Modern English Research Articles

Making Political Posters Expressive: Interdiscursive and Intrasemiotic Resources of Multimodal Creativity

This article considers political posters as multimodal texts containing interdiscursive elements which produce linguistic and pictorial creative patterns. The aim of the research is to reveal the way interdiscursive resources work in political posters on the basis of intersemiosis to expressively shape politically relevant information and to impact the recipients emotionally. The sample includes modern British and American political posters with interdiscursive elements which were intentionally embedded into political still visuals to create new layers of meaning. The purpose of this carefully designed discursive hybridization is to attract the recipients’ attention and, in the long run, to affect their electoral choices. The research is set in the framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, it also employs stylistic, structural and semantic types of analysis. The examination reveals the sources of interdiscursive items that encompass sport, cinematic, virtual and art discourses. It also elucidates the way interdiscursive elements are integrated into a multimodal text of a political poster on verbal and non-verbal levels. The article contains a case study of a poster based on the combination of political, advertising and cinematic discourses. The analysis shows how the interaction of discourses generates multimodal creativity and how intersemiosis stimulates a careful orchestration of semiotically divergent elements of the target and donor discourses, which ultimately conveys a powerful message. The study is novel as it specifies the notions of multimodal creativity and intersemiosis in reference to political still visuals. The methodology employed in this research opens up new avenues in exploring interdiscursivity and multimodal creativity in other types of text used in visual political communication, such as editorial cartoons and memes.

Locating the ‘Age of Prescriptivism’ in Late Modern periodical reviews: a corpus-assisted discourse analytic approach

Abstract This paper reports the findings of a corpus-based study of prescriptive and normative discourses in Late Modern English review periodicals, using a purpose-built diachronic corpus of review articles published during the period 1750–1899. Drawing on established protocols from Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies and systematic comparison of 15 sub-corpora, it identifies decades during which prescriptive discourses were most frequent. This distributional pattern provides empirical evidence of an ‘Age of Prescriptivism’ in periodical reviewing, during which prescriptive discourses reached their zenith. Whilst the label ‘Age of Prescriptivism’ has been applied to a number of periods of English in recent decades, the findings reported here show clearly that the eighteenth century was the locus of prescriptive activity in the review periodical genre. The innovative application of corpus-based discourse-analytic methodologies for the identification of normative trends reported in this paper also has potential implications for studying prescriptivism as a sociohistorical linguistic phenomenon in other diachronic contexts.

Teaching Modern British Political History in a Politically Polarised and ‘Post-Truth’ Environment

Abstract This article assesses the challenges that university-level teachers of modern British political history currently face in what is often described as a ‘post-truth’ and polarised political environment. It argues that, whilst these challenges do not always present entirely new pedagogical considerations, the sociocultural and political terrain in Britain today requires careful navigation, particularly in an academic field which addresses recent historical topics that are routinely politicised and contested in contemporary discourse. Although there is a lack of scholarly literature on the topic of teaching modern British political history in a higher education setting, this article draws upon a wide array of educational studies to map out the contours of a successful pedagogical strategy that could facilitate ‘deep’ learning in the current contextual environment. To this end, it suggests that by utilising modern British political history's interdisciplinary foundations, applying teaching techniques that help students to explore topics from multiple viewpoints, devising new and stimulating interactive tasks, and capitalising on the opportunities afforded by the Internet age, learning can be enhanced and many of the more academically problematic features and characteristics of the current political climate can be counteracted.

Dialect Diversity in Modern English Literature: A Study of "Shuggie Bain" and "There There"

This research explores dialect diversity in contemporary English literature through a comparative analysis of two seminal works, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and There There by Tommy Orange. The purpose of this study is to unravel the nuanced ways in which authors employ dialects to convey unique cultural and socio-economic contexts, contributing to the broader discourse on linguistic diversity in literature. Using a qualitative research approach, the researcher closely examines the stylistic choices made by the authors, mapping out the dialectical variations present in the narratives and their significance. Through a detailed linguistic analysis, recurring patterns and variations in both novels are identified, shedding light on the role of dialect in character development, setting, and narrative voice. The findings reveal that dialect diversity serves as a powerful tool in characterizing the struggles, identities, and histories of multifarious communities. Additionally, it highlights how these authors challenge conventional literary norms, enriching the reader's experience with authentic voices and perspectives. This study underscores the pivotal role of dialect diversity in contemporary English literature, emphasizing its potential to bridge gaps and foster empathy among readers while amplifying underrepresented voices in the literary canon.

TEACHING CULTURE IN THE MODERN ESP CLASSROOM

For several decades now, it has been realised that teaching a foreign language means much more than just focusing on the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking); it also encompasses teaching about culture. Teaching culture in the modern English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom is focused on building students’ knowledge of cultures while simultaneously developing their language skills. Although this approach to ESP is not new, this paper will analyze the basic principles of teaching culture and possible challenges in the process. In addition to this, it will show authentic classroom examples, present practical ideas for instructors and show what benefits teaching culture bring in the modern ESP classroom.

In search of founding era registers: automatic modeling of registers from the corpus of Founding Era American English

Abstract Registers are situationally defined text varieties, such as letters, essays, or news articles, that are considered to be one of the most important predictors of linguistic variation. Often historical databases of language lack register information, which could greatly enhance their usability (e.g. Early English Books Online). This article examines register variation in Late Modern English and automatic register identification in historical corpora. We model register variation in the corpus of Founding Era American English (COFEA) and develop machine-learning methods for automatic register identification in COFEA. We also extract and analyze the most significant grammatical characteristics estimated by the classifier for the best-predicted registers and found that letters and journals in the 1700s were characterized by informational density. The chosen method enables us to learn more about registers in the Founding Era. We show that some registers can be reliably identified from COFEA, the best overall performance achieved by the deep learning model Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers with an F1-score of 97 per cent. This suggests that deep learning models could be utilized in other studies concerned with historical language and its automatic classification.

On the Coronal Palatalization in Early Modern and Present-Day English

In this paper we look at the case of coronal palatalization [t d s z] > [ʧ ʤ ʃ ʒ] in both Early Modern English (EModE) and Present-day English (PDE) with the aim to determine its major phonological factors (such as the context, triggers, etc.) and to explain the existence of numerous palatalized/unpalatalized variants found in different accents of contemporary English, e.g. [ʧuːn]/[tuːn]/[tjuːn]. It is argued here that the key to understanding the operation of palatalization in contemporary English is the change in the parameter setting which allows/disallows for the merger of two antagonistic elements within a single melodic expression – the *|U I| constraint. This Middle English (ME) innovation guarantees the coronals, to the exclusion of labials and velars, the right to undergo full palatalization. Moreover, the historical perspective adopted in this paper sheds some light not only on the linguistic micro-variation evident in contemporary accents of English, i.e. the existence of [ʧuːn]/[tuːn]/[tjuːn] variants, but also on the absence of front vowels from the group of potential palatalization triggers. It is pointed out that the evolution of the ME diphthong [iu] > [juː], a process which bears a direct responsibility for the later coronal palatalization and the growth of the heterogeneous forms in PDE, is a natural reaction to the *|U I| constraint.

Carved in Granite: C.S. Lewis’s Revivalism in The Nameless Isle

The alliterative poetics used by C.S. Lewis have often proved a critical challenge for scholars without the right kind of medievalist training. In Lewis’s most ambitious contribution to the Modern Alliterative Revival, The Nameless Isle, I argue that he has a strong interest in maintaining fidelity to the Old English alliterative metre, particularly in regards to Sievers types and hypermetric verses, yet he partakes of several adaptations and concessions to Modern English that makes his narrative romance, in some ways, a more successful model than Tolkien’s contemporary ‘arch-purist’ text, The Fall of Arthur. By and large, while questions about a poet’s faithfulness to a historical alliterative tradition are important, deviations from strict fidelity can be even more important yet – they reveal the specific metrical challenges faced by poets in trying to resurrect the alliterative metre. Only by analysing the metrical data behind a poem like The Nameless Isle can we understand what a revivalist may be specifically trying to accomplish with their revivalism.

German Loans in Early English

The paper outlines the contribution of German to the word stock of English in the three periods of Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English, or, in other words, from the early Middle Ages up to 1700, and relates these words to major cultural events, such as the Christianisation of England, the Norman Invasion, the Reformation and to the beginnings of science and technology during the Renaissance. Methodologically, the term German will be used in the sense of High German and its antecedents rather than Low German or Low Dutch. As a consequence of this approach, the impact of German on the English language during these periods is rather small in terms of numbers, but interesting and varied as far as domains of borrowing, transmission routes of words, linguistic strategies (i.e. importation v. substitution), and mode of transmission (i.e. written v. spoken) are concerned.

Besieged: Early Modern British Siege Literature, 1642–1722 by Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson

<i>Besieged: Early Modern British Siege Literature, 1642–1722</i> by Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson

Peter Howson. Britain and the German Churches 1945–1950: The Role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British Zone. Studies in Modern British Religious History 43. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021. Pp. 305. $125.00 (cloth).

Peter Howson. Britain and the German Churches 1945–1950: The Role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British Zone. Studies in Modern British Religious History 43. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021. Pp. 305. $125.00 (cloth).

Alistair Kefford. The Life and Death of the Shopping City: Public Planning and Private Redevelopment in Britain since 1945. Modern British Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 340. $120.00 (cloth).

Alistair Kefford. The Life and Death of the Shopping City: Public Planning and Private Redevelopment in Britain since 1945. Modern British Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 340. $120.00 (cloth).

From sacred place to outer space: Collective creativity and the iconographies of mid-twentieth century English modernity in Guildford Cathedral's kneelers

Between 1936 and 1969, around 1600 kneelers were produced for the new Anglican cathedral at Guildford in Surrey, southern England. This was a major collective devotional artwork, involving hundreds of embroiderers, mostly local women. The project was a distinctive form of community and collective artwork, that complicates established understandings of embroidery, craftwork, femininity and politics. It worked within guidelines for design and materials set by the interior designer Lady Prudence Maufe and her husband Sir Edward Maufe, the cathedral's architect. However, it also allowed for considerable autonomy and self-expression on the part of the volunteers. The kneeler collection has a rich and varied iconography that ranges from expected Christian symbolism to representations of modern technology and nuclear weaponry. What emerged over the length of the project was a complex expression of the worldview of post-war England, and particularly the England and Englishness of the Home Counties. This worldview attempted to combine faith in God with faith in technological progress, and to reconcile internationalism with confidence in British military power. The Guildford kneelers are best understood as a distinctive form of conservative modernity, an attempt to place the changes of the mid twentieth century into longer traditions of Christian worship and Englishness.

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF SEMANTIC CHANGE IN ENGLISH AND ARABIC

Semantic change refers to the way in which the meaning of a word changes over long or short stretches of time. It can be internally or externally motivated .The equivalent to the paradigm in morphology is ,in semantics , the word field in which words and their meanings stand in a network of relationships .The alteration of meaning occurs because words are constantly used and what is intended by speakers is not exactly the same each time .If a different intention for a word is shared by the speech community and becomes established in usage then a semantic change has occurred. This study is divided into three sections , the first is devoted to semantic change in English ,while the second is going to discuss it in Arabic ; however ,the third section will shed light on some samples chosen from the two languages to show how semantic change practically takes place across their history .The aim of this research is to state the stages of those two languages` development ,types of semantic change ,reasons and processes of word formation in each language . The following conclusions are shown: 1. Semantic change is , just like other types of linguistic change , continuous, not sudden but gradual and universal . 2. Gaps in the historical record between the identifiable stages called for the loss of the middle stage of Arabic , on the one hand , and produced the illusion of discontinuity between Anglo-Saxon and Middle English and between Middle English and Modern English , on the other hand . 3. Causes of semantic change are either linguistic or extra –linguistic . 4. As far as these two languages are concerned , they have passed different stages and were subject to different political and social factors , yet they have almost the same types .

Military slang: Origin, structure and semantics

The humankind has been facing different wars and military conflicts during its existence and development. In the current globalized world, the role of the military is very essential and obvious. Furthermore, military slang in English is of utmost significance due to the leading role of the military from various English-speaking countries. The aim of the following research is to identify and analyze military slangy words and phrases in English; to create the military slang phrases and words corpus; to make their semantic and structural characteristics analyses; and to explain their practical usage context. The methods applied in this research include linguistic analysis, which was utilized in the selection of military slang words and phrases applied in modern English; the word-building analysis, which helped in determining semantics and structural features of military words and phrases utilized in the English language; and linguo-cultural and socio-cultural analyses that allowed giving explanations of the UK and US military traditions, cultures, and vocabulary specific features. The specific characteristics of military slang are dynamism, exaggerated expression, broad usage by the military, and general familiarity. The military slang vocabulary units have the same formation ways typical of general English vocabulary, including meanings transfer (metaphor), abbreviation and acronyms, blending, affixation, conversion, shortening, and compounding.

Emotions and the archaic consciousness of man: a diachronic semantic reconstruction of the names of emotions in English

This paper works with the diachronic depth of concepts in national worldview, and is a piece of panchronic research that respects the stages in evolution of human consciousness, as it looks at diachronic depth of emotion concepts in English worldview, in the case of diachronic semantic reconstruction of the nouns fear, sadness, happiness, and serenity that in Modern English manifest the FEAR, SADNESS, HAPPINESS, and SERENITY concepts. Etymons of the nouns were identified in Old English as fær, hæp, sæd, and in Old French as serenité. These etymons are words, and also are signs for certain phenomena on the map of archaic world represented in the mind; these signs were reconstructed via etymological analyses from the Proto-Indo-European archetypes *pēr-, *kap-, *sá-, and *ksero-. Next, the archaic images that came to motivate the words fær, hæp, sæd, and serenité at the time of creation were reconstructed and shown via etymological interpretations organized into matrices relative to sacred rituals of pagans in whose mind the world was represented with the help of images as symbols for certain phenomena of this world. Interpretations within each matrix unfold into a mythical story narrated with reference to symbolism of pagan rituals in the archaic worldview.

The irregularity of weak verbs without vowel alternations in Modern English

The irregularity of weak verbs without vowel alternations in Modern English

Pinpointing prescriptive impact

Abstract This paper presents a single-author case study which demonstrates that the statistical modelling technique change point analysis (CPA) can provide compelling evidence of prescriptive impact at an idiolectal level. It has been hypothesized that Late Modern English review periodicals consistently pushed a prescriptive agenda, and that this impacted language use (McIntosh, 1998; Percy, 2009). A lack of empirical research has, however, left these claims unsubstantiated, partly because evaluating prescriptivist endeavours has proven challenging. Using a purpose-built 3-million-token idiolectal corpus spanning 7 decades, this paper reports that it is possible to discern a striking change in usage. Use of CPA enables this change to be located precisely, and correlated to the author’s exposure to a prescriptive review of her work. In demonstrating how effectively CPA can provide a sophisticated correlation indicative of causality, this paper showcases the suitability of this technique to the study of prescriptivism.

New Age Information Fusion Technology-Based Unique Multimedia Teaching Methods for English

English listening multimedia teaching courseware has the characteristics of both illustration and text, sound, and shape and provides a variety of possibilities for modern English listening teaching methods. Considering students' unique psychological characteristics such as strong self-awareness, physiological characteristics such as strong abstract thinking ability, and relevant theories such as schema theory and constructivism, this paper proposes that high school English listening multimedia teaching courseware can be innovative in many aspects. Multimedia is more and more widely used in the society, and the combination of multimedia and teaching is getting closer and closer. Through multimedia teaching, more teachers' resources are integrated, and students' extracurricular knowledge is broadened. This combination of multimedia and teachers achieves a different teaching effect than before. Due to its graphic, audio, and visual characteristics, it provides a variety of possibilities for modern English listening teaching methods.

Modern English Teaching Methods

Modern English Teaching Methods