Discursive Procedures Research Articles

Hanging Out, Crowding Out or Talking Things Out: Curating the Limits of Discursive Space

This article considers recent curatorial gestures that draw attention to the limits of institutional discursive space. Focusing in particular on the strategies of formulating discursive structures in unitednationsplaza (2006–09) and of audience alienation in Our Literal Speed (OLS) conferences (2008–) , this article explores the possibility of critical engagement with the limits of discursive procedures.

The more it changes, the more it becomes the same: The development of the routine of shape identification in dynamic geometry environment

The overall aim of our research project is to explore the impact of dynamic geometry environments (DGEs) on children's geometrical thinking. The point of departure for the study presented in this paper is the analytically and empirically grounded assumption that as the geometric discourse develops, the direct visual identification of geometric shapes gives way to discursively mediated identification, that is to a process in which one needs to perform a discursive procedure, prescribed by a formal definition of the shape, in order to ascertain the name of the shape. Previous research, conducted in static geometry environments, has already shown that many children, even in the middle school grades, rely on static, visual prototypes when identifying geometric shapes and that formal definitions, even if known, play no role in this process. Our study aimed at testing the conjecture that DGEs, in which the shapes can be continuously transformed, may flex the routine of identification, allowing for greater diversity in the shapes recognized as deserving a given name (e.g. triangle). This, we believed, would be an important step toward the discursively mediated routine of identification. The study, conducted among 4–5 year-old children working with Sketchpad, furnished some supporting evidence. In this paper, the focus is on one 30-min lesson during which the children observed, described, created and transformed triangles of different sizes, proportions, and orientations. During this one meeting the children's thinking evolved, in that the diversity of three-sided polygons they were prepared to call ‘triangle’ grew substantially. Not surprisingly, however, this rapidly-induced change was local and object-level rather than meta-level: it changed the children's use of a specific word rather than causing a transition to a discourse-mediated routine of identification.

Inventing ›the‹ Ethnolect

The paper takes a critical look at the discourse processes that lead to the language-ideological formation of ›the ethnolect‹ as a distinct variety of German. Theoretically situated at the interface between language-ideology research and critical discourse studies, it offers qualitative analyses of selected discourse data from 1995 to 2010. The paper discusses the following suggestions: Perceptions of a distinct variety among immigrantbackground young people emerge in a circulation process among a range of institutional discourses, including academia, popular culture, journalism, and language teaching; these share a number of discursive procedures and language-ideological assumptions regarding ›the ethnolect‹, which are recontextualised according to the formation rules of each discourse. Linguists played a pivotal role in that process, both in academic publications and as ›language experts‹ quoted in the media. In particular, they introduce a number of descriptive procedures on which the production of knowledge on ethnolects is based: labelling, classification, normative comparison, feature selection, and interpretive binarisms; these also occur across media and language teaching discourse in recontextualised ways. Homogenism and standardism serve as language-ideological pillars on which ›the‹ ethnolect can be imagined as a ›deviation‹ from standard language. Its use in the iconisation of ›problem‹ immigrant youth and its metaphorical conceptualisation in terms of military aggression are particular to media discourse. Finally, the label ethnolect is indifferent to the ethnicity of its purported speakers, but primarily indexes their difference, i. e. heteroethnic relation to the imagined majority group.

La construction discursive de l’événement rapporté dans les textes des genres informatifs de la presse française

Este artículo se propone presentar un modelo de construcción del discurso de la prensa, en concreto de los géneros informativos y, entre ellos, de la noticia, principalmente a partir de las teorías de Charaudeau. En primer lugar, se exponen las operaciones discursivas que el periodistaenunciador pone en práctica para transmitir unos hechos problemáticos de la actualidad a los lectores-destinatario. El punto de vista del enunciador siempre condiciona la selección y organización de estos elementos. A continuación, se presenta el esquema composicional que organiza el prototipo del texto de la noticia. Este modelo de enunciación se justifica, finalmente, con el análisis de varios artículos de la prensa francesa.

Confidence sharing in the vocational counselling interview: emergence and repercussions

Confidence sharing is an asymmetrical dialogic episode to which both parties consent, in which one reveals something personal to the other who participates in the emergence and unfolding of the confidence. We describe how this is achieved at a discursive level within vocational counselling interviews. Based on a corpus of 64 interviews, we analyse the disclosure of confidences and the discursive procedures allowing their expression, the way the interactants manage the situation and the repercussions on the counselling interview.

Ingenium і дедуктивний метод Декарта

The main point for criticizing the Cartesians for Vico is the notion of method, interpreted as exceptionally discursive procedure, devoid of spontaneity and creative force which are necessary for discovering new truths. These qualities are embodied for Vico in the Latin term ingenium, loan translation of which is found in Italian (ingegno) and is absent in French. The criticism of Cartesianisn suggested by Vico does not consider the fundamental bilingualism of this philosophy and wide use of the term ingenium in the corps of Descartes’ Latin works. The analysis of the latter proves that the early Descartes’ notion intuitus mentis, as well as the concept of natural light of mind are, in the end, based exactly on ingenium, but not on the discursive methodical procedures. Human soul, following Descartes, reveals its content in several hypostastes and each method of revelation corresponds to specific terminology. Soul as mens is not the same as soul as ingenium. But even the early Descartes’ study of soul is marked by peculiar nominalism, proclamation of the real existence of individual soul as a separate entity. Therefore later, stating his ego cogito, Descartes states exactly the individual substance, not thinking in general. The terminological couple ingenium/mens is not translatable already in the French texts of Descartes himself (both merge in the French esprit), however their Ukrainian translations do not consider neither this untranslatability nor obvious references of Descartes’ esprit to other Latin compliances which differ each time. The article also analyses frequency in usage of the terms ingenium and mens in early and late Descartes’ Latin works; it has been proved that the augmentation of the meaning of metaphysical problems gradually turned mens into the main subject of Descartes’ research and deactualised the problem of ingenium.

Metadiscursive Practices in Introductions: Phraseology and Semantic Sequences across Genres

The study of metadiscursive practices is particularly fruitful in introductory part-genres where the representation of disciplinary discursive procedures plays a major role for the discourse community. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which some English metadiscursive expressions (forms of self-mention and illocution markers in particular) are used to offer a representation of academic argument in different genres. The paper concentrates on the representation of discourse procedures in introductory moves, looking in particular at how economists identify their research purposes and their discourse space, while providing a definition of their topic or contextualizing their research in current debates. The study is based on two small corpora of article introductions and textbook introductions. The approach adopted looks at phraseology as a perspective integrating meaning, form and function. The phraseological patterns identified are analyzed as sequences of semantic units—involving reference to a textual source, a discourse procedure and a cognitive construct. Cross-generic variation highlights a different lexical range and different lexical combinations in the two corpora examined. This is interpreted in terms of the ethos of the discourse community and the different role played by argument in the two genres.

‘Well, I’m a lot of things, but I’m sure not a bigot’: Positive self-presentation in confrontational discourse on racism

Drawing on discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis, this study examines the discursive procedures in which accusations and refutations are made in public discourse on hate speech against immigrants in the United States. The data under study are two extended interviews on CNN regarding illegal immigration. The matter of analytic interest in this article is the verbal formulations of rhetorical devices and their interactive uses in accusing and denying racial hatred. A close analysis of the argumentation in each debate reveals that the use of a rhetorical device may be interactively called for and contextually sensitive in relation to an interactional goal, and its local and global function may be inferred from the sequential procedures wherein participants make an effort at a particular juncture to constrain the course of interaction in an attempt to execute their respective agenda. It is argued here that the performance and the structure of a public discourse on race or ethnicity may be explained in reference to the US societal and cultural orientations to individuals’ positive and negative face wants.

Development and the Documentation of Indigenous Knowledge: Good Intentions in Bad Company?

There appears to be an increasing interest within library and information studies (LIS) in so-called indigenous or traditional knowledge. Discussions on usefulness and applicability of indigenous knowledge in development seem to be motivating electronic documentation and the creation of databases. Often, definitions provided by international organisations are drawn on unquestioningly, while power structures embedded in descriptions provided by such organisations are ignored. This article aims at drawing attention to the ways in which international organisations define and talk about indigenous knowledge in relation to development. This is achieved by critical, close reading of six publications issued between 1998 and 2008 by the following organisations: WIPO, UNESCO, ICSU, UNDP, the World Bank, and IFLA. The critical reflections are also intended to shed light on how documentation practises can be understood as extensions of power. For this the authors draw on Foucauldian notions of power and discourse as well as on post-development and postcolonial perspectives. Relationships and discursive procedures for statements on science, development discourse and intellectual property rights, are shown to be influential in the creation of the concept indigenous knowledge. Relating indigenous knowledge to post-colonial and post-development studies reveals how indigenous knowledge is created and kept marginalized within the discursive structure of development. The analysis concludes by showing how knowledge named indigenous knowledge is trapped and created in a circular flow which legitimises international aid organizations, development discourse and the intellectual property rights system. The article concludes by demanding greater awareness among LIS researchers and practitioners regarding the culturally embedded character of knowledge practices and of the power of classifying and defining.

"[...] in un giardino d'armida : Il racconto d'autunno di Landolfi. Esempio di metamorfosi novecentesca del fantastico

Tommaso Landolfi (1908-1979) e uno dei narratori italiani novecenteschi piu coscienti dei limiti del linguaggio; la sua poetica poggia, infatti, sul postulato che ogni narrare commette un tradimento nei confronti del suo referente per la natura stessa della parola, che muta l'oggetto del dire, mentre lo dice, e non c'e scritto in cui egli non ritomi su questo punto. II suo opus, le cui prime prove risalgono alla seconda meta degli anni Trenta, e rappresentato soprattutto da racconti brevi, costruiti intomo a storie d'impianto non verosimile, e da opere di genere diaristico o piuttosto pseudo­ diaristico, considerato che il discorso autobiografico vi risulta sempre intersecato da elementi di finzione.

Re-examining Bernstein: From peer-group ways of speaking to ‘Schriftsprache’ – a study of Turkish-German ‘Hauptschule’ students in Mannheim

This paper begins by looking at responses to Bernstein in Germany in the 1970s that criticized his notions of class difference in sociolinguistic codes. As part of a re-examination of Bernstein's ideas, the paper goes on to look at the current communicative situation in German education where urban schools have many second-generation immigrant students. As part of a long-term research project on communicative styles of young Turkish immigrants in Mannheim (see Keim, Sprachliche Varianz und sprachliche Virtuosität von türkischstämmigen ‘Ghetto’-Jugendlichen in Mannheim, Narr, 2007), I explore the uses of German as a school language or ‘Schriftsprache’, in which culture-specific knowledge of genres used in formal and institutional situations are taught. I find that urban adolescents have a wide stylistic repertoire that contains ethnolectal forms, bi- or multilingual mixings, switchings and crossings as well as forms of ‘schooled language’. Elements of this repertoire are used differentially in oral and written narratives. In this paper I will focus on the use of linguistic and communicative resources in written material from different social contexts (formal vs. informal), reconstruct the discursive or social functions of linguistic choices, and compare the discursive procedures used in oral and written texts.

Laicidad, religión y deliberación pública

Se propone una concepción de la laicidad como método de conocimiento en el plano individual y como método de decisión democrática en el ámbito público mediante procedimientos discursivos. El Estado laico debe abarcar todo sector en el que la dimensión valorativa sea preeminente, pero de manera enfática, con respecto a la dimensión religiosa. En este sentido, una bioética laica en el ámbito público debe asumir la autonomía del Estado respecto a las doctrinas y normas religiosas y el respeto a la libertad de conciencia y a la privacidad. En el texto se hace mención de algunos ejemplos recientes en México en los que el principio de laicidad queda cuestionado y se proponen algunas alternativas de solución de acuerdo con algunas ideas de RAWLS, HABERMAS, DWORKIN, LAFONT, entre otros filósofos.

Conceptions of “information poverty” in LIS: a discourse analysis

PurposeTo provide an analysis of the notion of “information poverty” in library and information science (LIS) by investigating concepts, interests and strategies leading to its construction and thus to examine its role as a constitutive element of the professional discourse.Design/methodology/approachStarting from a Foucauldian notion of discourse, “information poverty” is examined as a statement in its relation to other statements in order to highlight assumptions and factors contributing to its construction. The analysis is based on repeated and close reading of 35 English language articles published in LIS journals between 1995 and 2005.FindingsFour especially productive discursive procedures are identified: economic determinism, technological determinism and the “information society”, historicising the “information poor”, and the library profession's moral obligation and responsibility.Research limitations/implicationsThe material selection is linguistically and geographically biased. Most of the included articles originate in English‐speaking countries. Therefore, results and findings are fully applicable only in an English language context.Originality/valueThe focus on overlapping and at times conflicting discursive procedures, i.e. the results of alliances and connections between statements, highlights how the “information poor” emerge as a category in LIS as the product of institutionally contingent, professional discourse. By challenging often unquestioned underlying assumptions, this article is intended to contribute to a critical examination of LIS discourse, as well as to the analysis of the discourses of information, which dominate contemporary society. It is furthermore seen to add to the development of discourse analytical approaches in LIS research.

Discourse Patterns in Spoken and Written Corpora (review)

Reviewed by: Discourse patterns in spoken and written corpora ed. by Karin Aijmer and Anna-Brita Stenström Ute Römer Discourse patterns in spoken and written corpora. Ed. by Karin Aijmer and Anna-Brita Stenström. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2004. Pp. viii, 273. ISBN 1588115062. $126 (Hb). Up to now the text and discourse dimensions have been comparatively neglected in corpus linguistic research. The present collection of twelve papers can be seen as a response to this research desideratum. In their introduction, Karin Aijmer and Anna-Brita Stenström review traditional approaches to, as well as recent trends in, the study of text and discourse and define the scope of the volume. They cover the interrelated fields of genre analysis, academic discourse, cohesion, deixis, metaphor, evaluation, and contrastive analysis. ‘Cohesion and coherence’, the first of the book’s four thematic sections, deals with expressions of cohesion and coherence in speech and writing. The papers by Annalisa Baicchi and Silvia Bruti relate to a project on text complexity and discuss forms and functions of cataphoric reference in spontaneous spoken conversation (Bruti) and in book titles and headlines (Baicchi). Using data from a parallel and a multilingual corpus of English, Norwegian, and German texts, Hilde Hasselgård, in ‘The role of multiple themes in cohesion’, explores themes that contain more than one textual, interpersonal, or experiential constituent. In the last paper in this section, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen investigates patterns of cohesion in face-to-face conversation (data from different BrE corpora) and in e-mail mailing-list messages, and identifies parallels between written and spoken dyadic dialogue. The five contributions in Part 2 of the volume are concerned with ‘Metadiscourse and discourse markers’ in different text types. Julia Bamford and Anna Mauranen both use corpora of academic spoken English (lectures and conversations) to shed light on textual microfeatures, in particular deictic terms (Bamford) and hedges (Mauranen). Marina Bondi analyzes the use of contrastive connectors, such as however or but, in academic writing. Bondi nicely shows that academic disciplines (here economics, history, and sociology) exhibit differences in their typical discursive procedures and in expressions of evaluative meaning. Guiliana Diani then takes a closer look at the discourse marker I don’t know in conversational exchanges, taking into account its semantics and the pragmatic functions enhanced by its typical co-selection patterns. This part of the collection concludes with Christina Samson’s discussion of how writers of economics lectures employ the person markers we and I to express their personal stance and to get the reader involved. The last two thematic sections, ‘Text and information structure’ and ‘Metaphor and text’, contain one paper each. Gunther Kaltenböck elucidates the functional properties of nonextrapositions in ICE-GB (a corpus of spoken and written BrE), focusing on the communicative properties of such constructions in contrast to it-extrapositions. The final contribution, by Kay Wikberg, takes a corpus approach to ‘English metaphors and their translation’ into Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish, and discusses the role of (multilingual) corpora in metaphor research. This volume certainly identifies corpora as powerful tools in text and discourse analysis, and also raises new questions on different types of text in context. It provides fresh insights into the patterning of discourse features in relation to register, genre, and discourse community. Ute Römer University of Hanover Copyright © 2006 Linguistic Society of America

Pairing information with poverty: traces of development discourse in LIS

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate and critically assess the notions of “information poverty” in LIS by highlighting its connections with development discourse.Design/methodology/approachThe article takes a discourse analysis approach, which starts from Michel Foucault's understanding of discourse. “Information poverty” is posited as a statement and investigated in its relation to other statements. The focus is on discursive procedures that emerge from the repeated connections between statements. The article draws on the interpretative analysis of 35 English language articles published in scholarly and professional LIS journals between 1995 and 2005.Findings“Information poverty” and the “information poor” are established as being assigned specific positions in the discourse of LIS as the result of overlapping, sometimes conflicting discursive procedures. The concept emerges as a possibility in LIS by anchoring it in the dominant discourse of development. Traces of development discourse surface in LIS and contribute to the legitimisation of the concept of “information poverty” by lending it authority.Research limitations/implicationsThe material selection is linguistically biased. Results and findings are fully applicable only in an English language context.Originality/valueThe article relates the professional discourse of LIS to the dominant discourse of development and thus highlights some of the assumptions upon which the concept of “information poverty” is built. Moreover, the article is intended to contribute to the further development of discourse analysis in LIS.

Poéticas do olhar na contemporaneidade

This article aims at examining the poetic production of Paulo Henriques Britto, Eucanaã Ferraz and Fabio Weintraub, by focussing on the modes of configuration of an experience of the gaze in each. In order to do that, it relates discursive procedures and plastic resources employed in the composition of the covers of theirs books, looking to them as forms of representation both of an aesthetic choice as to lyrical language and of an ethical-political value attributed to it.

Addiction as accomplishment: The discursive construction of disease

The ubiquity of the disease concept of addiction obscures the fact that it did not emerge from the accretion of scientific discoveries. Addiction-as-disease has been continuously redefined, mostly in the direction of conceptual elasticity, such that it now yields an embarrassment of riches: a growing range of allegedly addictive phenomena which do not involve drugs. This article begins with questions that have been raised about whether “addiction” is a discrete disease entity with a distinct etiology. It then summarizes the historical and cultural conditions under which addiction-as-disease was constructed, the specific actors and institutions who promulgated it, and the discursive procedures through which it is reproduced and internalized by those said to be afflicted. Understanding how the dominance of additiction discourse was accomplished in these ways does not imply that the lived experience of what is called addiction is therefore any less acute or compelling. But it does invite attention to the contradictory uses of disease discourse: a humane warrant for necessary health services and legitimation of repressive drug policies.

From analysis to pedagogic applications: using newspaper genres to write school genres

This paper discusses the possibility of using newspaper genres and genre-based pedagogy to teach intermediate ESL learners to write school genres. Students’ typical writing problems reveal the inadequacy of the typical composition classroom instruction. Then two texts regarded as typical representations of the editorial and the school argumentative essay are analysed to demonstrate the different extents to which they resemble and differ from each other. It suggests newspaper genres can be used as resources to write school genres provided that students’ linguistic awareness is developed by using a series of metalinguistic activities. Students need to be made aware of text–function relationship, generic conventions, as well as overlaps and distinctions between genres. Transferability of genre knowledge from one genre to others is possible if students learn how to use metacognitive and discursive procedures in new situations and genres.

'Health should not have to be a problem': talking health and accountability in an internet forum on veganism.

This article draws upon insights from discursive psychology to examine how participants in an Internet forum on veganism orient to the relationship between food choice, health and accountability. First, we explore the ways in which participants ascribe responsibility for health problems like vitamin deficiency to individual recipients. By suggesting individual practices as a cause for problems, speakers undermine the notion that problems arise through veganism as a matter of principle. Second, we show how participants construct solutions to individual health problems as involving mundane and simple actions. Both discursive procedures enable speakers to resist negative assumptions about the potentially complicated nature of veganism in relation to health protection.

Cosmopolitismo e idiosincrasia: la historia de la literatura española en el contexto del comparatismo decimonónico

This essay aims at showing the tight interrelation between the general frame Works designed by XIXth century Comparatism and the specifie characterisation of Spanish literature as a privileged sample of national literature. Going a step further, the strategie function of cosmopolitism in favour of the hegemonie agenda of certain national literatures is also questioned, as well as the implicit relegation of some others, as, for instance, Spanish literature. The use of some discursive procedures trying to set a relational position for every single literature proves to be one of the most effective resources in this sense.