Cross-cultural analysis of interpersonal metadiscourse markers in persuasive local newspaper articles

Author(s): Maryam Farnia,Nahid Mohammadi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

This paper aims to explore the role interpersonal metadiscourse markers play in the construction and achievement of persuasion in local British and Iranian newspapers. To this end, a corpus of 120 persuasive opinion articles published in two local Iranian newspapers, namely Isfahan Ziba and Isfahan (Emrooz) Today, and two local British newspapers, namely Liverpool Echo and Chronicle Live, from July 2015 to June 2016, were randomly selected and analyzed based on Dafouz-Milne’s (2008) taxonomy of interpersonal metadiscourse markers. The overal findings disclose that interpersonal metadiscourse is present in the two corpora; however, there are variations in the distribution and frequency of interpersonal markers.

Acknowledgment patterns in English and Lithuanian research writing

Author(s): Jolanta Šinkūnienė,Gabrielė Dudzinskaitė / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The paper focuses on the features of acknowledgments in scientific texts written by British and Lithuanian authors in the Humanities. The data comes from a self-compiled corpus of acknowledgments in scientific books written by British and Lithuanian researchers in their native languages, and from doctoral dissertations written by Lithuanian doctoral students in Lithuanian. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis suggest that the British scholars place more importance on acknowledgments as they single out their thanks as separate sections, make them longer and express gratitude for a larger number of individuals and institutions than the Lithuanian scholars. Generally the same moves and steps are employed in the three data sets, but the distribution of some moves and steps is different.

Review

Author(s): Irena Hůlková / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The present review deals with the following publication: Aijmer, K., Rühlemann, C. (eds) (2015) Corpus Pragmatics: A Handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 461 pp.

Varia: За глаголната система у митр. Григорий Цамблак и в среднобългарския превод на Златоустовия хомилетичния свод „За серафимите“

Author(s): Teodora Ilieva G. / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The object of investigation in the present paper is the comparative study of the temporal system in translated and original works of Tarnovo and non-Tarnovo origin from the 14th century, published in the last decade. The study focuses on the parallel between the verbal system of the largely unresearched pre-Euthymian homiletic manuscript of six homilies “On the Seraphim”, translated by Dionysius Divni, and six works of the representative of TarnovoLiterary School – Metropolitan Gregory Tsamblak, which are genealogically connected with it. The following aspects have been studied contrastively: the paradigm of the verb tenses – Present tense, Past Imperfect, Past Aorist, Past Perfect, Plusquamperfectum, Future Simple, descriptive future-tense forms, Past Future tense; the unchanging infinitive; the verboids – present active participle, aorist active participle, passive participles; passive voice; conditional and imperative mood. Their similarities (conformity to Middle Bulgarian tendencies and Athonite influences) and differences (the degree of archaisation, individual style) have been inspected.

Distinguishing cartoon subgenres based on a multicultural contemporary corpus

Author(s): Ana Pedrazzini,Nora Scheuer / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

A literature review reveals the lack of empirical and theoretical work dedicated to systematically grasping the diversity of cartoons. Most studies have focused on political and/or editorial cartoons and have neglected other subgenres, which however are gaining space in many forms of media—such as gag cartoons. Taking genre discursive studies as a starting point, this paper is aimed at distinguishing cartoon subgenres considering their modal, thematic, pragmatic and rhetorical features. The corpus is composed of 85 cartoons (51 multimodal and 34 solely visual) from 22 countries. This corpus was obtained by means of a questionnaire distributed over 2012-2016 in which cartoonists were asked to choose a cartoon that represented their style and to justify their choice. A combination of both qualitative and multivariate statistical techniques was applied. Results allowed us to distinguish four cartoon subgenres based mostly on thematic and pragmatic features: Daily political; Timeless political; Daily media, arts and sports; and Playful cartoons. From a rhetorical standpoint, Timeless political cartoons showed the highest semiotic density (8-12 resources per cartoon), Daily political cartoons an intermediate density (5-7 resources per cartoon) and Playful cartoons the lowest semiotic density (2-4 resources). This contrast might indicate a difference in the cognitive challenge posed to readers, with a major cognitive effort demanded by political cartoons (Timeless and Daily), in addition to the necessary awareness of current affairs. In line with previous research, metaphor appeared as a characteristic resource in political cartoons followed by irony, sarcasm and allusion. Modal analyses showed that political cartoons relied more on the verbal mode to build their messages than the other subgenres.

Book review

Author(s): Sara Martínez Cardama,Fátima García López / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Humour in conversation among bilinguals:

Author(s): Marianthi Georgalidou,Vasilia Kourtis-Kazoullis,Hasan Kaili / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

In this study, we analyse conversations recorded during ethnographic research in two bilingualcommunities on the island of Rhodes, Greece. We examine: (a) the bilingual in Greek andTurkish Muslim community of Rhodes (Georgalidou et al. 2010, 2013) and (b) the Greek-American/Canadian community of repatriated emigrant families of Rhodian origin (Kourtis-Kazoullis 2016). In particular, combining interactional and conversation analytic frameworks(Auer 1995; Gafaranga 2007), we examine contemporary approaches to bi-/multilingualismfocusing on the pragmatics of humour in conversations among bilinguals. We scrutinise aspectsof the overall and sequential organisation of talk as well as instances of humour produced byspeakers of different ethnic origin, generation, and social groups. We focus on the constructionof “otherness,” which reflects the dynamic interplay between the micro-level of conversationalpractices and the macro-level of discourse involving contrasting categorisations and identitiespertaining to differently orientated ethnic and social groups. Based on the analysis, we willshow a) how humorous targeting orients in-groups versus out-groups, and b) mediates thedynamic process of constructing the identity of speakers who, being members of minoritylinguistic communities, represent “otherness.”

Covidly humorous memes:

Author(s): Mohamed Mifdal / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The analysis of memes posted on Moroccan Facebook pages during the first wave of Covid-19pandemic shows that the use of humour by Moroccans is not only motivated by achieving mirthbut it also vehicles critical views about issues of common concern debated in the digital publicsphere. Some of these memes were used to cope with fear and uncertainty. However, most memesharboured mixed feelings about the situation and were used for social control and theexpression of conflict and resistance, addressing issues of behaviour, governance andcommunication. This article uses a social semiotic approach to analyse the collected memes(460 from personal and communal pages) as a multimodal discourse in terms of context, culture,and media affordances. This article contends that the study of these memes can be a key tounderstanding how Moroccans used humour to cope with danger and radical uncertainty, buildidentification and strengthen social cohesion. It also highlights the polyvocality of humour intimes of the pandemic and the gradual shift from inclusive, conformist and sympathetic humourto disparaging, exclusive and challenging humour as the pandemic lingered, consensus beganto crack, social control was challenged and injunctive norms were replaced by survival values.The results show how these memes are indicative of the way humour changes mechanisms andfunctions in terms of contingent motivations.

Travel-related humour and COVID-19:

Author(s): Anja Pabel,Maja Turnšek / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This study aims to provide an overview of humorous travel-related memes shared during theCOVID-19 pandemic. A total of 80 Internet memes were content analysed for emergentthemes. The findings reveal three major themes: playful aggression, making fun of one’slonging for travel, and making fun of new travel realities. The identified themes were linked tothe existing literature to better understand the memes being studied. The analysis of memesprovides a methodologically agile way to study conditions that may otherwise be overlooked,e.g., peoples’ travel-related desires and concerns while in lockdown.

Book review

Author(s): Răzvan Săftoiu / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Особености на публицистичния стил на изданията на българските езикови общности в чужбина (в съпоставка с пресата в България)

Author(s): Slavka Keremidchieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2016

The development is useful with its conclusions for defining the degree of the ethnolinguistic vitality of the Bulgarian linguistic community in Austria as a part of Bulgarianlinguistic communities in the European diaspore. The purpose of this research is not only theregistration of the numbers of regularly published editions around the world, mainly inAustria, but it is also a trial to analyze the most important specifications of their publicisticstyle in comparison with the language and style of the periodicals published in Bulgaria.

Book review

Author(s): Alberto Dionigi / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

Performance of a picture description by ten-year-olds with fetal alcohol syndrome / Realizacja opisu obrazka przez dziesięciolatki z płodowym zespołem alkoholowym

Author(s): Marta Krakowiak / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 11/2022

Alcohol consumption by a woman during pregnancy may result in a number of developmental disorders in her offspring, known as (fetal alcohol syndrome – FAS). They relate to, among others, acquisition of language and communication competence problems, manifested, among others, by incorrect articulation, deficits in inflection and syntax, and irregularities in creating narrative forms of expression. The subject of this paper is describing of a picture by ten-year-olds with fetal alcohol syndrome and their peers from a control group. Findings indicate that children with FAS have difficulty using the following procedures: generalization of events, spatiality of description, presentability of events, and characterization of elements of reality. These people, while creating descriptions of pictures, usually do not use formulas that allow to begin a statement and present the content of the described events, introduce individual space plans in a disorderly manner, do not use the right wording, omit many important details related to the characteristics of individual elements of reality and the relationships that occur between them. The abnormalities mentioned above are related to the poverty of content and the abnormal structure of texts constructed by ten-year-olds with FAS.

Book Review

Author(s): Tianli Zhou / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

What did the Portuguese laugh at 200 years ago?

Author(s): João Pedro Rosa Ferreira / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This article aims to identify the existence of a laughter community in Portugal in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Based on research into the beginnings of humour in periodicals published in Portugal, a corpus consisting of newspapers published between 1797 and 1835 was analysed, from the first in which humour was used systematically as a resource (Almocreve de Petas) until the establishment of the Constitutional Monarchy. With the concept of laughter community in mind, evidence was sought that it was present in the period that covers the political, social and economic transition from the Ancien Régime to modern society, having as main players writers, editors, printers, readers and listeners, in a process of production, reception, circulation and appropriation of ideas and meanings. This process, which developed in the public sphere, also played a part in forming incipient public opinion. To detect evidence of this community, clichés, jocular expressions and comic stories conveyed by the periodicals were identified. Very often they were found to have kept the same meaning they had at the time, while some expressions have survived with slight changes, and others simply no longer make people laugh.

Rozmowy przy stole w Polsce i w Hiszpanii – analiza zrytualizowanych środków językowych

Author(s): Ewa Urbaniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2023

The aim of this paper is to describe and compare the linguistic dimension of the ritual of dining among Polish and Spanish speakers. The act of feasting, very important for the analysed cultures, not only does present a specific scheme, but it is also accompanied by a range of linguistic mechanisms introduced in concrete interactive situations. The present article exposes the most frequent speech acts, ritualized expressions and pragmaticalized constructions that are used during the ritual of dining in the Polish and Spanish communities. The analysis is based on the examples from oral language corpora, created in Poland and in Spain, that is transcriptions of everyday conversations of the members of described communities. The research has shown that both communities share a lot of common values related to dining, nevertheless each one of them presents some characteristic linguistic mechanisms used during the ritual.

ТИПОВИ ТУЂЕГ ГОВОРА У РОМАНУ "ПИЈАВИЦЕ" ДАВИДА АЛБАХАРИЈА

Author(s): Arsenije M. Sretković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 79/2022

This paper considers the models of transferring other people’s speech in David Albahari’s novel Leeches from the stylistic point of view. The aim of this paper is recording and illuminating the stylistic effects of different types of transmission of other people’s speech. By using analytical-descriptive methods in the novel, the following are recognized: real indirect speech, introduced free indirect speech, frag- mentary indirect speech, basic (grammaticalized) type of direct speech, semi-indirect speech, indirect expressive speech, and direct non-connector speech. In various contexts they depict the conversations of the novel’s characters.

ИДЕОЛОШКА (ЗЛО)УПОТРЕБА ЈЕЗИКА: ЈЕЗИЧКО-СТИЛСКА АНАЛИЗА ПОЛИТИЧКИХ СЛОГАНА

Author(s): Marija Ž. Nenadić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 79/2022

The paper provides a linguistic analysis of political slogans. The corpus material includes political slogans of this year‘s general elections held on April 3, 2022. The aforementioned syntactic constructions are classified into two categories– slogans with a predicate constituent and slogans without a predicate constituent. Using qualitative methodology, we endeavor to provide a thorough description of excerpted linguistic units in order to determine their stylistic and pragmatic potential. The analysis concludes that the dominant feature of these linguistic expressions are stylistic figures of repetition – alliteration, assonance, and consonance – but in some instances, other marketing strategies have been implemented that contribute to the retention of statements. Nevertheless, we suggest that interviewing native speakers would provide a better insight into the pragmatic nature of the examined material.

PEUR ET COEXISTENCE SOCIALE DANS LA PEUR ET VINGT-QUATRE HEURES DE LA VIE D’UNE FEMME DE ZWEIG STEFAN

Author(s): Hayatou DAOUDA / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2022

In these two texts, Zweig Stefan lucidly describes the fear that eats away people who are at fault. This feeling completely destroys the lives of the heroines. Thus, weakened, Irene and Mrs. C. are exposed to all kinds of emotion: fear, hatred, anger and madness succeed one another in their daily lives. Therefore, their confined existence, with no way out, is like an oasis. Through these writings and in a psychocritique approach, we find that fear is a stronger emotion than death. The victims of this feeling, weakened, tortured and profoundly scarred, lose all control. They live a cloistered and quiet life because of fear, and find their freedom only through speech and music.

Ритъм и ритмична организация на речта

Author(s): Petar Tsonev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2024

The study examines the problems of rhythm as a non-linguistic and linguistic phenomenon, as well as the similarities and differences between rhythmic organization in poetry and in speech, the number and nature of rhythmic units, the classification of languages according to their rhythmic organization, and the role of various prosodic features in the rhythmization of speech. Moreover, special attention is paid to the nature of rhythm in relation to its participation in the temporal organization of speech and to the specificity of the rhythmic systém of the Bulgarian language. For this purpose, the theoretical propositions on the physiological, perceptual and linguistic conditioning of speech rhythm in relation to speech production and speech perception are presented in detail. At the end of the article on the basis of experimental data from a number of studies that have examined the rhythmic organization of Bulgarian spoken prose (colloquial language), both literary and dialectal, a number of important conclusions are made for the Bulgarian language on the discussed issues.