Text Genres Research Articles

Non-Maximal Definites in Romance

Mainly based on data from Old Spanish and Modern Francoprovençal, this paper discusses a hitherto underresearched use of the Romance definite article that cannot straightforwardly be explained by recurring to any of the standard analyses of semantic definiteness, i.e., maximality and/or familiarity. We show that such weakly referential definites are definites with representative object interpretations licensed by the kind-oriented mode of talk and not short weak definites. They denote inherently non-specific, semantically number neutral regular objects whose only co(n)textual relevance is their being typical instantiations of their corresponding kind. Representative object definites are shown to be favored by ‘habitual’ readings of the predicate (and text genres like recipes, treatises, narratives about what people used to do in former times, etc.). In Francoprovençal, this is the case especially in the scope of non-perfective verb tenses in prepositional or presentational complements and sometimes in direct objects. In Old Spanish, non-maximal definites often occur in the scope of non-assertive mood (imperative/subjunctive, due to the genre of recipes), while, at the same time, introducing important discourse referents. In addition, in the latter language such definites are demonstrated to be positively susceptible to priming by preceding non-maximal definites.

Still a fallible tool? Revisiting effects of automated writing evaluation from activity theory perspective

Despite the popularity of automated writing evaluation (AWE) that has provoked an increased scholarly interest, synthesized research to comprehensively understand its pedagogical effects is still in paucity. To fill the gap, this study aims to meta‐analyse the overall effect of AWE on learners' writing skill development and whether the effect differs from how it has been used. From activity theory (AT) perspective, this study reported results based on a meta‐analysis of 33 valid effect sizes involving 2995 participants from 25 experimental and quasi‐experimental studies published during 2000–22. The results of the study showed that the overall effect was g = 0.429, 95% CI [0.266, 0.592], suggesting that AWE for writing skill development is more effective than traditional methods, such as traditional classroom interaction, teacher‐led interaction and peer interaction. Regarding AT‐related moderators for the overall effect, different moderator effects of educational levels, proficiency levels, sample size types, target language types, intervention durations, text genre types, human–computer interaction types, feedback types and program types were reported. Informed by the results obtained, this study also provided some insights into the pedagogical implications for practice. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic The facilitative effects and educational affordances of automated writing evaluation (AWE) for writing skill development have been well‐documented. Existing studies have been helpful in affording insights into the use of AWE for writing skill development. Few studies to date published have directly and quantitatively meta‐analyse the use of AWE for writing skill development. It is difficult to understand the effect size and potential AT‐related moderators of AWE for writing skill development. What this paper adds A thorough AT‐driven meta‐analysis of the publications on AWE for writing skill development was conducted. AWE is more effective than traditional methods for writing skill development with an effect size of g = 0.429. The pedagogical effect of AWE is affected by such moderators as educational levels, intervention durations, human–computer interaction types and feedback types. Implications for practice and/or policy Pedagogical potentials of AWE should be encouraged to explore among learners of different educational levels. When using AWE, a combination of human interaction with AWE is necessary. Researchers should understand how such factors as learner individual differences, writing assignment, AWE program and research design may impact the pedagogical effects of AWE.

ЖАНР ХОРРОР У ЕМОТИВНОМУ РОЗРІРІ: ПЕРЕКЛАДАЦЬКА СКЛАДОВА

The article elucidates the emotivity of horror literature in the light of translation studies. Based upon the classical material of the research the specificity of emotions’ verbalization has been discussed. The dominant negative emotions such as agony, fierce, anger, hatred are depicted jointly and tightly. A prominent emotive feature of the horror genre is emotions’ depiction on physiological processes. It allows describing hero’s emotional worries through the prism of inner changes in his/her state of health and body in general. The article touches upon the most vivid descriptions of physiological changes depicting emotions and emotive sketches with somatisms blood and heart. Horror genre texts are full of emotive paragraphs and reveal the inner world oh heroes’ emotions. Emotions in horror literature are depicted by means of nomination and contextual description with the help of lexical and linguostylistic means. Preserving the emotive component in the target text is a complex and crucial task for a translator. Rendering emotivity without overinterpretation of the source text and without imposing one’s personal emotional world requires a high level of professionalism. Translators rendering the negative palette of emotions face stylistic omissions and neutralizations that results in the low level of emotivity in the target text. Alongside, stylistic equivalents are also present the target texts that proves the translators’ willingness and desire to be close to the author of the original. Emotional tension and suspense that are also considered necessary to be saved in the target text are preserved by the translators using stylistic intensification and equivalents.

Интертекстуальный потенциал библейских фразеологизмов

This article discusses the realization of the intertextual potential of phraseological units of biblical origin. It clarifies the status of the biblical text as a constant intertext, which, on the one hand, accumulates numerous texts of different genres and time periods and, on the other hand, is a source of intertextual elements in the form of allusions, winged words and quotations, abundant in new texts. In this paper, a biblical phraseological unit is understood as a stable, reproducible linguistic unit which structurally can be presented in the form of a phrase or a sentence with a partially or completely reinterpreted meaning and is etymologically related to the Holy Scripture. Studying biblical phraseological units within the framework of the theory of intertextuality is most important to understand the special role of the biblical text acting as a global pretext and producing various kinds of intertextual elements that can be reproduced in new texts, preserving, in most cases, their semantic link to the original text. Phraseological units of biblical origin, in their turn, being used in donor texts, carry a powerful expressive charge, enlivening and enriching our speech, transforming and developing. The following research methods were applied here: analysis and synthesis, generalization, hypothetico-inductive method, contextual method, phraseological identification, and phraseological analysis. As an illustration of the theoretical aspects of this study, the most frequently used biblical phraseological units are analysed, examples of the use of biblical phraseological units in English texts of different types of discourse are provided. As a result, a conclusion is made that biblical phraseological units have high intertextual potential due to their ability to reflect the phenomena of reality and the speaker’s attitude toward them in a concise, felicitous, figurative and expressive form.

Neural referential form selection: Generalisability and interpretability

In recent years, a range of Neural Referring Expression Generation (REG) systems have been built and they have often achieved encouraging results. However, these models are often thought to lack transparency and generality. Firstly, it is hard to understand what these neural REG models can learn and to compare their performance with existing linguistic theories. Secondly, it is unclear whether they can generalise to data in different text genres and different languages. To answer these questions, we propose to focus on a sub-task of REG: Referential Form Selection (RFS). We introduce the task of RFS and a series of neural RFS models built on state-of-the-art neural REG models. To address the issue of interpretability, we probe these RFS models using probing classifiers that consider information known to impact the human choice of Referential Forms. To address the issue of generalisability, we assess the performance of RFS models on multiple datasets in multiple genres and two different languages, namely, English and Chinese.

Structured abstract summarization of scientific articles: Summarization using full‐text section information

AbstractThe automatic summarization of scientific articles differs from other text genres because of the structured format and longer text length. Previous approaches have focused on tackling the lengthy nature of scientific articles, aiming to improve the computational efficiency of summarizing long text using a flat, unstructured abstract. However, the structured format of scientific articles and characteristics of each section have not been fully explored, despite their importance. The lack of a sufficient investigation and discussion of various characteristics for each section and their influence on summarization results has hindered the practical use of automatic summarization for scientific articles. To provide a balanced abstract proportionally emphasizing each section of a scientific article, the community introduced the structured abstract, an abstract with distinct, labeled sections. Using this information, in this study, we aim to understand tasks ranging from data preparation to model evaluation from diverse viewpoints. Specifically, we provide a preprocessed large‐scale dataset and propose a summarization method applying the introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRaD) format reflecting the characteristics of each section. We also discuss the objective benchmarks and perspectives of state‐of‐the‐art algorithms and present the challenges and research directions in this area.

Digital reading in beginner readers: Advantage or disadvantage for comprehension of narrative and informational linear texts?

AbstractBackgroundText comprehension research in relation to the reading medium showed that digital‐based reading represents a disadvantage compared with paper‐based reading. Most paper versus screen research; however, was conducted with university students.ObjectivesThis study investigated the contribution of reading medium to text comprehension and medium preference in beginner readers who use technology for school learning. The moderating role of text genre, word reading and medium preference on the reading medium effect on text comprehension was also analysed.MethodsFirst graders (N = 115; mean age = 6;8 years) read narrative and informational linear texts on paper and computer screen and answered main idea, literal and inferential comprehension questions. Medium preference questions and a word reading task were administered.Results and ConclusionsLogistic mixed models showed that the main idea and literal comprehension of narrative and informational linear texts were greater on screen and for higher word reading skills. Inferential comprehension was lower on screen at lower levels of word reading skills but became similar for the two media as word reading increased. Children had no clear medium preference and medium effect on text comprehension was independent of children's medium preference. The main results show that beginner readers who use technology for learning and are fast and accurate in word reading display no comprehension disadvantage in digital reading.TakeawaysOur results add to existing knowledge by clarifying how reading medium effects on beginner readers' text comprehension interact with factors such as fundamental reading skills and experience with technology.

On General Terms for Texts in Early China

Abstract This article explores the lexical field of “text” in early China. It argues that words pertaining to it should not be understood as referring to textual genres, but as conveying an abstract notion of “(written) text.” In particular, it treats the word shi 事 in Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (79–8 BCE) editorial reports as well as yu 語 in many different early sources. Especially the second term has been understood as denoting a certain textual genre. This is incorrect as can be shown by analyzing occurrences of this word in relevant contexts. Rather, yu first referred to short proverbs and later, by way of semantic derivation, came to acquire the meaning “text” in general. This meaning also applies to the word’s usage in designations of early compilations such as Lunyu. Accordingly, the latter title should simply be understood as “compiled texts.”

„SHUMEN TEXT“ IN BULGARIAN LITERATURE/ CULTURE (AN ATTEMPT AT RECONSTRUCTION)

The text reconstructs "Shumen text" in Bulgarian literature / culture, based on texts of different genres (historic, memoir, literary), considering the problem of provincialism and the correlation between "grand narrative" and “everyday narrative”. Among memoir texts stand out the memories of Shumen university, featuring a combination of mythologising discourse and self-irony; an awareness of provincialism and a problematisation of this category.

The language of school writing: a developmental comparison of genres across the school years

Writing is the highway to learning, processing, organizing, storing and retrieving information during the school years. Gaining command of the structures and functions of texts of different genres is one of the main goals of linguistic literacy in education. The texts that school-goers construct provide optimal hunting grounds for unveiling their linguistic abilities during the genre-specific construction of different text types. The current study examines the linguistic constructions typical of expository texts, characterized by argumentation or persuasion regarding social / conceptual issues, versus informative texts, describing factual (or less controversial) phenomena. This examination constitutes a window on Hebrew-speaking students’ developing writing abilities in elementary, middle and high school, compared with adults. Participants were 547 students and educated adults with post-high school education. Each participant wrote an informative text and an expository text, yielding a total of 1,094 texts. Three types of variables were examined: lexical, morpho-syntactic and syntactic. We found that complex lexicon and syntax in discourse increased in prevalence across the school years, with specific structures being genre-typical as befits the stance and character of the two genres under investigation. We also found that it was only in adulthood that all of these components were employed in optimal fashion, at the culmination of the period of Later Language Development. Our results imply that informative and expository texts are indeed distinct in their characteristics, and that it takes many years of internal linguistic and cognitive development, on the one hand, and schooling instruction and experience, on the other hand, to achieve qualitative academic writing in non-experts.

The Students’ Speaking Anxiety during Pandemic Covid-19

The new paradigm on the position of English in the world has shifted as now English was no longer the property of native speakers. This shifting paradigm challenge the traditional assumption of English teaching world on whether English teachers should incorporate local or target culture in their teaching materials. This is a qualitative research using critical literature review method. The topic being discussed in this article is how to incorporate local value in English language teaching materials. The issue is analysed from various perspectives, they are: world Englishes, English as International Language, culture and identity, materials development and how they shape the idea of how English teaching materials in Indonesia should be developed. In order to do that, the researchers implemented four criteria of a good ELT materials proposed by McDonough, Shaw, Masuhara, (2013). As the result of the research, we provide two suggestions. They are creating a team of book developers and providing alternatives ELT materials based on different learning styles, text genres, or even viewpoint towards an issue.

Daniel E. Kim. Rest in Mesopotamian and Israelite Literature

In Rest, we find Daniel Kim’s revised dissertation, which he completed under Andrew Clarke at Aberdeen in 2015. Kim compares the concept of rest in Mesopotamian literature (or ML; pp. 13–79) with that in the Deuteronomistic History (pp. 81–200) and Chronicles (pp. 207–272), focusing on a few key terms: nâḫu and pašāḫu in ML and נוח‎/מנוחה in Hebrew.1In his analysis of the Mesopotamian literature (pp. 13–79), Kim surveys Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, and the Poem of Erra as well as, to a lesser degree, the Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon and the Annals of Ashurbanipal (pp. 65–74). He identifies four categories of rest in ML: “(a) rest as divine authority; (b) rest as divine provision; (c) rest in a divine abode; (d) and rest as divine appeasement” (p. 16).2 Kim is dependent on a small number of secondary sources, and he accepts their conclusions readily without clearly engaging them.3Kim’s lexical analysis of נוח (pp. 93–95) is limited to the hiphil stem and focused on the Deuteronomistic History. Curiously, Kim does not refer to previously mentioned journal articles or cite entries from lexicons on נוח in his own analysis.4 Instead, he seeks to collapse the theological use of נוח into the secular use so that he rarely finds a passage in which נוח simply means “put, place.” Unfortunately, this often makes Kim’s exegesis feel strained. For example, he asserts that when Yhwh allows nations to “rest” (that is, leaves them) in Canaan to test Israel, it is because “rest” has been “given (albeit in a different form) to the foreign nations to bring unrest to Israel” (p. 126–9). Similarly, when Gideon “rests” the offering before the angel of Yhwh in Judg 6:18, Kim infers a subtle theological affirmation of Deuteronomic rest (pp. 136–37). Regarding the “resting” of the tables in the temple in 2 Chr 4:8, Kim argues that “the Chronicler connects the ten tables in 2 Chr 4:8 with the table(s) for the bread of presence in 2 Chr 4:19” and that this connects these tables to creation, the presence of Yhwh, and the ark. For Kim, these theological associations explain the Chronicler’s decision to use נוח rather than נתן or קום (pp. 235–238). Some of Kim’s more modest exegetical proposals are compelling. For example, Kim’s reading of the promise to David in 2 Sam 7:1 and 11 (pp. 166–76) presents helpful arguments regarding source and textual criticism, and, in this case, נוח is associated with the kind of rest with which Kim is particularly interested. However, Kim fills many occurrences of נוח with more theological significance than is necessitated or implied by the context.In parallel with von Rad’s There Remains Still a Rest, Kim’s assessment of rest in the Deuteronomistic History is that it is “singular, permanent, spatial and fulfilled” (that is, oriented to the land); whereas, in Chronicles, it is “many, transient, relational, and eschatological” (p. 276).5 In comparison to ML, the differences in usage make comparison difficult. While rest is generally experienced by deities in Kim’s examples from Mesopotamia, in the biblical literature rest is almost exclusively experienced by humans.6 This results in a mismatch in the genre and content of texts and, thus, in the type of “rest” being compared.Some readers may find Kim’s exegesis creative and his suggestions stimulating food for thought. I was frustrated, though, by his engagement with both the Mesopotamian texts, which I found too limited, and with the biblical literature, which I found too narrow in its lexical analysis and too hasty in its transfer of theological significance into the use of נוח.

ENSINO DE INGLÊS DENTRO DE UMA PERSPECTIVA FUNCIONAL

Este artigo é recorte de uma tese desenvolvida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos de Linguagens do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais. Objetiva apresentar o desenvolvimento de uma proposta de ensino e de pesquisa baseados na pedagogia do gênero. As atividades foram amparadas em uma perspectiva funcional de uso de língua e de linguagem. Considerou que outros modos de signifcação precisam ser trabalhados em sala de aula, não somente o verbal. Partiu do princípio de que todo texto é multimodal (Kress, 2010), isto é, formado por mais de um modo de significação. Como metodologia usou-se a pesquisa participante. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionários, entrevista, notas de campo. Como resultado, percebeu-se que o foco da atividade foi além do ensino da língua como estrutura e favoreceu o desenvolvimento de outras capacidades e conhecimentos dos alunos. Houve superação das dificuldades e o trabalho com base em gêneros textuais permitiu o uso da língua em situações reais de comunicação.

COMPOSIÇÃO MULTIMODAL EM ANÚNCIOS PUBLICITÁRIOS DA REVISTA ESPAÇO NATURA

Este estudo comprovará que a construção dos textos visuais dos anúncios publicitários da Revista Espaço Natura mantém uma construção lógica analisável na perspectiva da Gramática do Design Visual. Para isso, este artigo fundamenta-se em Trindade (2012), Silva (2015), Rojo e Moura (2019) e Kress e Van Leeuwen (2021). O corpus analisado foi um anúncio publicitário da Revista Espaço Natura do ciclo 12 do ano de 2021, em observação ao valor da informação e suas subcategorias. Constatou-se que, a peça visual é constituída por meio de uma linguagem persuasiva e intimista, apresentando uma realidade aparente que leva o interlocutor ao consumo.

ORAÇÕES COMPLEXAS, UM POTENCIAL DE SIGNIFICADO PARA A CONCRETIZAÇÃO DE VOZES DISCURSIVAS EM EDITORIAIS

O presente artigo, fundamentado na Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional de Halliday (1994), Halliday e Matthiessen (2014) aborda as formas mais ou menos evidentes de que a língua dispõe para veicular vozes, em textos de opinião, por meio de escolhas léxico-gramaticais e semântico-discursiva. O objetivo é investigar o complexo oracional responsável pela veiculação de vozes em editoriais de jornal. Para tanto, a análise, feita manualmente, concentra-se no Sistema de Complexos Oracionais — o componente lógico da metafunção ideacional que abrange os três tipos básico de relações para juntar orações: coesão, interdependência e o encaixamento (HE, 2019). Os resultados revelaram que a maior incidência para o gênero textual argumentativo está no recurso das projeções de locução ou ideia, entretanto, o recurso de expansão ou de encaixamento de orações também possibilita a inserção de vozes externas ao texto.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE TEACHING CYCLE GENDER-BASED LEARNING TO THE EDUCATION OF READING AND WRITING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Resumo: Neste estudo, temos como objetivo enfatizar as contribuições que a metodologia do ciclo de ensino aprendizagem pode trazer para o processo de ensino de leitura e escrita no Ensino Fundamental. Através dele, apresentamos os conceitos e fundamentos dessa ferramenta didática, evidenciando a estrutura e análise de gêneros textuais presentes no currículo escolar. Cabe destacar que esta pesquisa tem como base teórica a Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (LSF), segundo a qual a forma linguística e os significados são realizados em contexto. Dessa forma, os gêneros mostram o impacto do contexto de cultura nos textos por meio de estrutura configurada em etapas e fases orientadas para um propósito.

Structural relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and performance in writing

Implicit theories have important implications for students' achievement goals and academic achievement. The Writer(s)-within-community model by Graham (2018) postulates that motivational beliefs stored in the long-term memory, such as implicit theories and achievement goals, influence how one approaches a writing task. Notwithstanding, few empirical studies examined the relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance. In this study, we sought to examine the structural relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance of Portuguese students in grades 5 to 8 (Mage = 11.80, SD = 1.5). In addition, we aimed to test whether the relations among implicit theories, achievement goals, and writing performance varied across two text genres, and for girls and boys. Our results showed that more incremental theories in writing were associated with a greater pursuit of mastery goals as well as with higher text quality. Moreover, a greater endorsement of mastery goals was associated with higher text quality, whereas a greater adoption of performance-approach goals was linked to lower text quality. These relations remained stable for girls and boys and across narrative and opinion texts. Overall, these findings confirm the pivotal role of motivation-related variables in predicting students' writing performance.

Genre Analysis of The Message Segments of An Indonesian-English Tourism Text Translation: Case in Madura

Abstract. Genre as a spectrum of textual manifestation signals its textual presence through linguistic devices. In the tourism text, the signal of its presence is marked by a transition from one movement or organizing activity to another. Translating genre is central to the work of translators. The fact is the translation process often does not take one line and translators often overlook the role of contextual specifications. This difficulty is also compounded by the fact that the readers’ understanding when reading the translation text often has difficulty in obtaining the meaning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and explain the translation of an Indonesian-English tourism text genre focusing on message segments to determine the moves and rhetorical functions of the discourse structure and how they may contribute to the readability of the text. The study was descriptive qualitative research. The data was extracted from a variety of documents related to Madura tourism. The data collection technique was document review and the data analysis was interactive model analysis. The results of the study showed that the message segments of the Indonesian-English tourism text translation were constructed with three moves (explanation, illustration, and argumentation) and three rhetorical functions (description, definition, and cause and effect). These moves and rhetorical functions in the translation of the Indonesian-English tourism text genre contributed to the results of the readability of the translated texts, i.e., they were fully comprehensible without unnecessary effort in the part of the readers. The findings suggest that genre analysis of the message segments of the tourism text translation can be a good alternative for communicating the intentions of the source texts. Thus, this can be a good practice for translators to consider when translating texts and other related texts as well.Keywords: Genre, Message Segment, Translation, Tourism

ACQUISITION OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE BY KOREAN STUDENTS (technical program students)

This article deals with traditional and modern methods, techniques of language pedagogy, connected with Russian lexicography and corpus linguistics. Contemporary tools of teaching Russian as a foreign language (new types of dictionaries, particularly ideographic and text corpuses) address issues related to unsystematic learning of the language, structuring the teaching process, enhancing students’ creativity and interests in the language. The author considers linguocultural aspect as central point of intercultural communication needed for linguistic persona development. It is reported that within language training programs for technical faculty students the following components are to be covered: gender aspects of communicative behavior reflected in verbal interaction, features of mind-set, cultural traditions of formal and informal communication. According to the author, this aim can be reached due to tasks on ranking in communication, contrastive-comparative analysis, working with lexicographic literature; texts of different styles and genres enable foreign students to learn lexical-phraseological system of the Russian language (theme groups; synonymic rows; antonymic pairs) more effectively, and pay attention to functional aspect of the language system.

Lexical combinations of contemporary British military fiction: lexical-semantic and stylistic features

This article focuses on the lexical-semantic features of the language means of contemporary British military fiction. Despite the sustained philological attention to fictional texts of different genres, the relative disregard of the lexical patterning in fiction on military themes stands in need of scrutiny. In order to account for all the lingual and extralingual factors influencing the process of fictional text composition, this article takes a philological approach and conducts an integrated analysis – combining linguistic and literary-theoretical perspectives – of the lexical patterning of contemporary military fiction. Our aim is to establish the main lexical-semantic and stylistic peculiarities of the dominant lexical combinations in contemporary British fiction with macro-, meso- and micro-inclusions of military themes. Functions of the thematic lexicon connected with the war topic are more obvious in the literary texts with macro- and meso-inclusions of military themes. However, their role in the texts with micro-inclusions of military themes is quite significant as well: the details of the military environment and phenomena serve as a means of establishing a close connection between the reader and the storyworld; recollections of the war period echo in the plot line of the characters, reflecting its destructive consequences even long afterwards.