Meaning negotation in academic discourse: A typology of citations as semantic markers

Author(s): Tanja Collet / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

In academic discourse, citations constitute a multifunctional pragmatic act: they acknowledge the property rights of writers, create intellectual or conceptual linkages, and enhance the persuasiveness of a text. Citations can, furthermore, serve to negotiate term meaning within the text. In this capacity, they acquire a dual dialogic quality: as citations, they participate in the social construction of knowledge by engaging in a 'dialogue' with the writers of previous texts but, as semantic markers, they also interact with the text’s readers by responding to plausible needs for semantic clarification. The article’s main focus is to present a typology of citations used as semantic markers. An analysis of the rhetoricity of semantic markers in academic discourse is also included in the discussion.

Analysis of the UK prime ministerial discourse on Brexit: Thematic choices and their implications

Author(s): Ray C. H. Leung / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

This study of political discourse focuses on three selected texts about Brexit delivered by British Prime Minister Theresa May in early 2017. The texts represent three rare occasions on which May revealed to the public in detail what “negotiating objectives” the government has for Brexit. The three texts are: (i) the Lancaster House speech; (ii) Britain’s Article 50 notification letter; (iii) May’s oral statement in Parliament on the notification letter. Analytic tools from systemic functional linguistics (SFL) were employed to investigate the thematic choices in these three texts. The findings shed light on the interface between discourse and ideology. For example, frequent reference to the British society in the experiential Themes of the Lancaster House speech suggests that May tries to give prominence to the voice of the British people while addressing the general public. In the Article 50 notification letter, textual Themes which signal an adversative relation construe May’s optimism about the prospect of Brexit. Furthermore, the first-person plural pronoun we in the thematic position serves multiple purposes, one of which is to establish solidarity between Britain and the European Union. The current research underscores the contributions of SFL thematic analysis to the study of ideology in discourse.

Newspaper portrayal of teachers: A comparative study of representations of teachers in a British and a Czech broadsheet

Author(s): Dita Trčková / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The study compares representations of teachers in the Czech broadsheet Mladá fronta and the British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph, aiming to reveal their possible impact on the level of public respect towards teachers. The methodology employed is critical discourse analysis, combining an investigation of semantic macrostructures and recurrent transitivity patterns. It is revealed that both newspapers call attention to problems regarding the teaching profession, advocating social change and higher job prestige. The social significance of a teacher is enhanced in both newspapers by allocating a teacher not only the role of a transmitter of knowledge but also a moral guide concerned with social issues. The main difference between the two broadsheets is that The Daily Telegraph foregrounds teachers’ wrongdoings, while Mladá fronta highlights teachers’ accomplishments. This seems to be mainly due to the inclusion of a section with regional content in the Czech broadsheet.

LEXIKALISCHE EINFLÜSSE AUF DIE MUNDARTEN VON CHLOI (KOMOTINI/GRIECHENLAND) UND GORNI JURUCI (KRUMOVGRAD/BULGARIEN): KONTRASTIVE BETRACHTUNGEN ZU ISOTOPIEN IM BEREICH DER GESUNDHEITSTERMINOLOGIE

Author(s): Martin Henzelmann,Georgi Mitrinov / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2020

In this paper, we will focus on some lexical features characteristic of the dialects spoken in the villages of Hloi (Greek Χλόη = Bulgarian Hebilevo/Хебилево) in the Greek region of Komotini (Κομοτηνή = Gyumyurdzhina/Гюмюрджина) and of the related dialects in the nearby village of Gorni Yurutsi (Горни Юруци) in the Bulgarian region of Krumovgrad. In particular, we will pay attention to isotopically significant terminology in the fields of health, healthcare, illness, and related phenomena. The local language variety spoken in both the Greek and the Bulgarian villages is clearly identified as a Bulgarian-based Rhodopean dialect, but the two villages deal with radically different conditions of language contact. In the first section, we will give a short overview of the problems of language contact in general. Then, in section two, we will focus on health terminology. We compare language materials collected on the two sides of the border, and discuss the impact of language contact in this area. Our conclusion is that contact-induced change is observed on both sides of the Bulgarian-Greek border, but it takes very different forms in Bulgaria and Greece due to quite different and very complex language influences.

Preface

Author(s): Rumyana Todorova,Irina Nikolova Ivanova,Desislava Cheshmedzhieva-Stoycheva / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

The third issue of volume 9 of Studies in Linguistics, Culture, and FLT titled “Discourses of Change: Linguistics, Literature, Translation, and FLT” features six authors whose research analyses different aspects of linguistics, literature, cultural linguistics, translation studies, and FLT.

Considerații lingvistice asupra Povestirilor lui Vasile Voiculescu (Linguistic Considerations on Vasile Voiculeascu’s Stories), Luminița Drugă

Author(s): Andreia Irina Suciu / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 26/2021

Preview

Author(s): Rumyana Todorova,Irina Nikolova Ivanova,Desislava Cheshmedzhieva-Stoycheva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The preview provides some of the main points discussed in the issue.

Aspecte ale uitării (oblivio) în limba latină

Author(s): Theodor Georgescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

In the literature of Classical Antiquity, the oblivion theme appears from the first Homeric texts. Odysseus’ companions, who arrived in the land of the Lotus Eaters, forget their homeland and duties after eating the lotus offered by the natives. Only the energetic action of Odysseus saves them from the dangers of oblivion. In Latin, the notion of oblivion is expressed especially by the subst. oblivio, which, however, renders in Latin literature, in a single word, notions which in the Greek language were expressed by different terms. Oblivio, in the broadest sense, is the equivalent of gr. λήθη and the antonym of mindfulness (lat. memoria). It is mostly reprehensible, because it is a form of betrayal of the past. But it can sometimes be a form of salvation (Publil. Sent. I, 21 iniuriarum remedium est obliuio). But forgetting a thing can sometimes be only a momentary darkening of the mind, which in Greek was expressed by μετεωρία "distraction, confusion" or ἀβλεψία "blindness, inability to know". For doctors, even the state of sleepiness was also expressed by oblivio and rendering gr. ληθαργία. The voluntary erasure of unpleasant memories and the forgiveness of what happened was also a form of oblivio and is equivalent to gr. ἀμνηστία "oblivion", hence "forgiveness, pardon", and, in the field of law, "amnesty". It can be as well a form of conviction to be forgotten by posterity, indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts (damnatio memoriae "condemnation of memory"), practiced especially in the imperial period. The analysis of the contexts in which oblivio is attested in Latin authors shows different meanings that we can better understand by reference to the Greek language.

Judenspanisch in Bulgarien: eine Kontaktsprache zwischen Archaismus und Innovation

Author(s): Bistra Andreeva,Tania Avgustinova,Susann Fischer,Christoph Gabriel / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2022

In this article, we first outline previous research on the morphosyntax and phonology of the varieties of Judeo-Spanish spoken in Bulgaria. Second, we discuss the research gaps resulting from our literature survey and present the research questions that will be addressed in the project “Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria: a contact language between archaism and innovation”, funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) for a period of three years (2022–2025).

Innovatory Study Explores Name-Giving for Foods and their Preparation in Bulgarian Dialects

Author(s): Ana Kocheva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Book review

Author(s): Anna Piata / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The role of ‘familiarity’ in Mandarin Chinese speakers’ metapragmatic evaluations of Australian conversational humour

Author(s): Wei-Lin Melody Chang,Valeria Sinkeviciute / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Although research on humorous practices of Anglo-Australians has received much attention,the understanding of those practices by members of various multilingual communities inAustralia has not been much studied. In this paper, we look at metapragmatic comments onconcept familiarity in relation to conversational humour, particularly focusing on MandarinChinese speakers’ perceptions of conversational humour in Australian English. In order toexplore what role ‘familiarity’ plays in (inter-)cultural conceptualisation of humour, we analyseinterview data where speakers of Mandarin Chinese provide their metapragmatic comments onhumorous exchanges among Australians. Drawing on approximately 8.2 hours of interview dataelicited by a segment from the reality television gameshow Big Brother 2012, i.e., a teasingsequence between two acquainted persons, it is suggested that the concept of familiarity is theone most frequently alluded to in the theme of how participants ‘draw the boundary’ betweenintimates and acquaintances. From the analysis it emerged that Mandarin Chinese speakers’evaluations of humorous exchanges in Australian English are driven by their culturallyinformedperceptions that are conceptualised through various emic notions, e.g. guanxi(‘interpersonal relationship’), various labels for classifying different relational distance, andqiji (‘opportune moment’). The findings of this exploratory paper suggest that the role of‘familiarity’ in relation to humour is crucial in the perception of appropriateness of humorouspractices in interaction, especially across cultures.

Irony in fashion memes:

Author(s): Kristina Stankevičiūtė / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The practice of fashion memes is a rather fresh exercise on the fashion scene, and it has been enjoyed by both the audiences and the brands. Fashion media have turned their attention to the phenomenon as well, addressing its scope, authorship and function from various angles. Scholarly research of the field is very scarce, though. The article seeks to contribute to the emerging field of fashion meme research by analysing a Lithuanian author of original fashion memes, a self-proclaimed fashion critic the Pink Poodle – an imaginary social media personality active on Facebook and Instagram platforms. The subjects of Pink Poodle memes are objects of media photographs from local and global public events (such as the Presidential Inauguration or an international cinema festival opening, Grammy Awards, Oscars) that demonstrate, from Poodle’s perspective, disagreements with fashion and/or aesthetics in general. The aim of the article is to reflect on the function of irony and sarcasm of the fashion meme as an instrument for fashion criticism, and the role of (visual) irony on the perception of fashion in the contemporary society. The text also addresses the role of independent fashion criticism that the practice of fashion meme creation seems to provide, and the function that this kind of intermediary between fashion and its audiences may perform.

“E is for Ernest who choked on a peach”:

Author(s): Nikola Novaković / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

In Edward Gorey’s numerous scenes of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and afternoon teas, food and drink often feature with more or less prominence and are sometimes even found in the titles of his books, such as in The Fatal Lozenge (1960) or The Unknown Vegetable (1995). Their seemingly innocent appearance is often tied to violence or death: a head is discovered in a breadbox, a woman murders her husband by lacing his tea with atropine, a boy dies of exposure after being punished for “splashing his soup”, and several characters are consumed by more or less fantastic creatures. And yet, throughout all such gruesome events, Gorey’s characteristically playful and absurd humour adds levity to scenes of food-related death, misery, downfall, and even murder. Whether much attention is drawn to such events (such as in The Unknown Vegetable, where the entire story revolves around the discovery of a giant turnip-like vegetable that leads to a woman being buried alive) or whether they are merely mentioned in offhanded comments, Gorey couches them in a frame of the ridiculous and the nonsensical. It is therefore the aim of this paper to explore how Gorey achieves this curious combination of the grotesque and the humorous in scenes revolving around food, and how this approach extends to a general confusion of tone in his darkly funny, seriocomic creations in which any manner of horror may be lurking in peaches, cakes, crackers, boiled turnips, a recipe for fudge, a family picnic, or under a haunted tea cosy.

An intercultural pragmatic approach to English- Russian and English-German renditions of the formulaic That’s what she said-punchline in telecinematic discourse

Author(s): Monika Kirner-Ludwig,Aleksandra Soboleva / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This paper takes an intercultural pragmatic approach to identifying and discussing rendition strategies of one specific punchline recurrent in scripted telecinematic discourse: That’s what she said. While this formulaic punchline demonstrates a relatively high salience in the US, particularly in oral and scripted genres, it issues more than one challenge to translators seeking to render it for other speech communities in a manner that acknowledges and retains the source pattern’s complexity as a discursively triggered and formulaic pragmatic idiom. We shall focus here on two specific target cultures, i.e. the Russian and the German, in demonstrating the challenges that this complex and linguistically as well as cognitively multi-faceted formula poses for its appropriation into either cultural sphere. Our study is based on a self-compiled parallel dataset of context-embedded source occurrences of That’s what she said and their renditions into German and Russian, thus offering immediately contrastive insights into the rendition strategies that translators have been employing to interculturally transfer this highly evasive idiomatic formula from one speech community to others.

М. Stambolieva. Building up Aspect : A study of aspect and related categories in Bulgarian, with parallels in English and French, Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics, Vol. 6

Author(s): Zlatka Guentchéva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2010

Review of: М. Stambolieva. Building up Aspect : A study of aspect and related categories in Bulgarian, with parallels in English and French, Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics, Vol. 6, Peter Lang, Oxford, Berne Brixelles, Frankfurt/Main, New York, Wien, 2008, 243 p.

За смисъла и значението в речевата комуникация

Author(s): Elena Tsvetkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2022

In this article, I consider certain types of presupposition and quantitative implicatures, the interpretation of which is based on the usage of scalar expressions. The aim is to explain how presuppositions and implicatures are processed by showing the commonalities and differences between them. Solving this task will shed light on the question of the relationship between language and context. The “scalar implicature approach to presuppositions” is reviewed as a prerequisite for explaining cases in which presuppositions and implicatures are treated in a similar way. The question of consideration is that even when scalar implicatures are understood automatically and independently of context, we have preliminary pragmatic models that predetermine context and influence the way we interpret such statements and how we arrange the terms on the scale. This approach is used as a prerequisite for the possibility of talking about degrees in the scales – i.e., cases of an utterance involving scalar expressions, where the same expression – both in presupposition and in an implicature – can mean something different to a certain degree, and yet the hearer grasp that degree of meaning without much additional effort in processing.

Cross-textual reconceptualisation of the deictic space of “victory” in political discourse: Donald Trump versus Joseph Biden

Author(s): Amir H. Y. Salama / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The present study propounds the notion-complex of cross-textual reconceptualisation as a cognitive-linguistic output of applying Paul Chilton’s (2013, 2014, 2017) model of Deictic Space Theory (DST) to textual practices drawn from the broad domain of political discourse. The DST model has operated methodologically towards conducting a cognitively oriented political discourse analysis of the two victory speeches produced by Donald Trump and Joseph Biden during the 2020 election for US presidency. As a geometric model, DST has been applied to the two speeches in a way that demonstrated the deictic spatial construction of victory in relation to Trump and Biden as the now-here-real speakers on the three axes of discourse referents, time, and epistemic modality. The data analysis has revealed four significant instantiations of cross-textual reconceptualisation made by Biden of Trump’s deictic space of victory as a contested concept: (i) a “clear”and “convincing” victory, (ii) a peripersonal real victory, (iii) Trump and his voters,and (iv) a now shift from a past Democrat to a future President. All four instantiations have proved the hypothesis that the DST model, while revealing the deictic-spatial conceptualisations of “victory” constituted by each speaker in his speech, may further be extended to disentangle the interesting aspect of how one and the same concept could be reconceptualised across two textual practices produced by speakers with ideologically opposed perspectives.

Дрок (Spartium, Genista L.) в фитонимии Адриатического и Ионического побережий

Author(s): Marina V. Domosiletskaya,Alexander A. Novik / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

The paper analyzes local Balkan phytonyms used for broom and spread on the territory from the Adriatic coast to Greece. In the past, broom was used for weaving and manufacturing rough textile. One can notice a strong influence of Romance (including Dalmatian) on the Serbo-Croatian plant names for broom (Lat. juncus, Ital. giunco, Venet. zunco). In the northern Albanian dialects, especially in the Albanian-Slavic contact areas, a great role was played by the borrowed Serbo-Croatian word žukа (and probably Venet. zunco as well). South of Northern Albanian Ghegnia – in the middle Gheg and Tosk territories – loan-words from different times can be found: Lat. genista, genesta and Ital. ginestra. Further south, in the Albanian dialects of Labёria, in Greece and Italy (Arbёresh), there is a clear influence from the Greek σπάρτο. The research is based on long-term field observations (the fieldwork was conducted in 2009–2019), as well as on the previously published phytonomastical and ethnological data.

Цветообозначения в устойчивых сочетаниях со значением благопожелания и проклятия в балканославянских языках в сопоставлении с албанским и румынским

Author(s): Alexandra Chivarzina / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

The peoples living in the Balkans significantly have been influencing each other, borrowing numerous cultural and linguistic phenomena. In the course of convergent development it determined the formation of the Balkan cultural and linguistic landscape. The idioms with the meaning of blessing and curse in the Balkan Slavic languages in comparison with the non-Slavic Albanian and Romanian ones are in the centre of the analysis. The correspondences demonstrate a high degree of interlingual and intercultural interaction of the neighboring peoples, although there are significant differences in the forms of the corresponding idioms in different Balkan languages.