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(d) how does the hearer ‘signalize the reception of the speech actions to the
speaker’ (Rehbein & Romaniuk, in print)
The questions asked above are derived from Dua’s (1990: 119) classification of
perception. Dua’s classification of stages of understanding is as follows:
1. Non-hearing /
non-understanding
2. Partial hearing / partial understanding
3. Mishearing /
misunderstanding
4. Hearing / understanding.
Table 1: Stages of hearer’s reception of the speech action (Rehbein & Kameyama
2003)
Pre-history (I)
(II)
assessment of the situation
formation of the hearer’s expectation
History (III)
(IV)
(V)
perception of
the utterance act or elements of it
identification
of the illocutionary act
identification of the propositional act
reconstruction of speaker’s plan with
focus of action
schema
of speech action
whole speaker’s plan reconstructed
hearer’s adoption of speaker’s plan
Post-history
(VI) follow-up action (continuation of hearer’s role
or adoption
of speaker’s role)
In addition to this, as can be seen in Table 1, Rehbein & Kameyama
(2003), highlighting the importance of the hearer’s role for successful
communication, state that there are three parts of each and every speech action
(pre-history, history and post-history) Table 1 illustrates how the hearer’s
reception of the speech action occurs.
Pre-history stage consists of two steps (I)
assessment of the situation and (II) formation of the hearer’s expectation. In the
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signals of “
understanding”. Furthermore, in this study, CA which is a device
mediating speaker and hearer interaction in bi-/multilingual communication will
be used to steer the interaction. an interactive structure for the speaker and hearer
in terms of linguistic and extralinguistic elements is to be operated in bilingual or
multilingual communication which is
Communicative Apparatus (CA) in this
study.
2.4. Communicative Apparatus
In this study, understanding and understanding-related problems will be
examined following Rehbein & Romaniuk’s (in print) classification of types of
perception within the framework of Rehbein’s Communicative Apparatus (1977,
1979) (see Table 8). Communicative Apparatus (henceforth
CA) is defined as “a
cross-linguistically operating interactive structure, which is modified by Lingua
Receptiva communication” (Rehbein & Romaniuk, in print).
According to Rehbein & Romaniuk (in print);
“In contrast to a written text, discourse consists essentially of face-
to-face interaction, e.g. Kendon, Harris & Key 1975) which means
that the hearer (: H), continually signalizes the reception of speech
actions to the speaker (: S), who herself/himself permanently
checks H’s signals in order to decide on how to continue the
discourse” (p. 2).
These signals are called as “backchannel cues” by Yngve (1970) and Duncan
(1977). Yngve (1970) states
“In fact, both the person who has the turn and his partner are
simultaneously engaged in both speaking and listening. This is
because of what the backchannel, over which the person who has
the turn receives short messages such as “yes” and “uh-huh”
without relinquishing the turn” (1970: 568).
Rehbein & Romaniuk (in print) term Yngve’s “backchannel cues” as
Communicative Apparatus as a discoursive device of mutual guidance of speaker
and hearer.