Abstract This study foregrounds the potential impact of ChatGPT usage on second language (L2) learners’ voice. L2 learners’ perceptions of ChatGPT’s interference with their self-representation in writing and the relationship of these perceptions with future intentions to use ChatGPT are investigated. Following a mixed-methods approach, questionnaire data from undergraduate students ( N = 162) after two English for academic purposes courses, where they used ChatGPT as L2 academic writing support, were collected and analysed. About half of the participants were ambivalent; the remaining half were divided equally in their perceptions of ChatGPT as (not) a threat. The more threatening ChatGPT was perceived to be, the less inclined participants were to use it again. Ambivalence is influenced by usage, genre and GenAI advancements. Over-reliance, homogenisation and devaluation of human voice relate to the perception of? ChatGPT as a threat. A lack of perceived threat derives from ChatGPT’s mechanical voice, human agency, and different standards for acceptable convergence.

Abstract This paper takes a construction morphological approach to the word formation process of OUT-prefixation, based on a corpus study using the Collins Word Banks Online corpus. It distinguishes two distinct constructions: spatial OUT-prefixation, conveying movement “outside”, and comparative OUT-prefixation, used for scaling dimensions. These constructions are characterised by their own semantic and morphosyntactic properties, including differences in compositionality, argument structure, applicative potential, and event structure. While the base remains active in an OUT-verb, each construction functions as a constructional idiom at the word level, integrating the fixed prefix OUT- into a higher-level schema with predictable properties and constraints. The study challenges formal approaches by demonstrating that OUT-prefixation is more productive than previously assumed, particularly through coercion effects. Although the comparative construction is shown to be more productive, the spatial construction is more conventionalized but still capable of generating emergent patterns, illustrating the productivity and flexibility of these constructions.

Abstract Discourse competence is crucial in constructing a unified text (Canale 1983). However, while the importance of discourse competence in written discourse has been emphasized, studies of effects of specific features of discourse competence on the quality of a text have been neglected (Purpura 2008). Moreover, little research has used a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to analyze cohesion and coherence features in writing discourse. Therefore, this study employed an SFL approach to examine how cohesion and coherence features were used in 45 non-native academic written responses across proficiency levels. The study aimed to provide an insight into learners’ second language discourse competence development. The analyses from four multinomial logistic regressions suggested that comparative conjunctions, accurate use of referential expressions, lexical cohesion, and theme-rheme patterns provided useful insights into learner discourse competence progression. The study has implications for teaching academic writing and for developing a rating scale for a writing assessment.

Abstract This study explores the possible interplay between the rhetorical functions of the introduction section in applied linguistics research articles and the linguistic structuring of its argument through the use of that-clause that expresses evaluative meanings. To this end, article introductions were analyzed in terms of the formal/functional coding of that-clauses. The findings highlight that complement clauses are frequently used for the epistemic evaluation of current/previous research. Of note, however, is that nuanced differences in the writers’ intended purposes give rise to variations in the use of that-clause parameters, particularly those concerning verbal entities that evaluate the author’s claims, as opposed to those reviewing previous research findings and/or attributing an evaluation to distinct sources. The study concludes that tactful structuring of academic arguments hinges on the skilled exploitation of function-dependent variations associated with the evaluative components of that-clauses.

Abstract This paper studies the effect of prosodic prominence on the production of English checked steady-state vowels. Previous studies found that prosodic factors, such as proximity to a strong prosodic boundary, influence vowel production, but the effect of prosodic prominence has not been studied in sufficient detail. This paper addresses this gap, examining if vowel duration correlates with prosodic prominence, more specifically with a three-way distinction between primary, secondary and non-prominence. This effect is compared to that of proximity to a strong prosodic boundary and to the prosodic boundary strength. This allows us to investigate not only the potential role of prosodic prominence in vowel production but also how it holds up to the previously observed effects of proximity and prosodic boundary strength. The findings provide new insights into the production of English vowels, while also adducing evidence for the relevance of a three-way phonological distinction between primary, secondary and non-prominence.

Abstract Thom Gunn grows to fame and popularity with the Movement poets in the 1950s. Coming from a well-educated family with a stake in journalism, Gunn develops a taste for literature from childhood and enhances his cachet at Cambridge. Culture expands into a principal issue in Gunn’s poems manifested in the field of literature and his drawing on canonical English poets like Shakespeare, and practicing the motorcycling subculture. Moreover, Gunn exhibits his cultural competence and artistic distinction through discussing the uncanny workings of canonicity of art in the field of religion. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts like habitus, capital and distinction, this study sheds some light on Gunn’s work and career. The aim is to explicate how Gunn rises to a high status as a poet by accumulating different forms of capital in the field of culture; particularly literature, art, and subculture.

Abstract Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1 depicts Joan of Arc in contradictory terms. This paper discusses the narrative and literary techniques that are used to develop Joan of Arc’s characterisation, particularly the alternation of location between the Anglo-Burgundian and the French-Armagnac camp, the antagonistic staging of Joan of Arc compared to Lord Talbot and Margaret of Anjou, and the contrastive use of epithets, including the shifting positive, neutral or negative dictionary meanings and context-dependent meanings, as per Ray Jackendoff’s theory of Conceptual Semantics. This results in questioning the apparent meaning of words and concepts and thereby also the apparent judgment on the characters themselves, thus ambiguating, questioning, and ridiculing apparent certainties.

Abstract This mixed-methods study evaluated the evolution of thematic development in descriptive report writing among 12 first-year English for Academic Purposes (EAP) university students in Japan over the course of a 15-week program. The program employed a genre-based approach within a Systemic Functional Linguistic framework. Four consecutive information report essays (two pre-essays, a post-essay, and a delayed test essay) were analyzed to assess the student’s writing progress. The results revealed a general progression, starting with limited Theme development in the first pre-essay, to some students exhibiting a growing familiarity with coherence and cohesion in terms of the generic structure of descriptive reports.

Abstract According to the social psychologists R. D. Laing, H. Phillipson and A. R. Lee, we human beings are constantly speculating about the view that others have upon us, thereby forming a metaperspective (Laing et al. 1966). Yet despite the fact that literature is grounded in some of the most fundamental and general structures of human cognitive experience (Gavins and Steen 2003: 2), proving a rich seam to mine for metaperspectives, the concept has not yet been explored in a literary context. Accordingly, this paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to investigate metaperspectives within fiction for the first time. Introduced is my coinage of the racialised metaperspective, denoting a sub-type concerned with colour, culture, and/or ethnicity. Taking as my literary case study Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), I demonstrate that the racialised metaperspective both contributes to the depiction of a specific social milieu within a text, and serves a characterising function.