Discourse Situation Research Articles

Clashing Narratives: An Ideological Square Analysis of Daniel Hagari and Abu Obaida Speeches

This study investigates the use of positive self-representation and negative other-representation in the speeches of two spokespersons, Daniel Hagari of Israel and Abu Obaida of Hamas, during the conflict that escalated after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, 2023. Utilizing Van Dijk's framework for discursive strategies, the analysis focuses on micro-level strategies such as actor description, comparison, consensus, evidentiality, national self-glorification, presupposition, and victimization. Findings reveal that while both spokespersons employed similar strategies to shape public perception, Daniel Hagari heavily utilized the comparison strategy to highlight the moral superiority of the IDF over Hamas. In contrast, Abu Obaida frequently used national self-glorification to bolster the morale of his audience and emphasize the righteousness of Hamas's cause. The study underscores the role of strategic discourse in conflict situations and calls for greater awareness and research into the linguistic tools used to propagate ideologies during war.

Salafism and the local: Negotiation, accommodation and Re-localization of Ethiopian Salafism

ABSTRACT This article investigates changes within Salafism – Ethiopia’s main Islamic reform current – over the last decade. We argue that these changes are driven by a new generation of Muslims increasingly embedded in the broader Ethiopian society and who find the more established Salafi ideas’ narrow emphasis on personal piety and on maintaining religious boundaries as insufficient in addressing questions related to their immediate realities. These young Muslims have subsequently started to question Salafi thought and practice, contested claims of religious knowledge, which in turn have forced senior Salafi leaders to re-negotiate their earlier isolationist and exclusivist positions. Our key question is whether these developments can be understood as the emergence of what has been labelled post-Salafism. We argue that such changes within Ethiopian Salafism – and Salafism more broadly – are not necessarily the results of detached ideological developments or caused by trans-local ideological flows. Instead, we believe that the local and situated discourses are far more important than previously assumed. We argue for the need to duly consider aspects beyond what is commonly imagined as the religious and to acknowledge how each locality is shaped by particular historical developments, contemporary cultural dynamics, changing demographics, socio-economic realities and political discourses.

Reinterpreting the numerical discourse: a commognitive study of teachers’ support of students’ transition into the proving discourse

ABSTRACT Although much research encourages working with proof in school, it is recognised as a complex topic to teach. This paper investigates proof from a commognitive perspective, drawing on the assumption that a change in the uses of words, visual mediators, narratives, and routines implicitly conveys the meta-rules of the proving discourse. Teachers' reinterpretations of the four discursive aspects are thus recognised as promoting interdiscursivity. With data from an intervention in a Norwegian primary school, interdiscursive moves are identified by analysing the practice of two teachers with no experience with teaching proof. Illustrating examples show teachers interacting with students in small groups or whole-class situations, showing how blending two discourses can play out. The episodes confirm the complexity of teaching proof and illustrate the rich potential for scaffolding students' learning. The article sharpens the commognitive lens on proof learning and emphasises the role of the old discourse in interdiscursive situations.

Semantico-Pragmatic Approach to the Uses of autem in Plautus

This work aims to study the syntactic and semantico-pragmatic properties of autem in Plautus. The connector has a fundamental binary value expressing the notion of addition and that of opposition. Therefore, autem is used as an addition marker to relate syntactic constituents, a marker ensuring the reorientation of language activity on the level of enunciation, a limitation marker intended to make a thematic selection among elements of a paradigm as well as a marker of contrastive focus with argumentative or non-argumentative scope. Besides, the study of extra-linguistic data has highlighted the functions of autem linking with non-verbal and aspects of the discourse situation.

What Quality Talk in a Reading Circle Does for Interthinking

ABSTRACT In the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom, speaking is a relatively marginalised learning activity, often employed merely to facilitate transition between activities which prioritise communication skills deemed more important. A significant consequence of this privation is limited practice in situated discourse. This paper presents a theorised account of an instance of situated discourse: Quality Talk in a reading circle within an EAP classroom. With reference to a single dialogic spell unfolding around a specific issue, I examine participants’ verbal transactions and the ways in which these enhance high-level comprehension of text. Overall, this account seeks to highlight the efficacy and affordances of situated discourse as a social mode of cognition in EAP instruction.

How One Cannot Participatively Imagine What One Could Cognitively Imagine

In this paper, we want to maintain that the puzzle of imaginative resistance is basically a pragmatic issue due to the failure of participative imagination, as involving a pre-semantic level relating to a wide context (the overall situation of discourse). Since the linguistic meanings of the relevant fiction-involving sentences violate some of our basic norms, what such sentences (fictionally) say cannot be participatively imagined. That failure leads one to refrain from ascribing such sentences the fictional truth-conditions they would have in narrow fictional contexts (sets of fixed parameters) as determined by those meanings in those contexts. Yet one could still make that ascription, for one can cognitively imagine what such sentences would say in those contexts. As is proved by the fact that if one either adopts an alternative view on such norms or, for some reason, brackets them, one can again perform that ascription.

교실 담화에서 교사의 청유문 분석

This study explores the functions of grammatical forms in specific discourse contexts by analyzing propositional sentences based on sentence-ending types. Propositional sentences, similar to imperative sentences, are identified as having a notably directive attribute. Particularly, classroom discourse, which is grounded in a clear hierarchical structure between teachers and students, may highlight the use of propositional sentences more than in other discourse situations. Therefore, this research utilized a spoken corpus to investigate propositional sentences through an inductive method. Initially, propositional sentences and their functions were defined within the spoken corpus from a grammatical perspective. The sentences were then analyzed and categorized according to their functions. The findings suggest that propositional sentences in classroom discourse primarily exhibit directive functions. Moreover, new functions of propositional sentences, previously undiscussed, were discovered. These newly identified functions are closely associated with the type of discourse. The results of this study allow for the differentiation of unique features of propositional sentences in classroom discourse, potentially aiding learners in enhancing their intuitive understanding of the Korean language.

Culture as a dynamic product of socially and historically situated discourse communities: A review of literature

This article delves into the intricate and multifaceted relationship between culture, discourse communities, and their profound entanglement within the rich tapestry of social and historical contexts. At its core, culture is not a monolithic entity but a dynamic amalgamation of myriad components, practices, and ideologies. These elements are not static but continually evolving, shaped by the interactions and exchanges within discourse communities. Discourse communities are fertile ground for nurturing, contesting, and disseminating cultural elements. Within these communities, language, beliefs, values, and norms are not merely transmitted but actively negotiated and transformed. This ongoing process contributes to the resilience and adaptability of culture, enabling it to respond to the ever-changing social and historical landscape. Central to our analysis is recognising culture as both "socially situated" and "historically situated”. The former underscores the embeddedness of discourse communities within broader socio-cultural contexts, highlighting their interconnectedness with power dynamics, social hierarchies, and institutional structures. The latter emphasises the dynamic nature of culture, acknowledging its responsiveness to historical events, cultural exchanges, and shifts in collective consciousness. Through this scholarly exploration, we seek to offer a comprehensive understanding of how culture evolves within the intricate web of discourse communities, reflecting and shaping the world around them. By unpacking the complex interplay between culture, discourse, and their socio-historical contexts, we aim to illuminate the profound implications of these dynamics on individuals, communities, and societies at large.

Preschool children's discourse competence in different genres and how it relates to iconic gestures.

Based on the linguistic analysis of game explanations and retellings, the paper's goal is to investigate the relation of preschool children's situated discourse competence and iconic gestures in different communicative genres, focussing on reinforcing and supplementary speech-gesture-combinations. To this end, a method was developed to evaluate discourse competence as a context-sensitive and interactively embedded phenomenon. The so-called GLOBE-model was adapted to assess discourse competence in relation to interactive scaffolding. The findings show clear links between the children's competence and their parents' scaffolding. We suggest this to be evidence of a fine-tuned interactive support system. The results also indicate strong relations between higher discourse competence and increased frequency of iconic gestures. This applies in particular to reinforcing gestures. The results are interpreted as a confirmation that the speech-gesture system undergoes systematic changes during early childhood, and that gesturing becomes more iconic - and thus more communicative - when discourse competence is growing.

Microvariation at the Interfaces: The Subject of Predication of Broad Focus VS Constructions in Turinese and Milanese

Presentational constructions, i.e., structures which introduce an event into the universe of discourse, raise the question of what it means for a predication to be entirely new in information structural terms. While there is growing consensus that these constructions are not topicless, there is no agreement on how to analyse their topic. The Romance languages of Northern Italy have figured prominently in this debate because the presentational constructions of many such languages exhibit VS order and an etymologically locative clitic in subject clitic position. This clitic has been claimed to be a subject of predication in a syntactic subject position. Adducing primary comparative evidence from Milanese and Turinese, we discuss patterns of microvariation which suggest that the etymologically locative clitic need not be a syntactic subject and can mark an aboutness topic provided by the discourse situation alone. We propose a parallel-architecture, Role and Reference Grammar account whereby the microvariation under scrutiny is captured in terms of the interfaces that are involved in the parsing of utterances. This account considers discourse to be an independent module of grammar, which, alongside the semantic and syntactic modules, is directly involved in linguistic variation and change.

TEACHERS’ CULTURAL CHOICE CONSCIOUSNESS IN INTEGRATING LOCAL CULTURE INTO UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM RESEARCH-TAKE H UNIVERSITY AS AN EXAMPLE

Integrating local culture into the university curriculum reflects the curriculum development process of integrating teachers' professional knowledge and local knowledge and is also the process of teachers' cultural selection. In this process, cultural choice consciousness is the main factor that causes teachers to act on local cultural objects to achieve curriculum effectiveness. This article explores the formation process of teachers' cultural choice consciousness at H University that integrates local culture into the curriculum and concludes that the two dimensions of teachers' cultural choice consciousness are social sense and self-field and its eight influencing factors, including life experience perception and cultural identity, values, reflective criticality, text symbol diversity, subject power diversity, institutional tension, and discourse situation.

Sports fanaticism as a disease: a Corpus-based study of metaphors in Saudi newspapers.

Sports fanaticism seems to be a social and national concern in Saudi Arabia. This paper aims: 1) to identify the metaphorical manifestations and highlight the discursive construction of disease as associated with sports fanaticism in a corpus of Saudi newspapers articles; and 2) to seek plausible explanations for the emergence and use of disease metaphors in newspapers articles addressing sports fanaticism. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Arabic Corpus (KACSTAC) served the data for the current study. The analytical procedures were informed by the discourse dynamics approach and metaphor-led discourse analysis. Findings show that sports fanaticism could be associated with the following systematic metaphors: 1) disease, in general; 2) disease causes; 3) disease symptoms; 4) disease evaluations; and 5) disease needs for medical solutions, interventions, treatments, and/or prescriptions. The discussion evokes a number of aspects: sports fanaticism emerges as a key topic; disease metaphors seem to be shaped and developed by the societal context and the nature of newspapers texts and discourse; they are enriched and influenced by the discourse situation and the needs to jointly construct and communicate intense experiences through specific evaluations and referential functions, which have a powerful resonance for the Saudi national and social levels; the use of disease metaphorical frames can structure our understanding and can simplify the concept of fanaticism.

ФАКТОР ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ВАРИАТИВНОСТИ В ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКОЙ ОЦЕНКЕ ЛЕКСИЧЕСКИХ ЕДИНИЦ

The article puts forward the objective to disclose the means and features of language functioning in various discourse systems. The methodological basis of the research comprises the concept of language variability and the theory of synergetic linguistics. Different lexical units are explored in use within various discourse types in terms of their functions. The objective of correlating language unit functions to the discourse situation made it necessary to select the most representative discourse systems. Stemming from the basic principle that there are no ironclad borders between discrete forms of language use, the author claims that a typical discourse situation as a system-shaping attractor dictates functional specifics of language units. In distinguishing discourse types, the underlying principle is the degree of implementing the function of information and that of impact. Linguosynergetic method makes it possible to formulate universal principles of functioning language units of different types in the context of different discourse systems. These principles necessarily impose pragmatically conditioned meaning.

성별, 연령 및 담화 상황에 따른 시간 벌기 담화표지 ‘어’와 ‘음’의 사용 차이

성별, 연령 및 담화 상황에 따른 시간 벌기 담화표지 ‘어’와 ‘음’의 사용 차이

Indicare, rappresentare e dislocare. La Deixis am Phantasma di Karl Bühler e i modi del Discorso Riportato

‘Deixis am phantasma’ or imagination-oriented deixis is a mode of reference, originally described by KarlBühler, that directly brings into play one of the distinctive properties of human language, namely the unlimitedcapacity to dislocate in space and time the referents and situations that are the object of discourse. Sincerepresenting and reporting other people's speech is a discourse situation in which speakers must represent,transpose and dislocate referents, situations, and other people's words, reported speech is a very suitable areain which to observe this particular type of deixis. In this paper, after briefly restating the main points of Bühler'stheory of language, i.e., the two-field theory and the different modes of reference within the deictic field, Idiscuss the three different types of imagination-oriented deixis (as identified by Bühler). I then try to point outwhat I consider to be their systematic correlations with the two main deictic modes of reporting speech (directvs. indirect), while, conversely, noting the unsystematic correlations with that intermediate or hybrid form ofreporting that is free indirect speech.

Role of discursive structure in the genre specification of online discourses

The paper starts with the assumption that each time people engage in discourses, they perform social actions in order to adaptively satisfy their communicative purposes and needs (cf. Verschueren–Brisard 2009; Steen 2011; Giltrow 2013). Moreover, these social actions form types in accordance with the typical co-occurrences of typical discourse situations involving typical roles, typical themes and typical communicative goals tar- geted by discourse participants (cf. Bakhtin 1986). These typical co-occurrences serve as ground for the functioning of genre knowledge and result in typical patterns of construal.
 In this paper, I present a two-pronged empirical study that reveals the role of discursive structure in the creation of the genre-specific character of online discourses. By discursive structural units, I mean discourse segments (usually larger than one sentence but smaller than the entire discourse) used by the speaker to accomplish a communicative strategy aimed at achieving a more specific communicative purpose. During the research, I used two types of data. On the one hand, I compiled a research corpus consisting of 50 online recipes and 50 online book reviews in Hungarian. On the other hand, I conducted an experiment in which one group of Hungarian native speaker informants (25 persons) had to create a recipe for a good novel, while another group of informants (25 persons) had to write a review of a given recipe. The research thus focused on the genres of recipe and (book) review. I performed corpus-based qualitative analyses on both datasets using the MAXQDA software. After carefully developing a data-driven annotation system on a smaller pilot material, I systematically identified the communicative strategic units of both the non-elicited and the elicited dataset [cf. Swales’s (1990) move structure analysis]. The research findings are as follows: (i) Discursive structure formed by the speaker’s communicative strategies is a genre-marking quality of the online discourses under study. (ii) Recipes written by laypersons and professionals do not have a different discursive structure but the identified discursive structure is very clearly manifested. (iii) Book reviews written by lay readers differ significantly from those written by professional critics in terms of discursive structure and this sharp differentiation reveals a separation between two more specific genres, i.e. amateur book review and professional critique.

Improving the Performance of Arabic Information Retrieval Systems: The Issue of Resolving Word Sense Disambiguation

This study aimed at assessing the performance and efficacy of the retrieval information (IR) systems implemented in three widely used search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo), specifically with regard to the challenge of word sense disambiguation in Arabic texts. Such a challenge has been confirmed to negatively influence the retrieval of the most relevant documents. Therefore, we extended the paradigm of using computational methods and natural language processing (NLP) tools, primarily tailored for processing English texts, to explore morphosyntactic as well as lexical issues disturbing the accuracy of Arabic IR systems. Findings revealed striking disparities in the efficacy of IR systems integrated into these search engines, which can be attributed to four principal challenges: (a) the intricate morpho-syntactic structures inherent in Arabic; (b) the idiosyncratic orthographical system of the Arabic script; (c) the multifaceted semantic flexibility of certain lexical elements; and (d) the intriguing diaglossic nature of Arabic, allowing for the coexistence of multiple linguistic varieties within a single discourse situation. Drawing from these findings, a series of solutions rooted in supervised machine learning techniques, including clustering models and adaptations based on geographic locations, are proposed. Moreover, the study advocates for the capacity of search engines to interpret queries across all Arabic varieties, encompassing vernacular dialects. Furthermore, the importance of search engines accommodating queries irrespective of the specific language adopted by users is underscored. While the research primarily centers on Arabic, its implications resonate beyond this language alone. By applying computational methodologies originally designed for English to Arabic, the study not only addresses the challenges specific to Arabic IR systems but also contributes valuable insights that transcend linguistic boundaries. Through a comparative lens, issues like word sense disambiguation between Arabic and English are juxtaposed, extracting lessons that can inform advancements in information retrieval for both languages.

Нормативно-стилистическая характеристика фразеологических единиц в учебной лексикографии (на материале немецкого и русского языков)

The term normative-stylistic nuances of phraseological units (PUs) is among the key concepts of linguistics. However, at the lexicographic level this issue remains underdeveloped, which determines the relevance of this study. The aim of the paper was to identify the main normative and stylistic characteristics of PUs verbalizing the concept of communication in the German and Russian languages in order to devise a universal system of stylistic labels as one of the constituents of the dictionary entry of a learner’s phraseological dictionary. Systematization of the empirical base on the topic was carried out using the descriptive method. To collect the material and analyse its normative and stylistic characteristics, continuous sampling of PUs from lexicographic sources was applied. Using the comparative method, the author studied and described the German and Russian languages through their systematic comparison with each other in order to identify their specific features. The analysis of the selected material, amounting to 1390 German and Russian PUs, revealed their normative and stylistic characteristics, which required their further systematization. The system developed in this article can contribute to the modernization of the general system of stylistic labels in learner’s phraseology in order to determine and clarify the functioning of PUs in various discourse situations. The main results of the research contribute to further improvement of the theory and practice of comparative lexicology and phraseology. In particular, they can be used in compiling learner’s phraseological dictionaries when introducing the universal system of stylistic labels of German and Russian PUs into dictionary entries.

A novel jigsaw game with eye‐tracking: A multimodel interaction based on psycholinguistics for ADHD therapeutic

AbstractAttention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) causes impulsive or hyperactive behaviors and emotional outbursts or trouble focusing. Simple psychotherapy has difficulty achieving desired therapeutic effects, and ADHD diagnoses in adults and children are increasing. However, e‐health games may mitigate the limitations of traditional methods by providing an ecologically relevant experience. In this paper, inspired by psycholinguistics, multimodal interaction, and he Pupil‐CR method, we have developed a narrative game therapy with eye‐tracking to enhance dyslexia and attention deficit manifestations. Using the situated discourses in the game's interactive narration, ADHD patients can concentrate and reduce anxiety and impulsivity. To evaluate the efficacy in improving attention a controlled trial (N = 48) randomly assigned volunteers in 1:1:1 to an eye‐tracking jigsaw game or two control groups. The principal measure was the average difference in attention comparison score (ACS) of the test of variables of attention (TOVA) preintervention and post‐intervention periods. Based on significant differences observed between the groups, we concluded the eye‐tracking jigsaw game could serve as a viable ADHD intervention for children.

An investigation of politicians' responses to urban diversity and disadvantage: The case of the Danish 'parallel societies'.

We examine how Danish politicians articulate views on the 'parallel society agreement' (aka, the 'ghetto-laws'), a controversial legislative intervention aiming to manage urban migration-related diversity. Through nationwide urban redevelopment aimed at facilitating residential 'mixing', the goal of the legislation is to eliminate so-called 'parallel societies'-socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods characterized by high concentrations of ethnic minorities. In-depth interviews with Danish politicians (n = 11) explored how this proposal was supported, contested or rejected in situated discourse. Following social representations theory, we focus on how 'parallel societies' were constructed in relation to differing ideas about 'mainstream society' and value-laden oppositional meaning-categories (i.e. themata). In particular, we highlight processes of socio-ethical reasoning that occurred through thematization of a shared oppositional meaning-category: 'freedom-constraint'. Views on the intervention were articulated around this oppositional meaning-category. Moreover, a connection was observed between the views articulated by individual politicians and sets of congruent ideas and images mobilized to represent 'parallel societies'. We discuss the theoretical value of taking a social representations approach to urban policy debates, and the practical limitations of dominant representations for successfully promoting intercultural dialogue and engagement-the stated goal of this intervention.