Pragmatic Dimensions Research Articles

Semiotization of power in the French kings’ ceremonial portraits: linguophilosophical approach

The purpose of the present article is to prove that the royal gala portrait makes a semiotic space, the signs of which form the image of supreme power. External symbols of monarchical power serve as the means of power semiotization in the ceremonial royal portrait. The linguophilosophical approach to the power allowed us to identify and describe the semantic characteristic of the symbolic side of power. The sword, the scepter, the Hand of Justice, and the crown symbolize three branches of power that the king received from God, particularly, religious, political, and judicial power. The methodological basis of the work is a systematic approach, which includes interdisciplinary research as well as linguo-cultural and historiographic analysis. By interpreting the signs presented in the J. Clouet’s portrait of François I, in the T. de Leu’s engraving of Henry IV, king of France and Navarre, and in the G. Rigo’s portrait of Louis XIV in the coronation costume, the authors reveal the pragmatic dimension of the semiosis of power and the court culture. The research results in the emphasis of the idea that the state destination of the symbolic representation of the monarch is to visualize the power institution.

International students’ mobility and lives in transnational spaces: pragmatic or dedicated cosmopolitans?

ABSTRACT Recently, an increasing number of students have been seeking international education to accumulate cosmopolitan cultural and social capital and realise upward social mobility. In addition to this pragmatic dimension, international education also enables international students to acquire dedicated cosmopolitan dispositions, providing them opportunities to appreciate diverse cultures, values, and gain intercultural/translocal learning experiences. Guided by a theoretical discussion on pragmatic and dedicated cosmopolitanism, this study employed the case study method to explore how 19 international students who studied in Chinese universities navigated their transnational mobility, academic learning, and social lives, and how multiple discourses in their transnational spaces influenced their development of dedicated cosmopolitan dispositions. The findings revealed that international educational programme arrangements, social discourses regarding accruing capital and upward social mobility, and cultural and educational discourses in transnational spaces converged to influence students’ development of dedicated cosmopolitan dispositions, affecting their emotions, practices, and choices. This study suggests that actors in international education provide students with more opportunities to connect with the host society and dialogical spaces. Not only international students, but all actors should engage in constant dialogue, and strive to acquire dedicated cosmopolitan dispositions, and promote a socially and culturally inclusive educational environment to support international students’ learning and well-being.

Étude des références pronominales à soi dans les témoignages d’événements traumatiques de guerre et d’attentats

Étude des références pronominales à soi dans les témoignages d’événements traumatiques de guerre et d’attentats

Computer-Aided Teaching Using Animations for Engineering Curricula: A Case Study for Automotive Engineering Modules

One-dimensional (1-D) demonstrations, e.g., the black-box systems, have become popular in teaching materials for engineering modules due to the high complexity of the system’s multidimensional (e.g., 2-D and 3-D) identities. The need for multidimensional explanations on how multiphysics equations and systems work is vital for engineering students, whose learning experience must gain a cognitive process understanding for utilizing such multiphysics-focused equations into a pragmatic dimension. The lack of knowledge and expertise in creating animations for visualizing sequent processes and operations in academia can result in an ineffective learning experience for engineering students. This study explores the benefits of animation, which can eventually improve the teaching and student learning experiences. In this article, the use of computer-aided animation tools is evaluated based on their capabilities. Based on their strengths and weaknesses, the study offered some insights for selecting the investigated tools. To verify the effectiveness of animations in teaching and learning, a survey was conducted for undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts and automotive engineering academics. Based on the survey’s data, some analytics and discussion have offered more quantitative results. The historic data (2012–2020) analysis has validated the animations efficacy as achievements of the study, where the average mark of both modules has significantly improved, with the reduced rate of failure.

Analysis and Conclusion of Pragmatics in Syntactic Structures

The emergence of the concept of modern pragmatics is what prompted linguists to pay attention to the issue of reception. For a period of time, linguistics has been divided into two main traditional divisions, syntax, which studies the relationship between linguistic signs, and semantics, which examines the relationships of linguistic signs with the meanings they signify. These two branches aspired to describe the works of human language. Then, philosophers of language added a third section and called it pragmatics, which is concerned with the relations of the linguistic sign. The present study aims to reveal and highlight the pragmatic dimensions in the ancient linguistic lesson in some grammatical structures, including addressing, contracting, and temptation and warning. The researcher selected samples and applied pragmatic dimensions on them to clarify their forms.

Questions, Presuppositions and Fallacies

In this paper I focus on the fallacy known as Complex Question or Many Questions. After a brief introduction, in Sect. 2 I highlight its pragmatic dimension, and in Sect. 3 its dialectical dimension. In Sect. 4 I present two accounts of this fallacy developed in argumentation theory, Douglas Walton’s and the Pragma-Dialectics’, which have resources to capture both its pragmatic and its dialectical nature. However, these accounts are unsatisfactory for various reasons. In Sect. 5 I focus on the pragmatic dimension of the fallacy and I suggest amendments to the accounts mentioned drawing on the study of the phenomenon of presupposition in theoretical pragmatics. I argue that the central notion in the definition of the fallacy is that of an informative presupposition. In Sect. 6 I focus on the dialectical dimension of the fallacy. This dimension needs to be explicitly acknowledged in the definition of the fallacy in order to distinguish it from a different, non-dialectical, fallacious argumentative move involving presuppositions.

Designer Ecosystems for the Anthropocene—Deliberately Creating Novel Ecosystems in Cultural Landscapes

Accepting that nature and culture are intricately co-evolved has profound implications for the ethical, legal, philosophical and pragmatic dimensions of social and environmental policy. The way we think about nature affects how we understand and manage ecosystems. While the ideals of preserving wilderness and conserving ecosystems have motivated much conservation effort to date, achieving these ideals may not be feasible under Anthropocene conditions unless communities accept custodial responsibilities for landscapes and other species. This paper’s origins are in the author’s work with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council representing Indigenous traditional owners in Australia’s Kimberley region. These landscapes, shaped by 60,000 years of human occupation, interweave knowledge, laws and governance regimes, and material and spiritual connections with country. This interweaving offers insights into options for dealing with humanity’s complex sustainability challenges. The paper also draws on the literature about cultural landscapes, ecological design, agroecology and permaculture to explore options for applying ecological design as a planning and problem-solving framework. The paper concludes that design-based approaches offer significant opportunities for using ecological science to integrate conservation and production in agricultural landscapes in ways that can meet human needs while also conserving biodiversity under climate change.

Secundum Quid and the Pragmatics of Arguments. The Challenges of the Dialectical Tradition

The phrase secundum quid et simpliciter is the Latin expression translating and labelling the sophism described by Aristotle as connected with the use of some particular expression “absolutely or in a certain respect and not in its proper sense.” This paper presents an overview of the analysis of this fallacy in the history of dialectics, reconstructing the different explanations provided in the Aristotelian texts, the Latin and medieval dialectical tradition, and the modern logical approaches. The secundum quid emerges as a strategy that is based on the pragmatic dimension of arguments, and in particular the complex passage from an utterance (what is said) to its logical form (a proposition in an argument). The medieval and modern logical theories attempted to explain from different philosophical perspectives how the pragmatically enriched semantic representation can be achieved, justified, and most importantly manipulated. The different analyses of this fallacy bring to light various dimensions of the pragmatics of arguments, and the complex interdependence between context, meaning, and inferences.

Legitimacy of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels: Controversy Over the Deployment of the Nutri-Score in Italy.

Front-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) aim at increasing transparency and consumers' awareness of the nutritional composition of pre-packed food products in order to improve the nutritional quality of their food choices. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score - the FoPL officially adopted in France and several other European countries - is subject to both technical and political controversy, particularly in Italy. In this study, we investigated how and by whom the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score, recognized by several institutional authorities, could be deconstructed within a specific system of norms, values and beliefs among Italian stakeholders. A netnography completed with qualitative interviews with eight Italian and French nutrition and public health experts were carried out to highlight the dimensions (pragmatic, normative and cognitive) in which the Nutri-Score's legitimacy is being challenged among the stakeholders involved in FoPLs' implementation in Italy. The degree of influence and the position of these stakeholders on the debate around the Nutri-Score were assessed through the Stakeholder Theory (SHT), using their respective level of power, legitimacy and urgency. Furthermore, we compared the Italian and the French contexts on the issue. The direct implication of political parties and media outlets in framing the Italian debate around Nutri-Score as well as the high influence of corporate unions, led to a different political outcome than in France. Results also show that the deconstruction of the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score in Italy pertained mainly to its pragmatic dimension according to the Italian public health experts. Nevertheless, its two other dimensions (normative and cognitive) are also questioned by high-influence stakeholders. Due to the limited mobilization of scientific expertise over the issue, the debate in Italy stayed centered around the "attack" of the Nutri-Score to the Italian way of life, mixing up concepts such as Made in Italy products and the Mediterranean diet.

Ignoring Qualifications as a Pragmatic Fallacy: Enrichments and Their Use for Manipulating Commitments

The fallacy of ignoring qualifications, or secundum quid et simpliciter, is a deceptive strategy that is pervasive in argumentative dialogues, discourses, and discussions. It consists in misrepresenting an utterance so that its meaning is broadened, narrowed, or simply modified to pursue different goals, such as drawing a specific conclusion, attacking the interlocutor, or generating humorous reactions. The “secundum quid” was described by Aristotle as an interpretative manipulative strategy, based on the contrast between the “proper” sense of a statement and its meaning taken absolutely or in a certain respect. However, how can an “unqualified” statement have a proper meaning different from the qualified one, and vice versa? This “linguistic” fallacy brings to light a complex relationship between pragmatics, argumentation, and interpretation. The secundum quid is described in this paper as a manipulative argument, whose deceptive effect lies in its pragmatic dimension. This fallacy is analyzed as a strategy of decontextualization lying at the interface between pragmatics and argumentation and consisting of the unwarranted passage from an utterance to its semantic representation. By ignoring the available evidence and the presumptive interpretation of a statement, the speaker places it in a different context or suppresses textual and contextual evidence to infer a specific meaning different from the presumable one.

The semiotic dimension of contemporary pragmatics

Contemporary Pragmatics has the semiotic features from the respects of disciplinary naming, the means of development, and theoretical source to research object and method. It is not only an independent linguistics and language science, but also an interdisciplinary field and paradigm. This paper is to explore the semiotic features and dimensions of Pragmatics for tracing back the origin and the theoretical resources from semiotic perspective, and to define its research scope and clarify the connotation of its conception. As Semiotics has a triad dimension of semiosis, one of which is the “pragmatic dimension”. Therefore, contemporary pragmatics includes at least three semiotic dimensions: scientific semiotics, linguistic semiotics and social semiotics. The semiotic analysis of Pragmatics could be conducive to clarify and fix the semiotic and philosophical origin, definition, disciplinary connotation and meaning of Pragmatics, which is also theoretically helpful for clarifying the concepts for the study of philosophical pragmatism, pragmaticism, semiotics, semantics and syntax.
 
 Key Words: Semiotic, Pragmatics, Pragmaticism

Pragmatic dimensions in translation

Pragmatic dimensions in translation

Theoretical research program of transculturality: the history of formation, problems and prospects

In the article, there are investigated the concept and practices of transculturalism in the global world, its features and differences from the multicultural practices of developed Western countries. The first important feature of transculturalism as a new ethics is that both scientists and politicians realize the need for a purely rational (pragmatic) form of combining the goals and means of cultural coexistence. It is in rational, pragmatic dimensions that modern scientists and politicians are looking for possible ways of combining excellent value and behavioral rules without threatening the civilized world. The second important aspect of the peculiar content of the latest forms of transculturality is closely related to the social nature of a person, which is inherently based on the identification of oneself as an individual only through the prism of the reflected Other. One of the main signs of the change in the picture of the world in modern sciences is the formulation of the principles of non-classical reality based on the study of the concepts of everyday life and the theory of communications in social phenomenology. If we consider that in the modern picture of the world communication between "Own and Other" is gaining more and more importance, then in this sense it can be considered that the main feature of the cultural reality of today is not the culture as a system of values in its classical sense, but rather the cultural border and its constant crossing. Transculture is a new symbolic habitat for the human race that is about as much about culture in the traditional sense as culture is about nature.

Прагматические параметры коммуникативных неудач в устном судебном переводе с использованием русского и шведского языков

The study aims to determine the influence of pragmatic factors of linguosemiotics on the occurrence of communicative failures (CF) in court interpreting. The paper considers an example of using the content reframing technique by the sender of a message in Russian and its translation into Swedish. Scientific novelty of the study lies in conducting a comprehensive analysis of the pragmatic aspect of communicative failures in the translation of oral speech involving the use of Swedish and Russian as contact languages. As a result of the study, it has been found that in the pragmatic dimension of semiosis, an explicit CF can occur when the completed interpretation does not display inconsistencies, inaccuracies or grave errors. Timely recognition of the sender’s pragmatic intentions, classifications of expressive means used by the sender and the choice of translation units corresponding to the communicative and pragmatic attitudes of the sender of a text are important for the prevention of CF.

Development & Testing of a Comprehensive Digital Self-Care Support System for Older Adults With Chronic Conditions

This 3-phase study involves the conceptualization and design, development and usability testing of a Comprehensive Digital Self-care Support System (CDSSS) named myHESTIA for older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). The objective of this study was to test whether a CDSSS can be developed for those who are dealing with MCC and whether such a system that is specifically developed for older adult patients will enable daily capture of self-care data. Participants for this 3-phase study included: 10 older adults (age>60) and 10 caregivers in Phase 1; 15 Geriatrics clinicians and 25 community-dwelling low-income older adults in Phase 2; and, 10 older adults (age>60) with MCC in Phase 3. Agile method of system development was used for the design and development of the system. The first two phases involved collecting data for designing and developing myHESTIA. The third phase involved small group usability and feasibility testing, in which the participants used myHESTIA trackers for 4 weeks. Results from phase 3 shows daily inputs were possible and the self-reported data shows that it was not at all difficult for older adults to track their symptoms daily. User experience data (n=10) shows overall positive experience along pragmatic (5.8 out of 7), hedonic (4.6 out of 7), sociability (5.5 out of 7) and usability (6.3 out of 7) experience dimensions. Finally, all the participants (n=10) who completed the phase 3 study reported intention to continue using myHESTIA. Results indicate that it is feasible to design a CDSSS for older adults with MCC.

José María Rivas Groot: un acercamiento a la dimensión pragmática de su narrativa breve en «Rocinante» y «Día de inocentes»

José María Rivas Groot: an Approach to the Pragmatic Dimension of his Short Stories in «Rocinante» and «Día de inocentes». Having a multiform intellect, José María Rivas Groot (Bogotá, 1863-Rome, 1923) stood out as a public figure and a man of letters. Acting director of the National Library, senator, minister of state, plenipotentiary minister of Colombia to the Holy See, journalist, editor and writer, vocation this latter forged in the family bosom and in which his conservative and Christian thought, defender of tradition, is manifested. His intellectual production covers a wide variety of literary genres: poetry, novel, short stories, theater and historical essays, among others. Although his short stories have remained, in a way, on the sidelines of anthologies and studies, it is a faithful testimony of his style and thought, in a time of turmoil, affected by strong social and political transformations, framed by the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Through two of his short stories classified as unpublished, Rocinante and Día de inocentes, this article offers an approach to his short stories from a pragmatic perspective with the purpose of revealing its meaning and intentional value, in which transtextuality, symbolism and irony are resources to which he turns, as a faithful representative of the lettered city, to express his position in the face of circumstances, behaviors and attitudes typical of his space -time, which remain in force until today.

DIGITIZING THE MEANING OF ENTHUSIASM IN #generasiberanipahit THROUGH MORRIS SEMIOTICS

The development of communication patterns carried out in virtual spaces is currently increasingly widespread. The various benefits that have been proven in various studies on digitalization efforts are driving more parties to do the same. The use of a hashtag in giving messages and impressions through digital media is one thing that should be considered. The message used needs to be structured with the right communication strategy so the series of signs, symbols, and verbal words that are used will convey the desired meaning. The hashtags of generasi berani pahit (#generatsiberanipahit) used by Jamupedia are dissected by basing the research on the constructivist paradigm and the semiotic tradition. The analytical method used is the semiotics of Charles W. Morris, which in this study focuses on the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions. This qualitative research uses data from various scientific study literature in order to dissect and explain in detail the meaning of #generationberanipahit based on Impression Management Theory and Computer Mediation Communication Theory to get an enthusiastic attitude as a result of the meaning-making. It is also related to the philosophy of the jamu tradition, which has become the cultural wealth of Nusantara since long time ago. The enthusiastic attitude that is described by the courage to try or survive the bitter taste of jamu is also associated with the philosophy of jamu, which tells the value of life with various events that provide good and bad experiences. Good experiences are a picture of good taste, and bad experiences are the opposite.

The frame system as an interlingual representation for parallel texts

Abstract One of the key problems in comparative studies based on frame semantics is the question whether frames can become an interlingua. This paper argues that not only single frames, but their systems or frame semantic domain representations consisting of frames and their relations are also useful in comparative studies. Such a system of frames helps one explain why seemingly unrelated expressions in different languages find a common denominator in higher-order frames, thus becoming semantic-pragmatic equivalents. To support this argument, an analysis of Polish, English and German lease agreements as parallel texts is conducted and the benefits of this approach to comparative studies are presented. The study is in line with the recent FrameNet initiatives, such as the Global FrameNet and automatic translation studies. However, it differs in some methodological aspects. Instead of using FrameNet as the given lexical resource, domain specific frames are defined starting from common general concepts of the analyzed semantic domain. A text-based approach rather than a comparison of bi-sentences or phrases is adapted. The work thus introduces a new approach to comparative studies based on frame semantics and frame semantic research. It also follows the recent research trend of adding a pragmatic dimension to frame semantic analysis by analyzing frames in context.

Towards a historical approach to physics education

Modern physics is a complex multiplicity of practices: theoretical, mathematical, experimental and simulation practices. Experimental and simulation practices are related to the pragmatic dimension of a physical theory. Mathematical practices are related to the syntactic dimension of a physical theory, but theoretical practices involve an often neglected semantic dimension. Physics and consequently teaching physics are usually reduced to the syntactic and pragmatic dimensions. Semantic dimension is linked to the conceptualization of the physical reality, to the conception of Nature. By neglecting the semantic dimension, physics is reduced to a pure mathematical game and to technological manipulations. Thus, the cultural aspect of science is lost and physics education is reduced to a mere technical training. This process of de-culturalization of science had its roots in the Enlightenment’s turn in physics to free it from theology and metaphysics and had its completion in the post-second-world-war era. I believe we have to recover the cultural aspects of physics to understand it more deeply in its whole complexity. We have to recover all its relationships with other disciplines as philosophy, mathematics, psychology, sociology and other sciences, even theology, which are fundamental to constitute its semantic dimension. Historical approach to physics and physics education is the only way to recover this interdisciplinarity at the roots of the various physical conceptions of Nature. In this way, for example, we can understand that beyond mechanics there is a mechanist conception of Nature, beyond thermodynamics there is a thermodynamical conception of Nature, and beyond electromagnetism there is an electromagnetic conception of Nature. These different conceptions of Nature are not compatible and their historical fight has produced the relativistic, quantum and chaos revolutions in XX century physics. These different conceptions of Nature imply different existential self-understanding of the meaning of mankind in the universe and different ethical perspectives.

Introduction: the tale as a special discourse vehicle

ABSTRACT This special issue addresses a series of post-2008 financial developments by mobilising the concept of the tale, understood as a discursive artefact composed of a meaningful story or script that serves to separate good from evil, make sense of historical situations, stimulate action, and prefigure scenarios. Unlike standard workplace narratives, which are useful for practical decision-making, tales have strong collective and political connotations. As such, they assume two distinct forms: tales of ‘experiment,’ stemming from innovative projects that seek to transform the financial system from within, and tales of ‘defiance,’ which deal with the more ample changes that horizontal and disobedient practices prefigure. Several analytical coordinates are proposed in order to capture the semiotic and pragmatic natures of the tale. Regarding semiotics, tales involve not only themes and motifs but also polysemic metaphors and what are here defined as processes of characterisation, through which persons or institutions are positioned as characters and assume specific roles within a story. As for the pragmatic dimension, tales mobilise people toward specific functions and address audiences while also relying on material infrastructure to embed some of the content they convey.