Oral Discourses Research Articles

ARGUMENTATIVE POTENTIAL OF PERSUASIVNESS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND TEXT

Over the past decades, linguistics drastically expanded the scope of its research, including all aspects of language activity and language interaction. The attention of linguists has shifted from minimal linguistic units to the maximum - the text (discourse), which has been studying in interaction with pragmatic factors. Political discourse becomes an example of demonstrating the natural development of not only of the language itself, but also of the society, culture and religion of which it is a part, as it represents the interaction of political representatives and the audience, as well as those means of persuasion that are used in the process of their communication. In the linguistic literature, the term "political discourse" includes the forms of communication in which at least one of its components applies to policy areas: the subject, addressee or content of the message, i.e. all forms of political communication institutions and individuals, as well as any communication with reference to political question. In linguistics, there is also a distinction between written and oral discourses. However, the concepts of discourse and text are not identical, but complement each other, their relationships can be interpreted as the relationship of a part to the whole. As a material embodiment of the discourse, the text can be considered from the point of view different language levels: phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic. Applying this approach to a political text makes it possible to determine the linguistic means and elements of language through which it serves a tool of influence on the (mass) recipient. Thus, the analysis of the language of politics is, in fact, the detection of ways of language manipulation signs to achieve specific political goals.

“On Enlightenment in Religion”—Skepticism and Tolerance in Educational and Cultural Concepts within the Berlin and Breslau Haskalah

Numerous discussions on religion were held within the communicative network among Jewish enlighteners in Berlin and Breslau. These discussions were characterized by a hitherto unknown form of skeptical and critical questioning of religious customs and practices of Ashkenazi Jewry. Moreover, they were characterized by an unprecedented skeptical questioning of religious customs and traditions of Ashkenazi Judaism. The places of these discussions were located where many different people gathered and contributed in their verbal exchanges to their mutual understanding. The experience of different opinions became the starting point for a self-reflective comparative review process of their own religious positioning and to their own stand on questions of an individual’s education and development. These oral discourses in many ways found expression in written statements, as in introductions to German translations of Biblical books and liturgical texts, in school programs, journals and modern sermons.

Learner Awareness of the “Music” of Spoken English—Focus on Intonation—And Its Impact on Communicative Competence. Is Intonation Teachable and Learnable?

This research examines the significance of intonation in spoken English. It is seen that existence of correct intonation goes quite unnoticed by the Native Speakers (NS) of English, as an unconscious mechanism, whereas its absence, or minimal use thereof, hinders communication by speakers using English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study, based on 110 EFL university students in China, demonstrated that majority of the students did not feel confident while tackling this dimension of oral discourse because of the ambiguity about how to deal with a feature many learners were not even aware of. Grammar and lexis are made accessible to learners through various devices, but the methodology used for transmission of intonation and related prosodic features is very abstract and intangible. The research, based on observations and oral discourses, which were video and audio-recorded, was then transcribed for qualitative content analysis (Kvale, 2007: p. 105). The results demonstrated a stimulation of curiosity among the participants. They expressed an ardent desire to overcome their speech shortcomings, acquire the nuances to become intelligible/natural speakers, and increase their understanding of spoken English for accurate verbal communication, thereby supporting the case study that intonation is teachable and learnable.

Shift in the ESL Classroom: Effectiveness of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in English as a Second Language (ESL) Settings

The advancement of the mobile devices has created several benefits to the humankind, extending them in the field of education as well. Since these devices are generally used by the young generation, it becomes hard to be neglected using in the language learning process. The use of mobile applications for various purposes is commonly experienced in the Sri Lankan context as well. Although frequently used in written and oral discourses, phrasal verbs (PVs) are subject to be excluded if the correct use of them is challenging for the English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. Therefore, this research intends to inspect the efficacy of teaching PVs via one of the commonly used mobile applications, since it is prevalent in the society and is a novel method which is different from the traditional teaching done in the ESL classrooms. Thirty undergraduates were selected and divided into two groups of 15 each. Pre-test was given for both groups first and they were not given prior instructions in the subject. They had to use their prevailing knowledge on PVs to complete the test. For the post-tests, traditional classroom instructions were given to the controlled group within one hour and the experimental group was guided via a selected mobile application. Forty popular PVs were used here. The 1-way ANOVA found that the mean marks of the students of the post-test in the experimental group is significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the students in the controlled group. A significant correlation (p< 0.05) was found between the pre-test marks and the post-test marks irrespective of the two methods. Thus, 1-way ANCOVA was also carried out taking pre-test marks as a covariate and found that the adjusted mean marks of the students in the experimental group is significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the students in the controlled group., Thus, it is recommended that the use of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) in the English Language Teaching (ELT) for ESL setting is an effective, innovative and a novel resource to use as a method of instruction.

Parole e gesti dell’insegnante nell’ora di italiano a stranieri (e non solo)

Teacher’s words and gestures in didactics of Italian to foreigners
 (and not only)
 The notion of contextual continuum
 This paper starts from an extended concept of “plurilingualism” based on plurimodality in communication (i.e. the use of verbal and nonverbal codes in oral discourses). Assuming that plurilingualism and plurimodality are humans’ natural abilities to adapt verbal and nonverbal resources to the interaction, we propose a methodological approach to the study of teacher’s language and hand gestures in the Italian as a foreign language or L2 classroom (even if our conclusion is valid for the general classroom context). Before discussing the approach, in the first part of the paper we present a brief review of the literature on language and gestures for didactic activities in the contexts of Italian as L1/L2 (or as a foreign language). In the second part the approach called “contextual continuum” is introduced and exemplified. Our aim is to demonstrate that Italian (and not Italian) teacher’s language and gestures in the classroom context are relevant if compared with contexts which are progressively not the classroom. More specifically, in a laboratory context gestures appear significantly simplified and reduced.

The Concept of the Goodly Life ( Ḥayāt Ṭayyiba ) in the Works of Kenan Rifā‘ī

Abstract: As one of the most important and influential personalities in twentieth-century Turkish Sufi history, Kenan Rifā‘ī (1867–1950) produced numerous written works and cultivated generations of students until his death in 1950. Despite not writing a dedicated work of either Qur’ānic exegesis ( tafsīr ) or commentary on Prophetic narrations ( aḥadīth ), his recorded discourses and commentaries on other Sufi works, especially on the Masnavī-ye Ma‘navī (Spiritual Couplets) of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (d. 1273 CE), provide a rich source of insight into his thoughts on Sufism and Muslim scripture. This article examines Kenan Rifā‘ī’s understanding of one major Qur’ānic concept, namely that of the goodly life ( ḥayāt ṭayyiba ). Mentioned in Qur’ān 16:97, ḥayāt ṭayyiba , along with its constituent elements of life ( ḥayā ) and goodness ( ṭayyib ), have been the subject of numerous interpretations in premodern Islamic religious and Sufi literature, all of which influenced Rifā‘ī’s own conception of ḥayāt ṭayyiba . To better understand the unique status of the goodly life in Kenan Rifā‘ī’s Sufi teaching, this article examines the use of this term both in his works as well as in the broader literary, semantic, and scriptural contexts that deeply influenced his approach to Sufism. This article is divided into four sections. Beginning with a brief biographical sketch of Kenan Rifā‘ī’s life and career as a Sufi sheikh, this is followed by an analysis of the two constitutive terms of the goodly life ( ḥayāt ṭayyiba ), namely the Arabic terms ḥayā (life) and ṭayyib (good), including their appearances in the Qur’ān and Hadith and their interpretation in premodern Islamic religious literatures. This article then includes a brief section on premodern interpretations of the specific term ḥayāt ṭayyiba before a more extensive examination of how this term is used in Kenan Rifā‘ī’s own writings and oral discourses.

The Concept of the Goodly Life ( Ḥayāt Ṭayyiba ) in the Works of Kenan Rifā‘ī

Abstract: As one of the most important and influential personalities in twentieth-century Turkish Sufi history, Kenan Rifā‘ī (1867–1950) produced numerous written works and cultivated generations of students until his death in 1950. Despite not writing a dedicated work of either Qur’ānic exegesis ( tafsīr ) or commentary on Prophetic narrations ( aḥadīth ), his recorded discourses and commentaries on other Sufi works, especially on the Masnavī-ye Ma‘navī (Spiritual Couplets) of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (d. 1273 CE), provide a rich source of insight into his thoughts on Sufism and Muslim scripture. This article examines Kenan Rifā‘ī’s understanding of one major Qur’ānic concept, namely that of the goodly life ( ḥayāt ṭayyiba ). Mentioned in Qur’ān 16:97, ḥayāt ṭayyiba , along with its constituent elements of life ( ḥayā ) and goodness ( ṭayyib ), have been the subject of numerous interpretations in premodern Islamic religious and Sufi literature, all of which influenced Rifā‘ī’s own conception of ḥayāt ṭayyiba . To better understand the unique status of the goodly life in Kenan Rifā‘ī’s Sufi teaching, this article examines the use of this term both in his works as well as in the broader literary, semantic, and scriptural contexts that deeply influenced his approach to Sufism. This article is divided into four sections. Beginning with a brief biographical sketch of Kenan Rifā‘ī’s life and career as a Sufi sheikh, this is followed by an analysis of the two constitutive terms of the goodly life ( ḥayāt ṭayyiba ), namely the Arabic terms ḥayā (life) and ṭayyib (good), including their appearances in the Qur’ān and Hadith and their interpretation in premodern Islamic religious literatures. This article then includes a brief section on premodern interpretations of the specific term ḥayāt ṭayyiba before a more extensive examination of how this term is used in Kenan Rifā‘ī’s own writings and oral discourses.

La dot dagara : Les implications herméneutiques et intermédiales

Some Africans more specifically some dagara, no more want nowadays that their future husbands pay the traditional dowry. Their parents think the contrary. The absence of these social principles deprives this human association of its title of sacred union. Certain antagonisms of the two different worlds appear of which one is inclined to westernization and the other to africanization. This tensive atmosphere led us to the reflection on ‘The dagara dowry’. The problem that it creates is expressed by these terms: be known, explained, well interpreted to the service of the two rival parties. That is the reason of the following sub-titles:”The hermeneutic and intermedial implications”. Our exegetics is based on the behavioral semiotic of the signs and the dagara oral discourses.

Walking the Talk, Oral Techniques & Satyagraha

This article sets out to celebrate the lifetimes of John Mararo Gachoki (1948-2021), an educationist turned cleric and scholar. As a scholar, he employed oral techniques in theo-socio-scholarly discourses, and stands out as a narrating public theologian. Mararo-Gachoki who died after a motor accident on Monday evening, 3 May 2021, was a fine scholar with at least four major publications. In these publications, the article argues, he appealed to the power of memory in his socio-scholarly works. With oral history methods coming in form of autobiographies, biographies, festschrifts, memoirs, novels playbooks, satire, caricature, mimicry, oral speeches, and in literary works that mock certain unpleasant communal realities, Mararo-Gachoki’s publications are a clear demonstration that modern scholarship has to factor on oral discourses. In its methodology, this article analyses critical materials that are relevant in reconstructing the memory of Mararo-Gachoki, as we focus on his pet theme: Walk the talk. In our socio-scholarly world, how can we demonstrate the challenge of walking the talk? How did Mararo-Gachoki walk the talk, in his service to God and humanity, and how does it inform the twenty-first century? What vital lessons can we draw from his lifetimes?

Interactional Sociolinguistics in political discourse: an analysis of interactive oral excerpts in contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article is based on the area of Interactional Sociolinguistics and is the result of the analysis of excerpts from the different interactive oral discourses of the President of Brazil in contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The oral linguistic corpus of these discourses recorded in different social media spread in Brazil and worldwide was collected as a reference for analysis. The analysis allowed evaluating and interpreting the different interactive oral excerpts of political discourse, as well as to discuss the confusing link that had the relationship between discourse, politics and coronavirus in this pandemic time that our planet has seen until the date of data collection, in July 2020.

As noções de letramento e autoria em suas relações com a dispersão e a deriva de sentidos

A fala da professora Leda Tfouni, intitulada Letramento e Autoria: Dispersão e Deriva de Sentidos, ocorreu em 05 de junho de 2020 durante a série de conferências e mesas-redondas promovidas pela Abralin. O objetivo da conferência proferida por Tfouni foi amalgamar reflexões acerca da forma como vem desenvolvendo as noções de letramento e autoria, especialmente em suas relações com os discursos orais e escritos. Tfouni entende que a autoria se dá mesmo em discursos orais, onde é mais interessante observá-la, uma vez que a deriva de sentidos é menos controlada e onde se instaura a dispersão inerente ao sujeito e a equivocidade como real da língua.

Invoking body and voice: deixis and multivalency in the Techialoyan manuscripts

A referential, gesturing figure and the word “here” punctuate the pages of a corpus of New Spanish, late colonial manuscripts known as the Techialoyans. These pictorial and textual deictic features direct readers’ attention to specific foci in the documents. Although the presence of pictures is less common in indigenous-language documents of the later colonial period, in this case images played a critical role. In conjunction with alphabetic script, pictures harken back to earlier traditions, while simultaneously iterating a new pictorial strategy to reinforce the aim of protecting indigenous territory and political authority. This article examines the role of deictic pictures and text, as well as the multivalency of language and declamatory tone, to understand better how indigenous authors of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries drew upon earlier ritual and scribal practices in order to invent new communicative traditions. The documents’ emphasis on images, oral discourses, and performative features in addition to alphabetic text broadens understandings of what constituted indigenous literacies of the later colonial period.

PERCEPTED INTONATION FEATURES OF ENGLISH PUBLIC SPEECHES (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF PREACHING AND TRIAL DISCOURSES)

The article is dedicated to the results of the audit analysis of the texts of oral discourses (preaching and trial). The purpose of this article is to identify the features of the intonation organization of the texts of oral English sermons and court speeches. The object of study is preaching and trial discourses as a special kind of institutional discourse of persuasive type. The subject of the research is the peculiarities of the intonation organization of oral English sermons and court speeches. To achieve this goal, a phonetic study of the perceived prosodic characteristics of speech realizations of sermons and court speeches was conducted, in the process of which the method of scientific observation (subjective) was used, which contains audit and audit analysis of selected objects and identification of the phonological status of the studied units; quantitative analysis made it possible to interpret the data obtained empirically during the audit analysis. On the basis of the conducted audit analysis it is possible to draw certain conclusions concerning the intonation organization common for the researched discourses. The auditors' identification of parts of the researched sermons and court speeches proved the validity of their division into the compositional parts mentioned above and made it possible to conclude that there are certain linguistic factors that allow to identify parts of the text with high probability. The leading intonation parameter to enhance the persuasive effect of speeches was the tempo. The melodic component of intonation, namely the melodic contour, has also proved to be a powerful intonation tool for influencing and achieving a persuasive effect, while volume is not an important intonation parameter involved in persuasion. The perspective of the research is seen in conducting a comprehensive instrumentalphonetic study to verify the data obtained on the prosodic organization of persuasive statements in preaching and trial discourses.

The Cyclical Time and Burūz (Projection) of the Saint: Thematic Connections in the Early Modern Islamic Landscape

Abstract This essay studies the concept of burūz, i.e. the spiritual projection of saints, as found in the Ṣoḥbetnāme (The Book of Companionship), a compilation of Oğlan Shaykh Ibrahim’s (d. 1655) oral discourses as recorded by his disciple, Ṣunʿullāh Gaybī (d. ca. 1676). Raised in the Balkans among a non-conformist Sufi milieu, Ibrahim Efendi operated as a prominent Sufi shaykh in the Ottoman capital for over fifty years. He was also a poet, and his instructions as recorded in the Ṣoḥbetnāme provide a rare view into a world that was defined by a consciousness of poetry and oral traditions. They also offer insight into the psyche and terminology that defined the mystico-messianic movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in various corners of the Islamic world. In this sense, the essay tries to foster a more detailed discussion of Turkish “heterodoxy” in connection with the broader Islamic world.

How women, designated as poor, reconstruct identities and ways of life? — the PRSI or the processes of re-qualifying social-identity

The sociological qualitative analysis of social identities and of the meanings of social action, the grounded theory and the ‘writing as analytical praxis qualitative-method’ have permitted me the co-creation of women biographies of un-qualifying/re-qualifying — oral discourses about their migration at the Pays Basque. I argue that the “poverty studies traditions” reproduce and contains seven (7) epistemological obstacles and formulations on negative terms, and I underline theoretical contributors to the Identities Sociology, discussing the oppositions “personal/social” (Social-Psi), and “determined-objectives identities/assumed-subjective identities” (Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons and Pierre Bourdieu). So, I define “social identities” as the way the social-actor becomes a social-sujet (on the tradition of Touraine), considering three components (to explain). Defining oral discourses as the condition to co-construct the social experience, I identify and explain, at the re-qualifying processes: 1) several reaction phases – on positive terms – and social-identities territory’s implicated, as multiple meanings of the social action and identity-strategies (Risc, Strategic-Sacrifice); 2) four identity resources-capitals negotiated, affected, connected or stimulated.

“Kixinto’, k’u xa jub’iq’”: Negotiating K’iche’ Maya Orality, Self-Translation, and Cultural Agency in “Xalolilo lelele’” by Humberto Ak’abal

In the onomatopoeic song “Xalolilo lelele’” by Humberto Ak’abal, there are tensions between the K’iche’ poet and his audiences in terms of cultural and linguistic access, specifically relating to orality. Ak’abal has transferred many of the oral discourses in his poetry onto the printed page in multiple languages, but he does not translate “Xalolilo lelele’,” limiting non-K’iche’-speaking audiences’ access to the text. In this article, I demonstrate that Ak’abal’s selective translation responds to sociocultural issues of Indigenous language use and economic factors of the book publishing industry, in which publishers and translators also influence the text. Given the complexities of translation and cultural agency, I argue that Ak’abal’s refusal to translate “Xalolilo lelele’” is not a malicious act of exclusion, but rather a decolonial gesture to undermine acoustic colonialism (Cárcamo-Huechante) and advocate for the preservation of Maya languages and their representation in the Guatemalan book market.

Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production

Abstract Picture-based storytelling tasks, i. e. telling a story relying on some pictures, and short speech tasks, i. e. producing a speech with a given topic without pictures, are two types of oral narrative tasks widely adopted in previous studies. However, few have discussed what effects these two types of tasks may exert on second language learners’ speaking performance. In this study, sixty English as a foreign language learners, divided into lower- and higher-proficiency groups, performed a picture-based storytelling task and a short speech task. Stimulated recalls were collected from seventeen participants. Their oral discourses were analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Stimulated recalls were analysed based on Levelt’s speaking model. The short speech tasks raised participants’ accuracy and lexical complexity and were more effective for higher-proficient learners regarding structural complexity. The findings yield suggestions for designing oral narrative tasks for EFL learners with different L2 proficiency levels.

Divine Light and Melodies Lead the Way: The Santmat Tradition of Bihar

This paper focuses on the branch of Santmat (thus far, unstudied by scholars of Indian religions), prevalent in the rural areas of Bihar, India. Santmat—literally meaning “the Path of Sants” or “Point of View of the Sants”—of Bihar represents a unique synthesis of the elements of the Vedic traditions, rural Hindu practices, and esoteric experiences, as recorded in the poetry of the medieval Sant Tradition. I characterize this tradition as “Santmat of Bihar” to differentiate it from the other branches of Santmat. The tradition has spread to all parts of India, but its highest concentration remains in Bihar. Maharishi Mehi, a twentieth-century Sant from Bihar State, identifies Santmat’s goal as śānti. Maharishi Mehi defines Śānti as the state of deep stillness, equilibrium, and the unity with the Divine. He considers those individuals sants who are established in this state. The state of sublime peace is equally available to all human beings, irrespective of gender, religion, ethnicity, or status. However, it requires a systematic path. Drawing on the writings of the texts of Sanātana Dharma, teachings of the Sants and personal experiences, Maharishi Mehi lays out a systematic path that encompasses the moral observances and detailed esoteric experiences. He also provides an in-depth description of the esoteric practices of divine light (dṛṣti yoga) and sound (surat śabda yoga) in the inner meditation. After providing a brief overview of the history and distinctive features of Santmat of Bihar, this paper will focus on the specifics and unique interpretations of the four structural principles of the tradition: Guru (spiritual teacher), dhyān (inner path of mediation), satsaṅg (spiritual discourses or congregating practitioners for meditation or study), and sadācār (moral conduct). Through a close analysis of textual sources, Sants’ oral discourses that I translated, as well as insights from my participant-observant experiences, I will examine how the four elements reorient the practitioner from the mundane world to the sacred inner experience of śānti.

Modality and Code Glosses to Transition from Academic Written to Oral Discourses

This article presents the results of a pilot study carried out in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class for PhD programs at a private university in Bogotá. The study sought to identify the mechanisms to change the content of academic essays to present them in oral presentations (OPs) to a multidisciplinary audience, and how such mechanisms mark differences of performance in the OPs. To identify the mechanisms of transition from written to oral mode, a discourse analysis comparison of eight parallel pairs of texts was performed. Changes to the expression of modality and the inclusion of code glosses were the mechanisms used to make the transition. These mechanisms helped students express contents in engaging and easy-to-process ways. The analysis of mechanisms includes the linguistic resources to modify sentences, their pragmatic appropriateness, and their grammatical correctness. This paper ends outlining some implications and limitations, and perspectives for future research.

A teoria das redes como suporte para análise de conteúdo:

Neste artigo, usamos a Teoria de Redes para subsidiar e potencializar as análises e inferências a partir dos conhecimentos produzidos na Análise de Conteúdo (AC). Utilizamos discursos orais de uma comunidade científica sobre um tema específico. Eles foram modelados em redes semânticas, pela inclusão de cliques. A rede é analisada considerando algumas centralidades de seus vértices. Os resultados mostram correlações entre os graus dos vértices e as frequências dos núcleos de sentidos, e acrescentam informações sobre o discurso, a partir das ligações entre as palavras. Esperamos aperfeiçoar a AC com a incorporação da teoria de redes, especificamente das redes semânticas.