is to present current research in the pragmatics of different languages from a foreign language perspective. What we mean by a ‘‘foreign language perspective’’ is the analysis and explication of the use of a particular language in a foreign language setting from the perspective of non-native speakers and / or in relation to other languages. The authors in this issue focus on a variety of languages, i…
The dual language model to explain code-switching: A cognitive-pragmatic approach
The present paper seeks to explain code-switching produced by Spanish- English bilingual speakers from the community of Gibraltar from a cognitive-pragmatic perspective new perspective based on the dual language system developed by Kecskes (1998) and Kecskes and Papp (2000) to account for bi- and multilingual language development and language use. The reasons for code-switching in Gibraltar are provided in Moyer (1992, 1998) in terms of social an…
On my mind: Thoughts about salience, context and figurative language from a second language perspective
This article discusses three claims of the Graded Salience Hypothesis presented in Rachel Giora’s book On our mind. It is argued that these claims may give second language researchers the chance to revise the way they think about word meaning, the literal meaning-figurative meaning dichotomy and the role of context in language processing. Giora’s arguments are related to recent second language research and their relevance is explained through exa…
Dueling contexts: A dynamic model of meaning
Activating, seeking, and creating common ground: A socio-cognitive approach
This paper argues that current pragmatic theories fail to describe common ground in its complexity because they usually retain a communication-as-transfer-between-minds view of language, and disregard the fact that disagreement and egocentrism of speaker-hearers are as fundamental parts of communication as agreement and cooperation. On the other hand, current cognitive research has overestimated the egocentric behavior of the dyads and argued for…
Common Ground from a Socio-Cultural Perspective
Dual and multilanguage systems
Since ‘multicompetence’ was proposed by Cook, there have been debates about the nature of distinction between monocompetence and multicompetence, the distinctiveness of languages in the mind and the homogeneity of language knowledge across speakers and contexts. The paper will address these issues from a linguistic perspective and make an attempt to define multicompetence. The paper claims that trends in linguistics have affected bi and multiling…
The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics
Communication is not as smooth a process as current pragmatic theories depict it. In Rapaport's words "We almost always fail [...]. Yet we almost always nearly succeed: This is the paradox of communication" (Rapaport 2003: 402). This paper claims that there is a need for an approach that is able to explain this "bumpy road" by analyzing both the positive and negative features of the communicative process. The paper presents a socio-cognitive appr…
Situation-bound utterances as pragmatic acts
Is there anyone out there who really is interested in the speaker
This paper discusses two important issues of current pragmatics research as related to dialogue and discourse: interest in the hearer rather than the speaker, and focus on utterance rather than dialogue and discourse segment. These two issues are intertwined, and they are each other’s consequences. It will be argued that current pragmatic theories appear to be hearer-centered and utterance-centered and they consider communication recipient design…
Intercultural Pragmatics
In 'Intercultural Pragmatics', Istvan Kecskes establishes the foundations of the field, boldly combining the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.
A response to the paper “Metaphor interpretation and motivation in relevance theory” by Huaxin Huang and Xiaolong Yang
Why do we say what we say the way we say it
Focus on the speaker: An introduction
Situation-Bound Utterances in Chinese
How does pragmatic competence develop in bilinguals
This paper aims to discuss how the emerging new language with its own developing socio-cultural foundation affects the existing L1-governed knowledge and pragmatic competence of adult sequential bilinguals. It is assumed that these bilinguals already have an L1-governed pragmatic competence at place, which will be adjusted to accommodate the socio-cultural requirements of the new language. So there is no separate L2 pragmatic competence. What hap…
Intercultural impoliteness
Situation-bound utterances in Chinese
This article argues that, when analysing formulaic language use in Chinese, besides the three main groups, proverbs (yànyu), idioms (chéngyu), and guànyòngyu compounds, we need to distinguish and pay special attention to a fourth category: situation-bound utterances (qíngjìng zhuanyòngyu). Situation-bound utterances (SBUs) constitute a unique group within idiomatic expressions because their use is tied to particular situations. SBUs fulfil social…
Linguistics (33 works) · Psychology (32 works) · Computer Science (23 works) · Philosophy (23 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (22 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (20 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Pragmatics (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works)