Discourse Level Research Articles

In/Visibility and the (post-soviet) ‘queer closet’

ABSTRACT This article discusses in/visibility regarding sexual identities, the ‘gay closet’, and ‘coming-out’ within the post-soviet context from a queer feminist perspective. Contemporary western-oriented global queer political culture favours individualized visual representation to fight for social acceptance. In many post-soviet and western contexts, however, LGBTIQ+ visibility is increasingly threatened. Accordingly, many choose strategies to sustain their queer lives beyond visibility and public representation. Queer and feminist theory does not offer adequate concepts to account for these forms of resistance. Building on Édouard Glissant, the decolonial and anti-imperialist philosopher, with his demand for the right to opacity, and off queer theory that reconceptualizes the gay closet, such as that of Anna T. I rethink visual in/visibility and the queer closet as space for relationality and recuperation. While Glissant and T. use the concept of opacity primarily on the level of the verbal, I will re-conceptualize opacity as in/visibility on the level of visual discourses. Engaging with the artistic practice of multimedia artist Ruthie Jenrbekova and filmmaker Masha Godovannaya, both of whom play with the in/visibilisation of queerness as artistic strategies, I show how visual opacity can facilitate coalitions beyond identity politics based on nationality, sexuality and/or gender.

Truth with a Z: disinformation, war in Ukraine, and Russia’s contradictory discourse of imperial identity

ABSTRACT This article offers a qualitative analysis of how, by adopting identity-related discourses whose meanings resonate within a given culture, Russian state propaganda strives to bolster “the truth status” of its Ukraine war claims. These discourses, we argue, have long historical lineages and thus are expected to be familiar to audiences. We identify three such discourses common in many contexts but with specific resonances in Russia, those of colonialism/decolonization, imperialism, and the imaginary West. The article demonstrates that these same discourses also inform war-related coverage in Russophone oppositional media. Russian state-affiliated and oppositional actors further share “floating signifiers,” particularly “the Russian people,” “historical Russia,” “the Russian world,” “Ukraine,” “fascism/Nazism,” and “genocide,” while according them radically different meanings. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of studying how state propaganda works at the level of discourses, and the acutely dialogical processes by which disinformation and counter-disinformation efforts are produced and consumed.

Visual Listening to ʽAlāʼ ʽAbd al-Hādī’s Sīrat al-Mā’ or [Water Epic] (1998)

Sīrat al-Mā’ [Water Epic] (1998) is an open work in which ʽAlāʼ ‘Abd al-Hādī does not attempt to create a definitive order, but deliberately leaves the arrangement of the constituent parts of the volume fluid to allow readers to create multiple possible orders. Underlining is used to create two completely different con/texts that break into thirty-two articulations, thus creating a decentralized work that allows readers the freedom of composition and invites an infinite number of readings. The poet’s contravention of poetry conventions is exemplified in innovating a unique print, avoiding meter, mixing genres, arranging words in an unusual manner, shifting point of view, deviating at the phonological, graphological, lexical, syntactic and discourse levels, crossing cultures and deferring meaning. Through its formal properties, which radically contravene established conventions of poetry writing, Sīrat al-Mā’ represents a postmodern view of the world as senseless, disordered, and fragmented. In this paper, an attempt is made to listen visually to the form and structure of this open work and reflect on its transdisciplinary nature that inextricably mixes the auditory and the visual.

Referential choice in two languages: The role of language dominance

Aims and Objectives: Bilingual speakers that speak a null subject (Spanish) and a non-null subject language (English) may show some indeterminacy in referential choice in their nondominant language in comparison to monolingual speakers. The present study tests the production of referring expressions in the two languages of bilingual speakers (Spanish and English) to assess attainment at the discourse level and explore the role of language dominance on referential choice. Methodology: A group of 49 Spanish–English bilinguals participated in a picture description task in English and Spanish measuring referential choice in contexts of reference maintenance and topic-shift. Data and Analysis: The results of our study show that at a group level, bilingual speakers produced more underspecified references in maintenance contexts than English monolingual speakers and produced more overspecified references in topic-maintenance and topic-shift contexts than Spanish monolingual speakers. The results further show that language dominance in the target language is associated with more monolingual-like referential choice. Conclusions: We discuss the role of language dominance in the development of bilingual referential choice patterns.

Transediting classic English novels for children in China: a narratological case study of Gulliver’s Travels

ABSTRACT The practice of transediting classic English novels for children is common in China, but remains under-researched. From a narratological perspective, this article explores this practice through a case study of Gulliver’s Travels. It first identifies the factors, including the view of childhood, common presuppositions of the features of children’s literature, censorship, and the mainstream educational philosophy in China, that may influence this practice. Then, it finds that the Chinese children’s editions of Gulliver’s Travels experience noticeable changes both on the story and discourse level, such as the excision of scenes that reflect satirical criticism and the shift from indirect speech to direct speech. Lastly, it points out that although the observed changes are understandable, some seem inappropriate for the target young Chinese readers due to the ignorance of the differences in children’s literature for readers of different ages. Therefore, this article suggests that literature for young readers aged 11 to 16 should challenge them cognitively and affectively, be somewhat subversive, and present a complete picture of the reality, and that translators of children’s literature should truly put themselves in the position of children and consider the needs of young readers of different ages.

Hypallage is a rare bird. Not.

Hypallage, a “marginal” rhetorical trope, is defined as a combination of seemingly incompatible features and has been exploited since antiquity in poetic and narrative discourse, e.g., angry crowns of kings (Odes of Horace). Here the hypallactic incompatibility arises from the position of angry as a prenominal modifier of crowns rather than of kings. We deny that hypallage is a rare phenomenon restricted to belles-lettres; rather, we claim that hypallage is a highly entrenched mechanism in ordinary language. We demonstrate that structural and semantic parallelisms exist between prototypical hypallactic transpositions and the marked placement of constituents in clausal, morphological, and speech act constructions, as well as quantifier and adverbial placement. Hypallactic expressions constitute a violation of the Iconic Proximity Principle. Nevertheless, they are a means for a speaker to convey complex meanings at any level of grammar and discourse with a minimum of coding effort. The exploitation of hypallactic anti-iconicity by a speaker and its resolution by a hearer are made possible by shared conceptual models, the conceptual metonymies and/or metaphors operating on them, and pragmatic inferencing. We conclude that the prioritizing of figurative motivation at the expense of iconicity is a pervasive cognitive mechanism in language.

Speech Understanding in Primary Schoolchildren with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Its Relationship with EEG Characteristics. Part I

The article discussed ASD heterogeneity in terms of the severity of autistic manifestations, cognitive and speech abilities in children with different levels of functioning. We present results of a study of speech understanding at the level of phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax and discourse in primary schoolchildren with ASD. The study revealed correlations between the severity of autistic manifestations of a socio-communicative nature and non-verbal IQ with various aspects of speech understanding. Comparison of the correlations in the subgroups of children with different levels of functioning revealed differences between the subgroups, indicating different mechanisms of disorders. The differences of the spectral characteristics of the EEG in children with ASD compared with the age norm, and characteristics in the studied subgroups are shown. We revealed differences in EEG spectral characteristics between subgroups with ASD with different levels of functioning: the subgroup with less pronounced disorders is characterized by a higher index of β2-activity, while the subgroup with more pronounced disorders – by a higher index of slow-wave activity.

The Use of Discourse Markers in Jordanian Spoken Arabic

This corpus-driven study analyzes the use of discourse markers in conversations between 14 native speakers of Jordanian Spoken Arabic (JSA). The data are collected from one Jordanian talk show, namely Caravan. This show is chosen because it is based on live conversations between a group of males and females in their twenties and thirties. The study aims at identifying the discourse markers that are used in the targeted conversations and examining the pragmatic functions that are performed by each discourse marker. The results revealed the subjects relied heavily on various multifunctional discourse markers to fulfill a wide range of pragmatic functions on the textual, interpersonal and cognitive levels of discourse.

Foreign and Domestic Online Media Representation of Indonesian Minister of Finance: A Feminist Stylistics Approach

Background: 
 Examination of gender representation and the portrayal of a prominent female public figure in both foreign and domestic online media. By applying a feminist stylistics approach, the study sheds light on the importance of fair and unbiased representation of female leaders in the media landscape, which can contribute to dismantling gender stereotypes and promoting gender equality in society.
 Methodology: 
 This study employs a qualitative method to explore the portrayal of gender relations using Sara Mills' feminist stylistics framework, focusing on word, phrase/sentence, and discourse levels.
 Findings: 
 The findings reveal that the representation of the Indonesian Minister of Finance in both foreign and domestic news sites exhibit specific yet distinct results, influenced by cultural norms and Sri Mulyani's reputation within Indonesia and internationally. Utilizing the three levels of analysis within the feminist stylistics theory framework, the study uncovers that the minister is addressed fairly and without explicit gender bias.
 Conclusion: 
 This study highlights the importance of fair and unbiased representation of public figures in media by examining the portrayal of Indonesia's Minister of Finance through a feminist stylistics approach.
 Originality: 
 This comprehensive analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of gender representation in media and highlights the importance of addressing public figures in a fair and unbiased manner.

A Systems-Theoretic Perspective to the Translation of Company Profiles from Chinese into English

A translation system is made up of a source text subsystem and a target text subsystem. The elements in the system are interrelated and exert influence on each other. Translation studies from a systems-theoretic perspective focus primarily on literary texts, while business discourses are seldom explored. In order to assess the translation quality of company profiles, a three-level model from the systems theory perspective has been proposed. The three levels are the preliminary data level, the discourse level, and the contextual level. The results show that the translator should attach great importance to improving and restructuring the source text and reconstructing experiential meaning, interpersonal meaning, and textual meaning. The translation should be reader-oriented and adapt to the cultural context of the target language.

Language immersion effects in the use of tú and usted by L1-French and L1-European Portuguese learners of Spanish

AbstractThe use of the Spanish pronouns of address tú and usted is an intricate matter for L2 learners due to the many factors that influence their selection at the discourse and interactional level. Although the literature has traditionally focused on the challenges experienced by L1-English learners of L2-Spanish in learning these forms, less is known about speakers whose L1s also present similar (but not identical) pronouns of address. This study thus analyzes the use of tú and usted by L1-French and L1-European Portuguese learners who learn Spanish either in their home countries (i.e., France and Portugal) or in Spain as part of a study-abroad experience. Results indicate that learners in both L1 groups used tú more often while in Spain than in their home country. Additionally, students in immersion started adopting more similar criteria to those of L1-Spanish speakers in determining whether tú or usted would be appropriate in certain contexts.

Prose Translation Strategy Study from Chinese to English from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence

Prose works boast rich cultural connotation, loose structure, free form of expression. There are great cultural differences between Chinese culture and West culture; English pays attention to hypotaxis and strictly obeys the grammatical expression norms. Achieving complete equivalence between the original text and the translated text when translating Chinese prose works into English is difficult. Nida's functional equivalence theory emphasizes that grammatical accuracy and literal corresponding should not be attached great importance in translation but that the reaction of the readers to the translation should be essentially like that of the original readers, which effectively reduces the conversion between the source language and target language of objective standard and furthest achieves functional equivalence between the original text and translated text and effectively solves the problems in the process of prose translation. Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory, four strategies for prose translation from the lexical, syntactic, discourse and stylistic levels are proposed in this paper, which are lexical transformation, sentence structure changing, constituent addition, holistic consideration.

Дискоммуникация: межкультурный, дискурсивный и лингвоэкологический аспекты

The article clarifies the concept of discommunication, defines its place among the related concepts of communicative failure and communicative conflict, and suggests ways of studying discommunication at the discourse level. A new interpretation of discommunication is proposed in the framework of the linguoecological approach to communication developed by V.I. Shakhovsky. Discommunication is treated as an umbrella term that unites various manifestations of ineffective communication which can occur due to many reasons. At the intercultural and intracultural levels, discommunication can result from non-implementation or incomplete implementation of the communicative intention, failure to achieve the communicative goals, or their mismatch. The resulting ineffectiveness of communication and the ineffectiveness of the communicative interaction are due to a number of reasons, both linguistic and extralinguistic, among which are violation of ethical norms and ecology of communication; non-observance of the rules of argumentation; using manipulative strategies; unsuccessful verbalization of the intention by the addresser. The latter is exemplified in detail with the excerpts from the Russian-language courtroom discourse. It is represented through violations in goal-setting and errors in the formulation of the idea. Expanding the list of discourses for analyzing discommunication will allow identifying the specifics of its implementation in various speech genres and types of communication, and help determine its causes and outline ways to overcome it.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Edible Oil Companies Advertisements

Media, nowadays, is an essential factor, and it evokes the feelings of the readers and viewers. People nowadays are more concerned about the issues and events happening in the country and worldwide. Media depicts the picture of the entire world to every individual, and it also shapes their ideas. This study aimed to analyze Pakistani edible oil company advertisements from the perspective of Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The study ascertained how advertisers convince customers to buy the products using certain linguistic choices in a specific context. In order to achieve this purpose, the researcher selected ads from a Pakistani edible oil company named Kashmir Premium Gold Oil. The theoretical framework opted for this study was Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1993). This framework has been used as it shows the connection between social practices and the properties of language. Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework includes three levels of discourse: text, discursive practices, and social practices. The findings show how the ideology of the consumer can be changed by repetition of the advertisement in popular local TV channels and local magazines. The advertisements show an ideal lifestyle and manipulate the customers’ mindset that whatever they have been shown and said through advertisement is true as the advertiser makes them realize that the product was only for their health and better life. Thus, the current study revealed that the language used in the advertisements served as a tool to control the minds of the people.

A Study into the Discourse of American Print Media about Representation of Islam and Muslims

Print media discourses mirror social reality related to a particular context and time. Most often, they serve as a distorting prism to construct and represent a desired version of reality. The data for the present study comes from the articles of ‘The Washington Post’ about the representation of Islam and Muslims. The time span for data collection ranges from august 2019 to October 2019. Van Dijk’s (2006) research model for critical Discourse Analysis has been employed to analyse the data. The analytical categories of the model include representation, actor description, metaphor, polarization, number game, authority, lexicalization, topos, comparison, distancing and consensus. The data has been analysed at the level of word, sentence and discourse. The findings of the study highlight that the adjectives of negative social connotations such as militants, hard liners, belligerent, extremists, suicide bombers, jihadists, heaven seekers, the squad, terrorists, etc. have used to represent Islam and Muslims negatively. Highly politicised terms such as Islamic racism and islamophobia are alluded to islam and Muslims. The frequency of occurrence of the article related to Islam and Muslims during the selected time span is significantly higher. The themes associated with Islam, Muslims through the articles include ISIS, Islamic state, and jihad, Talibanised Ideology, Islamic Militants, fight against terrorism, Political Islam etc. It contends that 100% negative representation of Islam and Muslims has been observed. Besides, it concludes that print media discourses are one of the best sites for ideological investment and to shape mindset of target readership accordingly.

Liminal identity of Turkey in humanitarian government

ABSTRACT During the past two decades, Turkey’s strategies in aid and assistance have been premised onits liminal identity as both Western and Eastern, to present itself as a ‘different actor’ compared to Western traditional donors. Turkey is neither in the West nor in the non-West, but continues to be an active global actor in the traditional structure of the international humanitarian order. Thisliminal identity can be considered as a positive, albeit ambivalent, status reinforcing Turkey’s activism. Turkey invokes Islamic and Ottoman aspects of its identity in recipient countries through bilateral relations, while it reinforces its Western liberal dimensions through implementing traditional practices of multilateral humanitarian government. This article argues that Turkey, being suspicious and critical of traditional actors at discourse level, remains integrated into conventional and Western structure of humanitarian government. This article analyses the different constitutive elements of Turkey’s liminal identity and how Turkey operationalizes its humanitarianism.

Subjectivity of Discourse from the Philosophic Perspective


 
 
 Language not only objectively expresses the thought of a proposition but also indicates the speaker’s emotion, attitude, and viewpoints toward a proposition, which is called subjectivity in the study. Subjectivity is one of the main topics in philosophy. However, the phenomenon of subjectivity is mainly discussed at the word, construction, or syntactic level from the perspective of linguistics. To better the characteristics of speakers as subjects in social practice activities and cognitive activities, an analytical framework of subjectivity in discourse from the perspective of philosophy was constructed to investigate subjectivity at the discourse level. Three aspects, that is, experience, mental and communicative models, were explored. The results show that (1) the constructed analytical framework clearly shows the social characteristics of subjectivity in discourse; (2) the experience model is divided into the speaker’s social and cultural experience; (3) the mental model is construed as the speaker’s mental cognition, reflected by the speaker’s mental stance and emotion; (4) the communicative model is represented by the speaker’s communicative intention and communicative practice, including appeal, command and announcement. The study provides an analytical framework to dig up the subjective nature of language and the relationship among speakers, society and discourse. This study also enriches the research on subjectivity and discourse analysis.
 
 

Democracy for the Few

A review and application of Degenerations of Democracy, by Craig Calhoun, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, and Charles Taylor (hereafter, CGT); Liberalism and Its Discontents, by Francis Fukuyama; and How Democracies Live, by Stein Ringen. A strengthened liberal democratic culture is essential for the health and vitality of democracy. This culture is made up of three components: a cluster of liberal values (rule of law, freedom, equality, and reason), a democratic governing system grounded in popular sovereignty, and a collective experience of shared respect for liberal values and democratic institutions. Has this culture lost its strength? Is the collective experience and belief in democratic legitimacy disappearing? Are liberal values increasingly contested? All of the theorists under review address these questions. And for all, the answer is “yes, but….” They make strikingly similar arguments about the sources of this culture’s strength, the causes of its current weakness, and how it can be strengthened. The general thrust of these books is this: a strong liberal democracy rests on three cultural foundations: the strength of social bonds, the level of deliberative civil discourse, and the level of economic equality. The main challenge to this threefold foundation’s strength is neoliberalism, which all authors agree has led to liberal democracy’s decline. I draw on this argument as a guide to assess the strength of liberal democracy in a small population living in rural Alpine County, California. I find that although it is relatively small and isolated, the drivers of democratic decline have found their way into this tiny community. Some aspects of liberal democratic culture have remained strong (voter turnout and volunteerism are high, and many citizens serve in elected office and on government committees); others, however, have weak roots that were never cultivated and continue to weaken further (equality, inclusion, open debate). Finally, I suggest that to strengthen liberal democracy, citizens must participate in it and leaders must work for the good of the entire community, not just the few.

Applying core lexicon analysis in patients with anomic aphasia: Based on Mandarin AphasiaBank.

Patients with anomic aphasia experience difficulties in narrative processing. General discourse measures are time consuming and require necessary skills. Core lexicon analysis has been proposed as an effort-saving approach but has not been developed in Mandarin discourse. This exploratory study was aimed (1) to apply core lexicon analysis in Mandarin patients with anomic aphasia at the discourse level and (2) to verify the problems with core words among people with anomic aphasia. The core nouns and verbs were extracted from narrative language samples from 88 healthy participants. The production of core words for 12 anomic aphasia and 12 age- and education-matched controls were then calculated and compared. The correlation between the percentages and the Aphasia Quotients of the revised Western Aphasia Battery was analyzed as well. The core nouns and verbs were successfully extracted. Patients with anomic aphasia produced fewer core words than healthy people, and the percentages differed significantly in different tasks as well as word classes. There was no correlation between the core lexicon use and the severity of aphasia in patients with anomic aphasia. Core lexicon analysis may potentially serve as a clinician-friendly manner of quantifying core words produced at the discourse level in Mandarin patients with anomic aphasia. What is already known on the subject Discourse analyses in aphasia assessment and treatment have increasingly garnered attention. Core lexicon analysis based on English AphasiaBank has been reported in recent years. It is correlated with microlinguistic and macrolinguistic measures in aphasia narratives. Nevertheless, the application based on Mandarin AphasiaBank is still under development in healthy individuals and patients with anomic aphasia. What this paper adds to existing knowledge A Mandarin core lexicon set was developed for different tasks. The feasibility of core lexicon analysis to evaluate the corpus of patients with anomic aphasia was preliminarily discussed and the speech performance of patients and healthy people was then compared to provide a reference for the evaluation and treatment of clinical aphasia corpus. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The purpose of this exploratory study was to consider the potential use of core lexicon analysis to evaluate core word production in narrative discourse. Moreover, normative and aphasia data were provided for comparison to develop clinical use for Mandarin patients with anomic aphasia.

Introduction: The Journal of Clinical Ethics, the MacLean Center, and the Future of Clinical Ethics.

Introduction: The Journal of Clinical Ethics, the MacLean Center, and the Future of Clinical Ethics.