Linguistic Realization Research Articles

A Case Study of Negated Adjectives in Commuters’ Twitter Complaints

In today’s digital society, social networks such as Twitter are a preferred place for expressing one’s emotions, especially when they are negative. Despite a growing interest in the variety of linguistic realizations of commuters’ complaints, little attention has so far been paid to writers’ choices, especially when morphologically or syntactically simpler alternative formulations are available. A typical example is the “inference towards the antonym” triggered by the negation of contrary adjectives, an effect that is stronger for positive compared to negative adjectives. In the context of railway transport, a customer could use the negative statement The train is not clean instead of the corresponding affirmative sentence The train is dirty. It remains unclear, in our current state of knowledge, why online customers would prefer more complex constructions to voice their criticisms. Based on a large corpus of tweets sent to the French and Belgian national railway companies by their customers, I have semi-automatically extracted instances of not (very) + adjective (ADJ). Based on previous observations in the literature, I expected positive adjectives to be more frequently used in these negative environments compared to negative ones. As recent research demonstrates that one’s desire to save the interlocutor’s face is not necessarily the only reason why positive adjectives are used in linguistically negative environments, other motivations will also be considered. More precisely, I suggest that in a context where negativity is prevalent, customers using negated positive adjectives kill two birds with one stone: not only do they signal an issue with a product or a service, pointing to expectations that have not been met by the company, but they also mitigate the impact of their negative comments to the positive face of the service managers with whom they are interacting. By offering a quantitative, corpus-based analysis of negative constructions, complemented by a qualitative linguistic analysis of selected examples, this research sheds new light on users’ lexical choices in online negative customer feedback.

Reconstructing solidarity discourse through conference interpreting at the general debates of the United Nations (2008–2021)

ABSTRACT While reconstructing political discourses in interpreter-mediated international conferences has attracted research attention, reconstructing solidarity discourse as a major theme for UN discourse in conference interpreting has not been studied. This study investigates the reconstruction of the solidarity discourse produced by Chinese heads of state and high-level government officials in Chinese-English conference interpreting at the UN’s General Debates (2008–2021). The corpus-based critical discourse analysis reveals three patterns in the discursive reconstruction done by interpreters: (1) the (re)grouping discourse for the common-collective-Self and common-threat-Others is emphasised; (2) the commissive (promising) discourse for China’s delivery of common goals is accentuated; and (3) the discourse of an inclusive ‘global-we’ with ‘our obligations’ is strengthened. The overall amplification of the solidarity discourse reproduces global consolidation as an upgraded form of international cohesion. Focusing on the prominent theme of solidarity discourse in the UN, this study highlights conference interpreters’ ‘editing’ of linguistic realisations that de facto constitute ideological intervention at interpreter-mediated discursive events.

Introduction

Members of ISFNR Charms, Charming and Charmers working group has studied data from different eras and regions including texts, material objects such as amulets, religious norms and practices, and incantations. Different periods and regions have their own specific variations, intertextual transmissions, poetic and linguistic realisations, text types and motifs. The diversity of charm research is highlighted through published monographs, dissertations and articles. At the same time, databases have been developed in several countries, the creation of which stems from personal initiatives and the research needs of scholars with digital collections and databases being opened in Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Russia (Vepsian material), Belarus, and Estonia. Several novel techniques to assist in content analysis were used alongside quantitative research.

A cross-cultural study of condolence strategies: The cases of Mr. Shinzo Abe, Queen Elizabeth II, and Pope Benedict XVI

In 2022, a year marked by high-profile deaths, leaders worldwide expressed their condolences for the passing of Mr. Shinzo Abe, Queen Elizabeth II, and Pope Benedict XVI. This study primarily compares the condolence strategies employed to honor these distinguished figures. An analysis of the deceased individuals naturally revealed some significant differences, such as their role, gender, cause of death, and length of reign or term as a leader. This study investigates how these differences influenced the choice of condolence strategies. The dataset comprises 150 official statements, including letters and Twitter messages, written in English by world leaders, with 50 messages dedicated to each deceased individual released to the public shortly after their passing. A modified coding scheme, focusing on linguistic realizations, was applied to perform the relevant analysis on these official condolence communications. While there were a variety of condolence strategies used for the three deceased individuals, direct strategies prevailed over indirect strategies, with slight variations among sub-strategies. Among the direct sub-strategies, the use of an address term, was the most commonly utilized. Differences in role, cause of death, and length of reign or term as leader contributed to the choice of condolence strategy made by well-wishers, while gender did not.

What frequencies tell us of the foodstuffs used as source domain to conceptualize attractive people in Peninsular Spanish

Abstract This paper offers a study of the foodstuffs used by speakers of Peninsular Spanish when referring to an attractive individual. Two online forums were scanned to automatically search for linguistic realizations of the metaphor an attractive individual is appetizing food. A corpus of 860 short texts was compiled, which contains the food terms used in context. The frequency distribution of the type of food and the variable of gender was measured. Results indicate a preference to exploit the metaphor through salty food products and that the foodstuffs used are highly dependent on the variable of gender. Contrary to previous studies (e.g., Caitlin Hines 2000; Irene López Rodríguez 2007, 2008), the frequency of sweets and desserts is not higher with female referents. The findings do not agree with prior assumptions about the foodstuffs used in Peninsular Spanish to conceptualize attractive people and the cultural stereotypes associated with them.

Apology strategies in Tashelhit: linguistic realization and religious influence

Abstract This study adopts the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) framework to investigate the apology strategies used by L1 speakers of Tashelhit, a variety of Amazigh spoken in central Morocco. To this end, 82 university students either filled an assessment questionnaire or participated in an oral closed role-play. The findings indicated that L1 speakers of Tashelhit employed seven strategies to apologize, namely taking on responsibility, Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs), explanation or account, offer of repair, promise of forbearance, determinism, and self-criticism. While taking on responsibility, IFIDs, and explanation or account were used most frequently in all the role-play situations to realize apologies, the other apology strategies appeared to be situation-dependent. There was also a tendency for L1 speakers of Tashelhit to use certain religious expressions to modify their apologies. These findings yielded a number of recommendations for further research and suggestions for improving the teaching of apologies in Tashelhit.

The Role of Republican and AKP Elites in the Construction and Reconstruction of Turkiye’s Foreign Policy Identity: A Critical Narrative Analysis

ABSTRACT Building on the argument that foreign policy identities are discursively constructed by the dominant elite, this study analyzes the construction and reconstruction of Turkiye’s foreign policy identity during the Early Republican and AKP periods in a comparative way, focusing on political narratives as discursive practices. Adopting a critical narrative analysis method, the study first distinguishes the linguistic construction of a common past, a common geopolitical imagination and a common perception of the international environment as substantive contents of foreign policy identity. It then addresses different strategies used within these three thematic areas. Finally, narrative analysis is adopted to extract the repeated themes and storylines used in the narratives of the Republican and AKP elites about history, geopolitical location, and the international environment as means of linguistic realizations.

Система ценностей русского образа мира в психолингвистическом аспекте (на основе результатов свободного ассоциативного эксперимента)

The aim of the research is a psycholinguistic substantiation of the systemic nature of the representation of the Russian person’s personal value nominations at the present stage of society development. The article considers the linguistic realization of values in the form of value names, which are represented in the soft hierarchy of system elements. The most significant values were identified on the basis of a pilot survey of respondents, ranked, in accordance with the participants’ assessments. The names of values create a system of a soft hierarchy, where the closest connections in the form of interrelated dyads are observed in the core. The associative experiment showed the presence of associative connections between the analyzed names of values. The zone of the near periphery is represented by several dyads and a triad, the zone of the near periphery is represented by values with weak connections between the elements. The scientific novelty of the research is that it provides, for the first time, an analysis of the systemic nature of the axiological sphere of the early 21st century on the basis of the Russian language as one of the spheres of the Russian image of the world. As a result of the research, the dynamics of the axiological sphere was revealed, which manifests itself in changes in the associative components in its structure, which, under the influence of various factors, leads to a change in the content and the very structure of the value space of the Russian native speaker and Russian culture in the 21st century as a whole.

Specificity and generality of lexical bundles in the rhetorical moves of Applied Linguistics research article introductions

Investigating the linguistic realizations of rhetorical moves through lexical bundles is a research area that has recently gained momentum. However, the lack of a fully annotated corpus has impeded the full understanding of the relationship between formulaic sequences and their corresponding moves. Accordingly, this study addressed this lacuna by annotating 1000 Applied Linguistics research article (RA) introductions using a framework developed for the current study to identify bundles characterizing communicative moves that configure introductions. Following a manual move identification of RA introductions, lexical bundles were extracted using AntConc and manually refined. This was followed by systematic identification of their functions in their co-text. Results indicated that some lexical bundles (i.e., move-general) occur in several moves or steps, whereas other bundles (i.e., move-specific) perform distinct discursive functions within each move. In other words, the development of rhetorical moves and bundles within each move is intricately interwoven and collaboratively contributes to developing ideas in the analyzed section. Furthermore, the functional analyses indicated that text-oriented bundles emerged as a strong indicator of the communicative moves of RA introductions, which performed distinct functions within each move. Drawing on key pedagogical insights, findings can serve as an instructional framework for instructors, students, and novice writers.

Лингвостилистические особенности литературы фанфикшн (на материале англоязычного фандома «Пушкин»)

The paper presents a linguostylistic analysis of English-language fan fiction works based on the novel “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin. The studied texts are stylistically dependent speech works – stylizations and parodies, and, therefore, the characteristics of the works are considered taking into account the criteria of the theory of secondary texts by M. V. Verbitskaya. The research is comparative in nature and reveals the methods of linguistic transformation of the source text when creating fan fiction works. In addition, the paper touches upon various aspects of “secondariness” as a phenomenon in text linguistics, providing some observations on the place of fan fiction among scientific concepts of derivative texts. The aim of the research is to determine the methods of linguistic transformation of the source text in the creation of fan fiction. The scientific originality of the research is determined by the combination of textual and intertextual approaches to the fanfic. The paper is the first to examine in detail the stylistic aspects of the transformation of Russian classics into an English-language fanfic. As a result, the analysis allowed us to identify the most common approaches to the linguistic realization of amateur interpretations and to expand linguistic knowledge about fan fiction texts.

Political contestation: Ideology and linguistic realization by 2024 prospective Indonesian presidential candidates

The political statements of prospective presidential candidates in the Republic of Indonesia (RI) in the pre-election period of 2024, in 2023, constitute texts of political contestation (PC) loaded with ideology. This research examines those PC texts. The texts are based on the respective ideologies of each presidential candidate. More specifically, this study investigates the ideologies of the presidential candidates, the linguistic realization used to express those ideologies, and the reasons behind the use of ideology and its linguistic realization. This research employs a qualitative descriptive design. Data collection tools included observation, document analysis, and interviews. The data sources were KP texts from three presidential candidates: Anies Rasyid Baswedan, Ganjar Pranowo, and Prabowo Subianto, obtained from newspapers, television, and social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The data, in the form of KP texts, were analyzed using the framework of systemic functional linguistic theory (SFL) as developed by Halliday (2014) and other SFL experts. The research findings indicate that, in addition to similarities, the three presidential candidates have differences in leadership ideology, the linguistic realization of that ideology, and the causes or reasons used. The theoretical contribution of this research enriches applied linguistic theories, especially political discourse analysis (PDA), and simultaneously benefits voters in the 2024 election by helping them understand the ideologies of presidential candidates. This understanding can solidify their decision to vote for a specific candidate, thus reducing the social friction that always occurs during elections in Indonesia.

Towards a ‘synergy’ of text mining and critical discourse analysis: a corpus-assisted discourse study of imagining China in Hong Kong political discourse

Abstract This study proposes to incorporate text mining into critical discourse analysis (CDA) to give a corpus-assisted discourse study of the particular ways of imagining Hong Kong’s relations to China in the public speeches of three former Chief Executives in the two decades after its handover. With the computer-assisted text-mining tool KH Coder, this study combines the methods of quantitative text mining and qualitative discourse analysis to examine their preferential ways of imagining China at different levels of discourse: (1) topics/themes, (2) discursive strategies, and (3) linguistic means and realizations. It generates illuminating findings concerning their preferential ways of imagining Hong Kong’s relations to China as well as the analytic potential of incorporating text mining into CDA. It is expected that it can lead to more studies towards this endeavour.

Концепт СЛАКТИВИЗМ и его реализация в сетевых дискурсивных практиках (на материале русского, английского и французского языков)

This publication is conducted in the stream of studying neology in the modern language influenced by the active use of internet communication and network discursive practices. The aim of the research is to identify the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the linguistic realization of the concept of SLACKTIVISM. The social significance of the concept is asserted, its intersections and relationships with semantically similar concepts such as PROPAGANDA, ACTIVISM circulating in the modern networked information space are determined. The scientific novelty of the conducted research lies in providing a systematic description of a new, unstudied concept in domestic philology, on the basis of the Russian, English, and French languages. This includes accentuating the history of its emergence, the contradictory nature of its linguistic implementation in the digital discourse of new media, and network techno-discursive practices. As a result, the concept of SLACKTIVISM is portrayed as an expression of a new form of internet activity that contributes to social and political changes both on a narrow scale and in the broader geopolitical space. The linguistic level examination indicates preferences for figurative nominations and common means of representation in European languages and national-cultural specificity.

RESPONDING TO REQUESTS IN CAMEROON FRENCH

The focus of this paper is on request responses by Cameroon French speakers. Data were collected from 81 French-speaking Cameroonian university students. The analysis focused on the types of request responses (preferred, dis-preferred or open-ended) and the types and linguistic realizations of the speech acts (head acts and external modifiers) used to respond to requests. Request response strategies were also examined in terms of rapport management. The results showed that the participants mostly used compliance-responses. It was also found that positive responses to requests were mostly realised using combinations of agreements and/or promises to perform the requested act and external modifiers, while negative responses to requests were realized using combinations of refusals and/or reprimands and external modifiers. The few cases of open-ended responses to requests displayed combinations of aspects of compliance and elements non-compliance responses. The analysis also revealed social variation in the use of the three types of request responses. While the study expands the scope of research on the pragmatics of Cameroon French, it calls for further research on request responses.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0753/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

SOCIO-PRAGMATIC VARIATION IN CAMEROON FRENCH REQUESTS

This study investigated aspects of the requesting behaviour of Cameroonian French speakers. Based on examples produced by 81 French-speaking Cameroonian students, the analysis was devoted to request strategies across three situations, focusing on request strategy types, their linguistic realizations, pragmatic modifiers, as well as variation in the use of request patterns according to degree of familiarity, type of power relationship and type of imposition. The results reveal social variation regarding the frequency and use of direct or indirect request strategies and pragmatic modifiers (internal and external). It was also found that requests were predominantly introduced with attention-getters and/or greetings and that nominal address terms were used to soften or aggravate requests across the three situations.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0759/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Regulation of Gender Correct Communication in an Academic Environment – Recommendations and Methodological Documents and their Application

The text examines gender-correct communication in the context of the recommendations of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic and of Czech universities on the use of gender-neutral language in academic settings. Individual recommendations for the use of preferred words and constructions in order to emphasize the role of women in public and academic life, to express respect for persons with non-binary gender, and to reduce the masculinization of language are considered. The text also presents a contrasting view of the language situation in the Czech Republic and Bul-garia and the specifics of the sociolinguistic situation in the two countries. The potential possibility of linguistic realization of the principles of gender inclusive language in Czech and Bulgarian is observed, and differences are found, although both languages have the same word-formation patterns and are genetically related Slavic languages.

Discursive Features of United States Foreign Policy Phetoric Towards the Middle East

In the contemporary international order, marked by increasing global interdependence and complex power relations, understanding the role of the United States as a global actor is crucial. This paper explores the interplay between American identity, discourse, and U.S. foreign policy rhetoric, particularly in its engagement with the Middle East. Rooted in the concept of American exceptionalism, it investigates the selective and strategic nature of U.S. rhetoric towards key Middle Eastern actors. The research integrates linguistics and international relations, with Critical Discourse Analysis as the primary theoretical framework. By addressing research questions concerning American identity, discursive strategies and their linguistic realisations, and rhetorical selectivity, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of U.S. foreign policy rhetoric towards the Middle East.

A Case Study of Instructors’ Explanations in Online EMI Lectures in China

The purpose of this study was to reveal features of instructors’ explanations in online EMI lectures in China. Through a mixed methods case study, the researcher examined the distribution and linguistic realizations of different types of explanations in the lectures of two online EMI courses and how the instructors and students perceived the explanations. The results showed that instructors’ explanations were prevalent in the lectures of both courses with expositions being the most dominant type regardless of subject contents whereas the other explanation types such as comparisons, clarifications, additions, justifications, solutions and generalizations being subject-specific. Moreover, both instructors were capable of using various linguistic devices for different types of explanations despite some linguistic mistakes in explanations. The results also showed that instructors chose particular types of explanations mainly because of the specific teaching aims and methods of the course, and that students were positive about instructors’ use of different types of explanations in the lectures except for the suggestions that one of the instructors’ pronunciation be improved and more visual means be used to aid explanations. The study has implications for future research on enhancing EMI instructors’ explanatory capacity and addressing students’ linguistic discomfort with EMI lectures in a broader sense.

Linguistic realizations of engagement in TED talks

The article describes linguistic items used for actualizing the engagement strategy in the oral genre of popular science discourse of TED lectures, which seems to be understudied in modern scientific linguistics literature. A huge number of studies have shown that popular science discourse is an interactive event, the success of which depends on the degree and efficiency of interaction between the speaker and the audience. However, the metadiscourse strategies employed in popular science genres, including TED talks addressed to a wide audience, remain insufficiently studied. The research gap in this area of pragmalinguistics predetermines the need to study the strategies of interaction between the speaker and the audience. The research corpus consists of 80 scripts of TED talks posted on the ted.com website. The aim of the study is to analyze linguistic items used for realizing the strategy of engagement of the audience into the discussion, their categories, pragmatic functions and frequency. In order to study the types, functions and frequency of linguistic actualizers of engagement, the methods of quantitative and interpretive analysis were adopted. The study showed that TED lecturers use a variety of language tools, the most productive of which were questions and reader mentions. It was found that at the lexical and grammatical levels, the engagement strategy was realized through imperative verbs, first and second personal pronouns, interrogative constructions, as well as impersonal constructions with solidarity adjectives. The results of the analysis suggested that TED speakers strive to construct an effective dialogue with the addressee, to engage the audience in the process of representing scientific information, making it accessible to lay listeners. It was concluded that the pragmatically correct use of the engagement strategy in the genre of TED talks is an indicator of the pragmatic competence of the speaker and the key to effective communication with the audience.

Engagement patterns in research article introductions: A cross-disciplinary study

This study attempts to explore the ways in which academics from four different disciplinary backgrounds (applied linguistics, education, electrical engineering, biology) engage with their discourse community when writing their research article (RA) introductions. To this end, 200 RA introductions were selected and examined in detail along with the Engagement System of the Appraisal Framework. It adopts a mixed approach to analyze individual engagements as well as combined ones embedded in different move-steps of RA introductions across various disciplines. Moreover, co-articulation of engagement items across longer stretches of text was also qualitatively observed for the purpose of revealing how prosodic spread of engagement values helps to effectively fulfill the rhetorical functions within this part-genre. This research revealed clear function-form mappings between rhetorical move-steps and their linguistic realization. In addition, disciplinary uniformity and variation on engagement values encoded in introductions were disclosed with commonalities weighing over differences. Despite the disciplinary differences on the evaluative features between natural and social sciences, disciplines belonging to either set of the natural/social field also vary from one another. The results have pedagogical implications for EAP practitioners in raising the novice writers’ awareness of both discipline and genre when they approach academic writing through evaluative resources.