Discourse Functions Research Articles

Hero-Making in Chinese and U.S. News During COVID-19: The Warrior and Leader Images of Zhong Nanshan and Anthony Fauci

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to global health and raised important questions about social coordination. Amidst the crisis, discursive constructions of national heroes proliferated in Chinese and U.S. mainstream news media and played a crucial role in exercising social control and influence. From a comparative perspective, this article examines the structure and functions of heroic discourses and explores the similarities and differences of heroism across national borders. Specifically, we interrogate news reports on Zhong Nanshan and Anthony Fauci, two medical experts who emerged as prominent heroes in China and the U.S. respectively. Adopting a qualitative approach, we identify two central images in the construction of Zhong and Fauci as national heroes. One is “the warrior,” which illuminates the heroic qualities of determination, bravery, altruism, and perseverance. The other is “the leader,” which shows Zhong and Fauci’s pioneering roles and abilities in attracting followers. Intermingled with these two images are themes of moral excellence and exceptionalism. The most salient difference in the hero-making is that Zhong assumes a “supported hero” while Fauci assumes a “contested hero.” Overall, despite nuances shaped by socio-political contexts, Chinese and U.S. media share quite similar narrative structures in making national heroes during the pandemic.

PUSHKIN’S WORD IN THE NARRATIVE DISCOURSE OF V.Е. MAXIMOV (based on the novels “Look into the abyss” and “The nomadism to Death”)

The article characterizes Pushkin’s quotes, including famous catch words and expressions, in the novels of the famous Russian prose writer of the second half of the twentieth century, V.Е. Maximov. The purpose of the study is a philological analysis of the features of the structure and semantics of winged units, determining the uniqueness of their functioning in narrative discourse. The novel “Look into the Abyss” uses Pushkin’s quotes from the poems “To the Sea” and “Demons,” while the novel “The nomadism to Death” mentions Pushkin’s quote from the novel “Eugene Onegin” and a catchphrase from “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish.” Pushkin’s figurative words in Maximov’s artistic narration are a means of creating the author’s irony, speech characteristics of the main character and the primary narrator, form narrative polyphony, provide intertextual interaction, unite different plot lines of novels and ensure the structural and semantic integrity of texts.

A modified intensive, comprehensive aphasia program (mICAP) has better reported outcomes than usual care: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Background Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programs (ICAPs) are a new model of service delivery that show promising pre-post outcomes but have yet to be compared with usual care. Aim To compare the clinical effectiveness of a modified Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (mICAP) to usual care in a parallel two arm study utilizing stratified block randomisation. Methods & Procedures Participants were a referred sample with post stroke aphasia from ten local speech pathology departments. Assessments were completed prior to, immediately after, and follow up at 3 months after the mICAP. While 269 participants with aphasia were approached for the study, only 52 were eligible to be randomised with 113 participants approached not meeting selection criteria and 99 of eligible participants declining to participate. Block randomization was based on matched moderate/mild versus severe aphasia pairs. Three of the 26 mICAP participants withdrew. In the experimental arm of the mICAP (the LIFT program), participants with aphasia and their family attended goal directed tailored therapy three times weekly for 8 weeks. Therapy included 14 hours each of impairment therapy, functional communication therapy, and computer therapy and 7 hours of group therapy and a challenge task. The main outcome measures were the self-reported Assessment for Living with Aphasia (ALA) and Content Information Units (#CIU’s) in connected speech. Outcomes & Results Linear Mixed Modelling was completed on the remaining 42 participants’ data and found a significant benefit for the mICAP on the ALA Total score (p= .014; 95% CI= −21.48- −2.57) ALA Aphasia domain (p = .027; 95% CI= −3.23 - −0.203), ALA Environment domain (p = .017; 95% CI= −4.70 - −0.493) immediately post intervention with maintenance of effects for the ALA Aphasia domain in the follow up period (p = .014; 95% CI= −3.64 - −0.438). Family members in the mICAP reported significant reduction in caregiving burden in the follow up period (p= .017; CI= −14.12 - −1.52.). There were no significant differences on the other main outcome measure of Content Information Units (95% CI= −34.94 – 55.15). Conclusions For those suitable and interested, the mICAP was more beneficial than usual care for participants with aphasia and their family members. However, lack of significant differences in discourse and other language functions, suggests that individual elements of mICAPs and their evaluation require review. Based on these results, the LIFT program has been refined to become the Comprehensive High-dose Aphasia Therapy (CHAT) program.

The role of biased polar question particles in discourse: the case of Macedonian zar and neli

Abstract This paper focuses on biased polar questions in Macedonian headed by the interrogative particles zar and neli. These particles function as veridicality markers: neli asserts the truth of p, while zar challenges it by emphasizing the conflict between the epistemic and the evidential bias. Consequently, these questions have different discourse functions. Our goal is to examine the discourse-pragmatic properties of these questions and determine the factors influencing their distribution. We argue that their felicity depends on the interplay of contextual factors: the degree of speaker’s certainty in the truth of the proposition, the existence of conflicting contextual evidence, and the assertiveness component of the biased question. A statistical analysis of 340 examples from literary and social media sources revealed that the most decisive factor for the occurrence of neli- and zar-questions is the degree of speaker certainty in prior belief, highlighting the assertive force of neli-questions compared to the more inquisitive nature of zar-questions.

Negation in clause combining in Kazakh

This paper examines the function of negation in discourse units containing more than one clause in Kazakh. When clauses are combined through coordination or subordination, negation can be formally marked in all linked clauses to deny the proposition described in the given clauses. The verbal predicates are negated by the bound morpheme -MA. The non-verbal predicates are negated either with the negative particle emes, ‘not’, or with the existential negation žoq, ‘non-existent’. As for the distinction between these three negations, I argue that -MA is an internal negative expressing a weak denial, whereas emes and žoq are external negatives expressing a strong denial and absolute non-existence respectively, in terms of their pragmatic function in discourse. With regard to the scope of negation in clause combining, the coordinate and subordinate clauses have a narrow negative scope, whereas chain clauses tend to have a wide negative scope.

Metaphors and Their Functions in Technological Discourse

Metaphors and Their Functions in Technological Discourse

The function of humor and ideological discourse in Turkish Islamist humor magazines: the case of Misvak

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the ideological discourse of Misvak, one of Turkey's most popular Islamist humor magazines in the 2000s. By analyzing the magazine’s cartoons, it first attempts to reveal the general characteristics and function of humor in Misvak. It then discusses how Islamism is presented as the primary ideological position in the magazine. In order to uncover absences and silences in the discourse, the purpose of the study is also to investigate whether there is discursive parallelism between the magazine and the AKP government by analyzing visual texts while positioning the magazine within debates over hegemony.

Junia, Missionary Partnership, and Honor: The Discourse Function of Romans 16:7

Abstract Scholarly interest in Paul’s reference to Junia in Rom 16:7 has tended to focus on Junia’s gender, status as “apostle,” authority, and role. This article explores a question that has received less attention but has the potential to shed further light: the discourse function of the reference. The article first explores relevant discourse elements of Rom 16, then examines how these elements are prepared for in Rom 1–15, before returning to focus on the details of Rom 16:7. It finds that the reference to Andronicus and Junia as “notable among the apostles” helps Paul to further establish and strengthen missionary partnership between himself and the believers in Rome. It is also a concrete application of eschatological categories of honor, informed by the gospel of God’s grace in Christ. As a Jewish woman who suffers alongside Paul for the gospel mission, Junia is especially honored by Paul’s descriptions.

Intonation cues to English public discourse perception

The study considers the discourse functions of intonation and identifies a few problems and contradictions in the current theories of intonation functioning. Particular attention is paid to such issues as the multiple functions of nuclear tones, pitch declination in utterances and perceptual identification of spoken paragraphs. An attempt has been made to handle these problems in the context of English public speeches delivered in the format of TED talks. The purpose of the auditory analysis of discourse intonation in these talks is to check the perceptual reliability of intonation cues in processing spoken discourse and the possibility of using intonation as an on-line perception strategy. The methods applied in the research are descriptive, auditory and comparative, supported by a certain amount of quantitative data. The results obtained in the auditory analysis show that intonation cues work most effectively at the level of intonation groups and utterances but are not self-sufficient in paragraph identification. The leading function of nuclear tones in public discourse organization turns out to be the information structuring of utterances, which is occasionally interrupted by the attitudinal function. Pitch declination has been found to be one of the most important cues to the integrity and cohesion of utterances, with an average length of three-four intonation groups. Multiple declinations in spoken utterances are infrequent and are triggered by particular types of syntactic relations in elongated sentences. The study contributes to the linguistic description of discourse intonation, and its results can be beneficial for language teaching practice and automated speech synthesis.

The Functional Features of Chunks in Journal Articles of Aquaculture

This study investigates the functional similarities and differences of four-word chunks in the academic discourse of aquaculture by Chinese and international scholars based on Hyland’s functional classification method within a corpus-driven approach. The findings reveal that, compared to their international counterparts, Chinese scholars significantly utilize more four-word chunks. Functionally, Chinese scholars frequently employ quantification, structure, framing, and engagement chunks, underscoring the importance they assign to the logic of discourse and the interaction between authors and readers. The infrequent use of description chunks suggests that it is essential for Chinese scholars to fully appreciate the significance of describing research objects, methods, and results in order to convey the foundational and experimental nature of hard science research. Furthermore, the structures of chunks used by Chinese and international scholars to express the same discourse functions differ. The expression of data indication among Chinese scholars appears more solidified. These research results can offer valuable references for academic writing.

The ‘adverb-ly adjective’ construction in English: meanings, distribution and discourse functions

The ‘adverb-ly adjective’ construction in English: meanings, distribution and discourse functions

The effects of instruction on students’ argumentative scientific writing in a Basque medium of instruction setting

Abstract The present quasi-experimental study explores the effects of instruction on secondary students’ scientific argumentative writing in a Basque medium of instruction program. Secondary students (N = 105) completed written tasks before and after a unit on energy in their science class as part of this investigation. The experimental group (n = 61) additionally took part in three, one-hour sessions focused on scientific argumentation via instruction in cognitive discourse functions (Dalton-Puffer, 2013), while the control group (n = 44) completed the unit on energy without the additional instruction on argumentation. The final corpus of 210 texts was analysed using Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern (1958). ANOVAs showed that the experimental group’s use of argumentation strategies increased significantly, while the control group’s use of such strategies did not increase. Thus, the results show that instruction on argumentation helps students to write better argumentative compositions. These findings suggest that instruction in the use of Cognitive Discourse Functions allows for academic language learning in bilingual education contexts. The pedagogical implications and future research directions of this study’s findings are discussed.

An Empirical Study on the Effective Discourse Function of Teachers

An Empirical Study on the Effective Discourse Function of Teachers

From a Logical Connective to a Discourse Marker: The Functions of “So” Dependent on its Location

Traditional studies have been referring to Halliday’s meta-function of language to classify the uses of “so” as a discourse marker. However, there are some overlaps in the theories that were accepted earlier. Thus, this study first seeks to explore the discourse roles of “so” in terms of where it appears (utterance-initial, -middle, and -final) in dialogues and monologues of informal English language based on the TV Corpus and AntConc tool. Second, this paper tries to explain the extended use and internal functional mapping of “so” from a logical connective to a discourse marker in spoken English by building a connection between the two uses and providing an account for its functional borrowing. The ultimate goal is to render a new perspective of presenting both the logical and the discourse functions of “so” related to the syntactical structure and pragmatic context it is in.

Margaret Anderson’s Compromise: Art and Advertising in the Little Review

ABSTRACT Despite its rhetorical attacks on “the public taste,” the Little Review carried many advertisements promoting precisely the mass consumer culture it allegedly rejected. This irreverent mixing of cultural registers has typically been read as an expression of enthusiasm vis-à-vis the social and cultural function of advertising on the part of the magazine’s editor Margaret Anderson. This article critically reexamines Anderson’s engagement with the form and function of promotional discourse to show that, rather than suspending the tension between art and advertising, she continually sought to shape her magazine’s relationship with commercial mass culture into a compromise on her own terms.

STAGES OF THE ANALYSIS OF RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY IN THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to a review of the methodology for analyzing the functioning of religious vocabulary in the American presidential discourse. The work defines the political discourse, distinguishes the genres of the American presidential discourse, develops an algorithm for their research, and highlights the methods of analysis. One of the types of institutional discourse is political discourse, which is a reflection of the socio-political life of the country, contains elements of its culture, as well as features of the national character, general and national-specific cultural values, and aims to gain and maintain political power. The main functions of political discourse are informative, instrumental, prognostic, normative, legitimating, persuasive and political propaganda. The genre space of the presidential discourse is determined by the general political system of the state, the historical and political traditions of the institution of the presidency, and the sociocultural conditions for the existence of political discourse. These extralinguistic factors, as well as the nature of the main intention, allow us to distinguish such genres of US presidential discourse as ritualistic, orientational, and agonal. In the linguistic literature, there is a large number of classifications of political discourse strategies. In our work, we adhere to the classification according to which the following communicative strategies are inherent in political discourse: self-presentation, discrediting, manipulation, self-defense, information-interpretive, forming the emotional mood of the addressee, argumentative strategy, agitation. Each of these strategies is represented by a number of tactics. The search for effective ways of analyzing and describing the semantics and function of religious vocabulary in the American presidential discourse determined the choice of the main approaches to the research object. The methods used in linguistic studies involve the implementation of a system of procedures for studying the object of research and verification of the obtained results. Typical guidelines of systematic philological analysis include paying attention to the semantic, substantive side of the text, represented by text categories, and to the communicative immersion of the text in discursive reproduction. For a systemic complex analysis, the work involves such methods that take into account the communicative essence of the discourse text, reflect the significance of the text in the light of its generation and interpretation.

Exemplification and reformulation in expert linguists’ writings: Elaborative metadiscourse between disciplinarity and individuality

Exemplification and reformulation are key elaborative strategies that empower clarity and argumentation in academic writing. Most research investigating their use in academic writing argues that writers’ choices in terms of frequency and marker type are conditioned by disciplinary variations and the level of expertise of the writers. This has led to an understanding of discourse communities as being homogeneous groups of novice versus expert writers and of separate soft versus hard disciplines. Through the analysis of 90 research articles and book chapters single-authored by six leading linguists, this study shows that these successful authors deviate from the common practices in linguistics and their choices deviate from each other significantly. However, the data does not reveal any steady increasing or decreasing frequencies in the use of exemplification and reformulation throughout their career stages, which makes it hard to claim that the frequency of using the two discourse functions evolves with experience. The study argues that individuality and style preferences within the same discourse community should be acknowledged as an additional variable affecting discursive choices and calls for a more nuanced understanding of disciplinarity and writing expertise.

Tecnodiscursos subversivos. Militantismo digital no contexto da pandemia da covid-19

In the framework of the coronavirus pandemic, aroused different activisms crossed by the digital in a relationship of support/conflict with the mass media in the face of government measures to control the outbreaks. When investigating the new modes of socio-political participation, the study focuses on a practice of urban activism attached to the logic of techno-discourse (Paveau, 2021a) to understand the functioning of a subversive discourse materialized in militant posters with the sayings #YoMeQuedoSinCasa (Barcelona, May/2020). The case was analyzed in relation to the techno-discourses that it subverts: the government propaganda #QuedaTeEnCasa and the massive response, #YoMeQuedoEnCasa, a virtuous techno-discourses (Paveau, 2015). Based on the theory of resignification (Paveau, 2021a) —about the technodiscursive practices of subversive repetition via web 2.0— the study reflects on the militantism of the hybrid world (Castells, 2017) and analyzes the aspects of pragmatic, interactional, enunciative, semantic-axiological, discursive, socio-semantic and political pragmatic of that discourse. It is concluded that the case of activism is anchored in techno-discourses (Paveau, 2021b) to produce a resignified discourse with revolutionary features, because by subverting massive techno-discourses, it strips its virtuosity, exposing a social wound of state negligence and allows it to produce both resistance and demands repair.

The Functions of the Discourse Marker "Inshallah" in the Iraqi Oral discourse: A Discourse- Pragmatic Analysis

The study aims to investigate the pragmatic functions and prosodic features of discourse marker (Insha'Allah) in Iraqi oral discourse on the textual and interpersonal levels. It also examines whether there is a relationship between the speaker's gender and the use of the discourse marker (Insha'Allah). Brinton's (1996) dual model of functional analysis was employed as a framework. As a result, it was found that in addition to (Brinton , 1996) suggested macro-level functions, the discourse marker (Insha'Allah) also carried out additional micro-level functions in discourse at both levels. Prosodically, it was noticed that (pitch, frequency, and duration) led to a change in the pragmatic function of the discourse marker (Insha'Allah). On the other hand, it was revealed that the speaker's gender also played a vital role in the number of usage discourse marker (Insha’Allah).

Персуазивная роль этнонимов в испанском электоральном дискурсе

The article examines the persuasive impact of ethnonyms and ethnic categories on the voters in Spanish electoral discourse. In the modern world, the mechanisms of political communication are generating a growing interest. It is explained by the influence of political processes on all spheres of society, the fate of peoples and entire states, and the interests of every citizen. Therefore, political problems remain relevant at all times. The important role of electoral discourse, which has a pronounced persuasive effect on the voters, should be highlighted. When struggling for power, leaders and representatives of Spanish political parties, naturally, strive to establish trust, exert a certain emotional impact on potential voters and induce them to make the “correct” electoral decision, i.e. to vote for their party. It should be noted that persuasiveness has not only an argumentative, but also a manipulative component, forcing an addressee to act in the interests of the sender of the message. One of the persuasive speech mechanisms of Spanish electoral discourse is the use of ethnonyms in the election programmes of political parties. Ethnonyms contain valuable historical, ethnographic, cultural and linguistic information and, accordingly, cover the religious, cultural and historical spheres, as well as play an important role in intercultural communication. Ethnic identity includes the desire of peoples to preserve their identity, the uniqueness of their culture, language and worldview. Ethnonyms allow native speakers to identify their own traits and stereotypes. The essence of cultural, spiritual and political life is revealed through language. Thus, the study of ethnonyms and ethnic categories, as well as their functions in political discourse, is an urgent task of modern linguistics.