Discursive Events Research Articles

Fetishism and the language commodity: a materialist critique

Over the past 10 years, an emerging body of research in applied linguistics and linguistic anthropology has made the argument that recent global political-economic developments have led to the commodification of language. In focusing on how language is seen as a tradeable commodity, the process of commodification is portrayed as a principally discursive event, where value and commodity status are attributed to languages. However, the notion of both value and of commodities themselves as discursive matters stands in contrast to Marxist and classical political economy where commodities have value only insofar as they are congealed embodiments of human labour, expended in production processes where labour stands in relation to capital. In juxtaposing the ‘language commodity’ with the commodity of Marxist political economy, and in drawing on Marx's notion of commodity fetishism, we argue that though language may appear to be a commodity, it is not one, as language itself is not a product of labour. We conclude by discussing what a closer engagement with the more material concerns of production offer political economy approaches to language in addressing an ‘ideal’ and ‘material’ epistemological divide (Gal, 1989; Irvine, 1989; Friedrich, 1989; Shankar and Cavanaugh, 2012).

PEDAGOGICAL DISCOURSE RESOURCES AND INCENTIVES IN THE MODERN UKRAINIAN SOCIETY

Educational and scientific discourses unfold and function within the framework of pedagogical discourse as an integrated form in which it is impossible to delineate them clearly. At the same time, different subjects co-operate in the pedagogical discourse, although the definitive pair of such interactions is a student and a teacher. Modern pedagogical discourse operates with different contexts, appealing to the new information situation and transformation of knowledge into direct productive force. Attention is drawn to the subject who, being involved in pedagogical discourse, involuntarily expands not only the scope of own educational activity, but also joins to the full extent of the discursive and communicative events of the community, culture, and society.

Forging a glorious past via the ‘present perfect’: A corpus-based CDA analysis of China’s past accomplishments discourse mediat(is)ed at China’s interpreted political press conferences

With increasing attention on discursive power, the “proper telling of China’s story” (jianghao zhongguo gushi) has recently become a key slogan in mainland China. Held within the sociopolitical context of reform and opening-up, the televised and interpreter-mediated premier’s press conferences constitute such a discursive event that facilitates the articulation of China’s discourse to domestic and international audiences. This corpus-based CDA study explores how China’s discourse on its past actions and accomplishments is mediated by government interpreters cross-linguistically in China’s global voice — English. Through investigating the concordance lines containing the top 3 self-referential items (we/China/government), the use of present perfect (continuous) structures is established as a prominent feature in (re)presenting Beijing’s achievements in English. Critical comparisons with the Chinese originals suggest the interpreters’ proliferated use of these structures, which discursively leads to a stronger level of accomplishment, positive self-portrayal and, resultantly, political legitimisation. This interdisciplinary study highlights the interpreters’ often neglected yet vital agency in further legitimating and (re)constructing China’s image as important (re)tellers of “China’s story” beyond national borders. This is particularly the case, given the mediat(is)ed and (re)mediat(is)ed nature of the high-profile event.

Anti-Gay, Sexist, Racist: Backwards Italy in British News Narratives

The Berlusconi years have witnessed Italy placed in the uncomfortable spotlight of the international media; however, now that Berlusconi’s power has waned, a timely reflection is due on the extent to which the vestiges of the former Premier’s cultural have coloured images of Italy in British news discourse. How far do cultural myths influence the selection, narration and reception of Italian news reported in British newspapers? Do Berlusconi’s verbal gaffes reverberate in the construal of newsworthiness and evaluative parameters, reinforcing and perpetuating stereotypes of Italians as a whole? These are the key issues this contribution attempts to address. Stemming from a broader research project on the representation of Berlusconi’s non politically correct language in the British press, this study examines the representation of certain aspects of Italian culture that have been the focus of British news narratives in recent years. Four recurring themes are explored and discussed: homophobia, racism, sexism and fascism. Implementing a critical discourse analysis approach, news texts retrieved from a cross-section of British newspapers reporting on Italian affairs are examined. The analysis then focuses on the invisibility of translation in reconstructing discursive events in news narratives across cultural and linguistic barriers, and suggests that decisions taken in translation solutions can reproduce and reinforce myths or stereotypes.

푸코-데리다 광기 논쟁을 통해 본 데카르트라는 사건

푸코-데리다 광기 논쟁을 통해 본 데카르트라는 사건

The discourse of the Western media in covering the events of the Middle East (the report of the British agency "Reuters" on the situation in Iraq as a model)

The analysis of political discourse has an important place in media circles, especially in the field of editing news and news reports, as it is intended to clarify the special events related to communications, and the formation and change of political discourse systems. In order to analyze texts and discursive events in order to reach discourse systems and social systems, texts and events within the political and social fields must be studied, by relying on cultural information and written words in political discourse.

Where design competitions matter: Architectural artefacts and discursive events

Recent ethnographies among professional architects have given us a novel version of the argument against architectural autonomy: architects work in a condition of entanglement not only with clients and markets, but also with the very objects through which architectural conception takes place. There is a tension between this view and one that surfaces within management scholarship on design competitions. In these studies, the design competition is a moment of architectural work in which architectural autonomy is uniquely pronounced, where the artistic statements of architects achieve a special efficacy. The author investigates the possibility that the design competition enacts a different sort of architectural entanglement than what we see in recent anthropologies. He considers two situations of architects working on design competitions, one in an architectural school in the UK and one at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. He concludes that, in design competitions, discourse itself becomes subject to adjustment and iteration.

Audience-blind sentence-enders in Korean: A discourse-pragmatic perspective

In Korean the speaker-addressee relationship is reflected in mandatory sentence-final verbal morphology. It indicates, among other things, the speaker's attitudinal, emotional, epistemic, and evidential stance toward the addressee or proposition, including various honorification levels. The so-called ‘speech-level’ has been grammaticalized to such an extent that any violation of proper honorification would render the utterance not only pragmatically unacceptable but often ungrammatical. There is, however, one distinct style adopting ‘audience-blind forms’ (ABFs), which are used in sentences intended for unspecified audiences and lack such interpersonal grammatical trappings. This paper addresses strategic uses of ABFs in discourse, especially in audience-sensitive contexts. By strategically employing ABFs, the speaker feigns the utterance as monologual, i.e., it is directed to the self, not the addressee. From the viewpoint of discursive strategy, the speaker claims, among others, his/her superiority over the addressee or universal validity of his/her claim. The use of ABFs in audience-sensitive contexts thus shows how language users may opt out of grammatical requirements and strategically employ seemingly inappropriate forms for discursive effect. It is also argued, drawing upon crosslinguistic observations, that audience-blinding is a part of general blinding strategies in language use, which may involve the author and the message as well.

Paradigmatic literacy features in children’s argumentation in peer talk

Paradigmatic literacy features refer to ways of thinking and using language associated with academic-scientific discourse or written language. They are intimately bound up with education and appear in their emergent forms, mainly in conversations with adult partners. The present qualitative study investigates whether, and in which ways, paradigmatic literacy features emerge in pre-schoolers and fourth graders' argumentation in natural peer interactions. Segments of peer talk identified as argumentative discursive events served as our basic unit of analysis and were analysed from a discourse analytic perspective. The findings indicate that paradigmatic literacy features are embedded in peer talk at the macro level, in talk of an exploratory nature when children detach themselves from the ‘here and now’ and apply paradigmatic ways of thinking. Similarly, specific linguistic configurations related to academic discourse that manifest authority and degrees of distancing or abstractedness feature in children’s natural conversations as well. In both cases, paradigmatic literacy features fulfil social functions in peer talk. In light of the current findings, we discuss the potential contribution of peer talk to the wider context of dialogism, as well as the scope of literacy beyond the modality in question.

Understanding the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement: A critical discourse historiographical approach

Within the context of a critical discourse historiographical (CDH) approach to critical discourse studies (CDS), this article applies a range of theories to the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, or Hong Kong Occupy Movement, to understand it as a discursive event. The CDH approach argues that a diachronic, historiographical approach can contribute to historiography, the writing of history, in that it can create first readings and interpretations of important events. The approach focuses on critical moments in discourse, of which the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement is considered an important one in the context of Hong Kong’s ongoing socio-historical development. Four theories are applied, in addition to the historical analysis, to further interpret the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement phenomenon: social movement theory, performance theory, identity theory and social action as text theory. It is concluded that the CDH approach to CDS and findings of the study may be useful in the consideration of other social movements and Occupy movements globally.

Debate in EFL Classroom

Relying primarily on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and The National EFL Syllabus, this paper focuses on the highest ranking goals within formal foreign language (L2) education: the development of communicative competence (which the communicative paradigm regards as the most important goal of contemporary language teaching), and of critical thinking (CT) ability, which is widely recognised as the main general education goal. It also points to some of the discrepancies generated by tensions between the fact that language is a social and cultural phenomenon that exists and evolves only through interaction with others, and individual-student-centred pedagogical practices of teaching (and assessment) – which jeopardise the validity of these practices. Next, it links the official educational goals to the cultivation of oral interaction (rather than oral production) in argumentative discursive practices in general and in structured debate formats in particular, which are proposed as an effective pedagogical method for developing CT skills and oral interactional competence in argumentative discursive events, especially on B2+ levels.

Antecedents of internal political efficacy incidental news exposure online and the mediating role of political discussion

Internal political efficacy has long been associated with news use and political discussion. Yet, as more people are inadvertently exposed to news and political discussion online, it remains unclear whether incidental news exposure also has a discursive effect on political efficacy. In a two-wave panel study, we applied the O-S-R-O-R model of communication effects to test these relationships. We found that political discussion with weak ties, but not strong ties, is a mediator between incidental news exposure and internal political efficacy.

The Volatility of the Discourse on Refugees in Germany

ABSTRACTThe anti-immigration continuum of public attitude-media-politics has undergone changes in the course of the “refugee crisis” in Germany. By examining migrant representations and discursive events taking place in 2015 and early 2016, we will show the volatility of the recent discourse on refugees. A historical/critical discourse analysis will show how new topoi arose and old topoi of the security/power paradigm have lastly reconquered the discourse. Using newspaper coverage, we discuss discursive events in three main sections: borders, arrival, and presence. Discursive shifts have taken place that have had an impact on the configuration of migration categories such as migrants or refugees.

Uses of multimodal statements on the playground: a Foucaultian approach to multimodal discourse analysis

ABSTRACTIn this study, I draw upon the concept of a statement (l’énoncé), Foucault’s fundamental discursive unit, as developed in The Archaeology of Knowledge, extending and applying the concept to a group of children’s multimodal discourse operations on the playground, and thereby developing the concept of a multimodal statement. I do this by focusing on Foucault’s semiotic grounding of the statement, which he describes as being constituted by a group of signs. My analytical approach involved developing a form of multimodal transcription that enabled the isolation of individual multimodal statements within a focal discursive event. In later stages of analysis, I identified the signifiers (from across multiple modes) that comprised the students’ multimodal statements, and found that these multimodal statements were discursive practices that created a network of nodal point signifiers drawn from multiple modes. Through these multimodal discourse processes, the students created subjective positions as part of a local discursive formation, which I refer to as a multimodal discursive microformation: a social semiotic web of subjectification that the children produced.

THE MANAGEMENT OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY OF ENTERPRISES: SCIENTIFIC AND ECONOMIC ANALYTICS

The main purpose of the paper is to comprehensively study and analyse theoretical aspects of management of business activity of enterprises, revealing their main disadvantages and differences. The research methods will allow developing a categorical apparatus for the management of business activity of enterprises. Methodology. The research is based on the analysis of scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists and economists concerning business activity as an economic category and its management, approaches and directions of such management. Results of the research are showed that management of business activity covers various areas of activity of enterprises. Such areas can be production, financial, innovative, social, environmental etc. In the process of analysing economic literature, it is determined that most scholars focus on two main aspects of managing business activity: socioeconomic management and management of the efficiency of economic activity. It is determined that each aspect of management of business activity is characterized by appropriate methods of conducting. Among methods of socio-economic management of the enterprise are followed: material and moral stimulation of personnel; social regulation; economic calculation; balance method; method of financing; price regulation; lending. Considered also psychological and organizational-administrative methods for the management of business activity. The second aspect of management of business activity aimed at managing the efficiency of economic activity is characterized by the achievement of the necessary discursive effect that is the direct satisfaction of the owners of enterprises. The article also substantiates the importance of studying tools of managerial influence on the business activity of enterprises, which in the process of research are divided into five main groups: economic, ecological, financial, psychological, and management audit. Practical implications. Modern scientific scholars are characterized by the insufficient development of views on the management of business activity of enterprises since it distinguishes only two of its main aspects: as socio-economic management and management of the efficiency of economic activity which differ in methods and ways of management. Therefore, an enterprise cannot carry out an effective assessment of the factors that effect on the level of business activity and make quality management decisions. Value/ originality. Research of theoretical aspects management of business activity of enterprises allowed formulating the actual definition of this category. The author’s interpretation of this definition is characterized by systemic and comprehensiveness and logically outlines the main management actions, their focus, and the period of applying, that is the novelty and relevance of the research.

O mowie, piśmie i innych mediach: peregrynacje po genealogii pojęć z Peterem Sloterdijkiem

This article concerns the short genealogical history of speech and writing media, which simultaneously takes an advantage of, develops as well as reconstructs, the appropriate points of view and attitudes by Peter Sloterdijk. The object of analysis is a discursive formation on speech and writing shaped in western culture, a formation consisting of arguments and imaginations contained in the Bible, philosophical writings, by Plato and Hegel mainly, and literature, indicated here only very slightly. Social history is eventually discused here, that is the view of revolutions and colonialism through the prism of print/writing medium — through the relationships of power and domination based on this medium. All the discursive and social events have their common resentment background according to Sloterdijk — following Nietzsche he assumes that there are cruelty and perversion that lurk at the roots of culture. The question is: why does he do that, what new does the historically worn-out interpretational frame let him tell about the media in the past and today?

Reconceiving Structure in Contemporary Music: New Tools in Music Theory and Analysis by Judy Lochhead

FORM AND THEORY Reconceiving Structure in Contemporary Music: New Tools in Theory and Analysis. By Judy Lochhead. (Routledge Studies in Theory, 2.) New York: Routledge, 2016. [xiv, 179 p. ISBN 9781138824331 (hardcover), $145; ISBN 9781315740744 (e-book), various.] examples, illustrations, bibliographic references, index.Lochhead's recent study is a significant contribution to music analysis that corresponds to the conceptual shiftWestern art music has undergone since the period of high modernism. The book argues that critical engagement with recent music is lagging behind; it aims not simply at reproducing the knowledge inherent in the artwork, but sets out to produce knowledge about musical experience itself-hence its insistence on structuring (rather than structure), conceived as emergent, phenomenal, and malleable (p. 7). This relates to a phenomenology of music, which has to be employed critically by the analyst, invoking a certain post-phenomenological attitude: the object of analysis is the content of listening, as a mediated, self-reflexive (p. 76).The book is divided into two parts comprising theory and practice. The first part traces the concept of in the post- WWII European and U.S. avant-garde, before introducing the tripartite framework of Lochhead's contribution to analysis: Investigating, Mapping, Speculating. The second part comprises four different case studies, designed to demonstrate the main procedures of Lochhead's productive analysis.The opening section attempts a definition of via a historiographical investigation of New according to the scientific research paradigm of the 1950s and 1960s, which served as the foundation of compositional [and therefore analytical] craft (p. 19). The interlinking of composition and analysis was furthered by several factors, examples of which include the founding of Die Reihe in Europe and of Perspectives of New in the U.S., as well as developments in academic practice. Lochhead's central claim here is that today's theory and analysis still bear the traces of the composer-theorist paradigm and of postwar epi stemic authority (p. 37).This epistemic metaphor is further traced via a comparison between musical and sociological references, while musical is shown to be frequently underdefined, at times hovering between the empirical activity of determining structural units (Ian Bent and Anthony Pople) and the discursive effect of evaluative terms such as (Robert Morgan) (pp. 51-52). In a revisiting gesture, Lochhead finds a resonance between Jacques Derrida's proliferating play of structure (p. 63) and the generative structural function of the series in Pierre Boulez (with its overtones of Theodor Adorno's conception of as distinct from the concrete elements of the work, but arising from them) (pp. 48-49).Lochhead's questioning leads not to merely another definition of structure; rather, it opens up the space for an analytical practice that involves musical listening and temporality. The former assumes the possibility of several performances (including indeterminate works) and is viewed as an interpretive activity; the latter implies that analysis is concerned with the work's becoming. As listening is phenomenologically involved in the of the work, the self-aware analyst must employ a reflective approach: Music analysis is a formal process of reflective engagement with musical works with the goal of producing knowledge by proposing new modes of engaging the work and as such contributing to the work's becoming (p. 77). The immediate implication for musical is now obvious: for Lochhead this engaging is dynamic and, to the extent that is a static unity with a fixed single origin (p. 78) it is not the object of analysis. Instead, she proposes the term structuring, to emphasize the temporality of the work's (p. …

A produção de efeito discursivo de copresença Lula-Dilma em 2010: enquadramentos da revista Época

A partir do acontecimento político-midiático das eleições presidenciais de 2010 no Brasil, discutimos neste texto a produção de efeito discursivo de copresença Lula-Dilma nos enquadramentos midiáticos do segundo semanário brasileiro de atualidades com maior tiragem e circulação no país: a revista Época. Para tanto e com base nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Análise do Discurso de linha francesa, analisamos a midiatização da candidata do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) Dilma Rousseff, e do então presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva na matéria “Nem eles esperavam tanto”. Os resultados mostram que o emprego metafórico de mantras (Lula [não]é Dilma/Dilma [não]é Lula) se destacou na promoção da copresença Lula-Dilma e na desconstrução da imagem que, segundo o semanário, o PT queria imprimir junto ao público para se manter no poder.

Think small. The construction of imagined tradition in German "Land"-magazines

This article is the first linguistic analysis of a new category of lifestyle magazines in the German speaking countries, based on methods of corpus linguistics and multimodal discourse analysis. Since the launch of the magazine LandLust in Germany in 2005, more than twenty publications of so called "land magazines" have appeared on the market, attracting millions of readers. Our research analyses land magazines as discursive events. We examine the specific combination of discourses land magazines are serving or creating by looking at the semiotic practices – writing and images – they manifest themselves by. Our results show that the magazine under scrutiny does not simply provide new forms of escapism but also positions itself politically in subtle ways as part of the traditional-conservative spectrum by reacting to metalinguistic discourses such as purism and feminist criticism.

The media of the ultra-right

AbstractIn light of the rise of ultra-right ideologies in Europe, this article offers an in-depth analysis of the discourse on immigration presented by CasaPound Italia (CPI), a self-defined fascist organization in Italy. This case study illustrates the importance of media and communication activism for the promotion of contemporary ultra-right movements. Specifically, the analysis focuses on how CPI reported one of the first widely covered immigration-related disaster in the Mediterranean, on 3 October 2013, and on the audience interactions that followed on the organisation’s website. In this article, I argue that CasaPound Italia’s online communiqué and its members’ comments need to be considered as one discursive event in which the encoding/decoding processes at play can be explored in detail. The examination, which draws from critical discourse studies, reveals audiences’ contributions in unpacking the implicit message contained in the original communiqué and underlines the active role that “rank and file” members play in the promotion of ultra-right ideologies.