Previous Discourse Research Articles

Monomodal and multimodal metaphors in editorial cartoons on the coronavirus by Jordanian cartoonists

Abstract This study explores the monomodal and multimodal metaphors used in 80 cartoons by 11 Jordanian cartoonists to depict the coronavirus. The study adopts Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Multimodal Metaphor Theory as its theoretical framework. The results reveal that several source domains (object, human, monster, weapon, and food) were employed to depict different aspects of the coronavirus. They also show that the most used mode configuration pattern to construe the metaphors was monomodal mapping of the type pictorial source–pictorial target. The monomodality of the mappings was ascribed to the global omnipresence of the virus, which made the visual cues sufficient to construe this target domain. The results also demonstrate that Jordanian culture was referred to in some cartoons through intertextual links with previous discourse as a way to reflect the culture of the cartoonists, on the one hand, and to establish an affinity with the viewer, on the other. The study reveals the role of culture in creating monomodal and multimodal metaphors in editorial cartoons.

Tradicionalidad discursiva e influencia del francés en la gramaticalización de en definitiva como marcador del discurso

Abstract This paper addresses the grammaticalization of Spanish en definitiva as a discourse marker. The objectives are threefold: to enquire about previous changes and discourse traditions that took place, to outline the path to the new values that were acquired, and to ascertain whether the French construction en définitive had an influence on the Spanish one during the grammaticalization process. To do so, we examined the cases found in Frantext for French, while for the Spanish data, we used Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española and Corpus diacrónico del español. Additionally, Gallica and Hemeroteca Digital were used to fill the gaps in the documentation for the 18th and 19th centuries. The results show that en definitiva might have undergone a vernacular evolution fixing as a ritual formula that gave rise to a modal construction and later assimilated new discourse uses as loan translations from the French construction en définitive. This finding leads to deeper consideration of the evolution of Modern French discourse markers and 19th century Spanish press.

Uses and functions of conceptual metaphor in pedagogical meditation discourse

In mindfulness and meditation instructional contexts, conceptual metaphor is a powerful facilitator of intersubjective communication about inner events and first-person experiences. Previous studies in meditation discourse have described space as a productive source domain that is used by meditation teachers to characterise metaphorically inner events and abstract concepts related to the meditative practice (Silvestre-López 2019, 2020). This study examines the discourse manifestations of the space source domain used to metaphorically characterise the most representative metaphorical topics (targets) in a corpus of introductory talks about meditation addressed to an audience of non-expert meditators. The analysis is sensitive to the communicative dimension of the use of metaphors in that it distinguishes between non-deliberate and deliberate uses (Steen 2015) and considers the functions they fulfil in discourse (Semino 2008; Goatly 2011). The corpus was analysed qualitatively following a bottom-up approach. Metaphor identification was carried out using DMIP (Reijnierse et al. 2018). Target and source domain coding was done with the help of dictionary information and the domains already identified in a metaphor compendium created in previous meditation discourse analyses (see Coll-Florit & Climent 2019; Silvestre-López & Navarro 2017; Silvestre-López 2020). This approach allowed different layers of domain specificity to be unveiled, with remarkable differences found between non-deliberate and deliberate metaphor use. Among them, differences in degree of source domain granularity (Langacker 2008) ranging from vaguer notions like undefined space or spaciousness to conceptually richer and finer-grained scenarios like the home and shelter, ocean, landscape, or sky models. The speakers were found to use these source domains consistently with explanatory purposes (explanatory function) to help their audience reconceptualise some of the most frequent target topics in their talks (e.g., the present moment, the meditator, the mind, awareness, or meditation) from more mindfully-oriented perspectives, hence allowing to become aware of and get rid of potential misconceptions. Deliberate uses proved particularly useful in promoting understanding through reconceptualisation, which was in turn facilitated by the vivid imagery evoked through detailed elaborations of source-domain scenery. Besides ideational functions, deliberate metaphors were also found to facilitate positive attitudinal changes towards the practice, as well as to provide for argument structuring and create textual cohesion. Overall, non-deliberate and deliberate uses were found to combine in the speakers’ production to aid them in skilfully achieving their own communicative intentions, which underscores the need for further studies that explore potential ways of applying similar findings to real meditation practice, and in instructional settings.

Drifting, Not Driving. Identity Structure Analysis to Explore Entrepreneurial Identity

This study is an exploration of entrepreneurial identity, employing a culturally sensitive mixed methods approach, Identity Structure Analysis (ISA). The sample includes 30 small/micro entrepreneurs in Southern-Transdanubia, Hungary. Hungary had introduced some “staccato” economic reforms in the previous social system, changing communist hostility towards entrepreneurs as “capitalists” into lasting ambivalence. The results reflect indistinct commitments to entrepreneurial values; constant adaptation to environmental factors instead of building own strategies; and limited future expectations. In the two sub-samples of male and female entrepreneurs there were no statistically significant differences. The dominant, masculine discourse of entrepreneurship, the underdevelopment of social enterprises in Hungary, the impact of the previous communist discourse understanding equality as sameness, and the pandemic-induced crisis may explain for these findings.

Speaker-Specific Cues Influence Semantic Disambiguation

Addressees use information from specific speakers’ previous discourse to make predictions about incoming linguistic material and to restrict the choice of potential interpretations. In this way, speaker specificity has been shown to be an influential factor in language processing across several domains e.g., spoken word recognition, sentence processing, and pragmatics. However, its influence on semantic disambiguation has received little attention to date. Using an exposure-test design and visual world eye tracking, we examined the effect of speaker-specific literal vs. nonliteral style on the disambiguation of metaphorical polysemes such as ‘fork’, ‘head’, and ‘mouse’. Eye movement data revealed that when interpreting polysemous words with a literal and a nonliteral meaning, addressees showed a late-stage preference for the literal meaning in response to a nonliteral speaker. We interpret this as reflecting an indeterminacy in the intended meaning in this condition, as well as the influence of meaning dominance cues at later stages of processing. Response data revealed that addressees then ultimately resolved to the literal target in 90% of trials. These results suggest that addressees consider a range of senses in the earlier stages of processing, and that speaker style is a contextual determinant in semantic processing.

Tourismification narratives and the ‘Transformative turn’ in tourism. An analysis derived from the Spanish press debate on the Barcelona tourism model

This article analyses the content of 2742 news items on tourismification and tourism-phobia in Barcelona published in the Spanish press between 2008 and 2020. Based on Foucault’s theoretical approach to the study of discourse and applying a content analysis method, the social construction of a tourism model is critically analysed through the examination of tourismification narratives. The dominant discourse on tourismification expressed by the Spanish press is organised into the following three narrative axes: the use of a local community point of view to highlight mass tourism as a contested social issue, governance as a solution for tourismification within the framework of the debate about the city’s tourist identity and the use of tourism-phobia as a formula for politicisation of the discourse on tourism, to influence public opinion and develop power relations. The press discourse proposes a narrative that incorporates a critical reading of tourism in place of the previous growth-based discourse. However, while this discourse advocates for tourism as an invariable, necessary and strategic element of the city, even during episodes of extreme tourism crisis, it fights shy of alternative approaches that call for a ‘transformative turn’ in tourism.

A delicate balance between authenticity and artistry——takes the director Zhang yang’s movies as examples

The films of directors of Chinese six generation are rooted in the fertile soil of realism and have a strong documentary style. As loyal practitioners of documentary style, their movies are based on the life experiences and closed to the social underlying living state, featuring the previous ideological discourse and political aesthetics reflection and breakthroughs. They inject the sensory experience of real life into the film art creation in view of disclosing the complex dimensions of the soul. Their movies are similar to the French New Wave movies which seem to be indulged in self - expression. Nonetheless, they borrow the framework of realism. They are more eclectic on the film selection and creation, combine the western classic film theories and the results of modern film theory, and reach after the left wave of mainland film in a narrative and image style with the international standards again. Zhang Yang is a representative figure of the sixth generation directors. His main works include Sunflower, Quitting , Path of The Soul and so on. Many of his works adopt the shooting method and design concept of documentaries, and the integration of feature films. In a word, documentary is his unique creative style.

Понятия справедливости и благочестия в византийской политико-философской мысли IV века

Introduction. The article analyzes the transformations of the concept of justice in early Byzantine thought. The purpose of the article is to test the hypothesis that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the concept of justice in the philosophical and theological literature were due to political processes and events. Methods. The article analyzes the political philosophical and political theological texts of the fourth century: “Oration in Honor of Constantine on the Thirtieth Anniversary of His Reign” by Eusebius of Caesarea; “Panegyric in Honour of Constantius” and “The Heroic Deeds of Constantius” by emperor Julian (“The Apostate”); “On Kingship” by Synesius of Cyrene. In the course of the analysis, the methodological tools of the history of concepts were used. Analysis. The analysis revealed a conflict between the concepts of “justice” and “piety”. It was found that the analyzed texts violate the ancient political and philosophical correlation of these concepts in which piety is considered as a form of justice. In the texts of Eusebius of Caesarea, piety is presented as a particular virtue without any connection with justice. Moreover, the frequency of using the concept of “piety” in the sense of the ruler’s virtue significantly exceeds the frequency of using the concept of “justice” in the sense of political virtue. In the texts of the Emperor Justinian, the discursive status of “justice” is restored. However, in the political philosophy of Synesius of Cyrene, the correlation of the concepts of “justice” and “piety” prescribed by Eusebius of Caesarea is fixed. Results. These processes is due to the influence of religious discourse on political one which is quite understandable in the works of theologians, on the one hand, and the crisis of polis and republican political technologies and discourses in the situation of increasing complexity of administrative tasks faced by the Roman emperors of the 4th century, on the other hand which subsequently led to the formation of a specific Byzantine “taxis” – a socio-cultural order. In this regard, the texts of Emperor Julian can be considered as an unsuccessful attempt to restore the previous discourse, an attempt to restore justice to a dominant place among the virtues of the ruler. The failure of this attempt is attested from the texts of Synesius of Cyrene. All the above allows us to conclude that a new Christian-imperial political discourse is being generated in the corpus of philosophical and theological texts in which the concept of justice is given a relatively modest place.

Vi snakker sådan: An analysis of the Danish discourse-pragmatic markersådan

AbstractThe last three decades have witnessed increasing interest in discourse-pragmatic markers (DPMs), both with regards to their high frequency in spoken discourse and their multifunctionality in interaction. Most studies have centered on English, with studies on Danish restricted to a handful of previous interactional discourse analyses. This paper is a preliminary investigation of the Danish wordsådan(commonly glossed as ‘such’ or ‘like this/that’). A qualitative, form-based, discourse analytic approach is undertaken on over 40 minutes of naturally occurring Danish talk to argue thatsådanqualifies as a DPM. In service of textual, subjective, and intersubjective macro-functions,sådanillustrates; exemplifies; marks hesitation; approximates a quantity; mitigates, hedges, or softens; and allows self-correction or self-repair. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications forsådan’s place in the Danish DPM system and our understanding of DPMs across languages.

Definiteness without determiners in German

The paper investigates conditions for the bare occurrence of noun phrases in the topic position of specificational copula clauses in German. It is shown that this is a predicate position for non-referential NPs. Specificational clauses in German are special because of the unusual alignment of the predicative position with the topic position. I show that the condition for the bare occurrence of NPs in this position is that the head noun denotes a functional concept. According to the theory of concept types by Löbner (2011), nouns denoting functional concepts are relational and unique. I argue that relationality ensures the anchoring of bare NPs in the discourse via an anaphoric link to a bridging antecedent in the previous discourse and qualifies them to be a topic in the sense of discourse-familiarity. The uniqueness of such NPs is the key to understanding why they can occur bare without a definite article: they belong to the type of definite descriptions in which definiteness is based on uniqueness. The article in uniqueness- based DPs encodes uniqueness and indicates morphological case. Since NPs denoting functional concepts are already unique, and as complements of the copula are not assigned case, the article need not be realized.

Strategic framing of genome editing in agriculture: an analysis of the debate in Germany in the run-up to the European Court of Justice ruling

New techniques in genome editing have led to a controversial debate about the opportunities and uncertainties they present for agricultural food production and consumption. In July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union defined genome editing as a new process of mutagenesis, which implies that the resulting organisms count as genetically modified and are subject, in principle, to the obligations of EU Directive 2001/18/EG. This paper examines how key protagonists from academia, politics, and the economy strategically framed the debate around genome editing in agriculture in Germany prior to its legal classification by the Court of Justice. It is based on an analysis of 96 official statements, including position papers, press releases, and information brochures. Our study reveals eight strategic frames used in the discourse on genome editing and uncovers the strategies used to disconnect from or connect with the previous discourse on green genetic engineering in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Building on competitive framing theory, the study provides explanations for the use and emergence of counter-framing strategies and their success or failure in the debate around genome editing.

THE DIGITAL CLOSET: PLATFORM CENSORSHIP AND LGBTQIA+ INDEPENDENCE ONLINE

This presentation draws on data from my forthcoming book with MIT Press to demonstrate how heteronormative and cisnormative bias pervade Silicon Valley culture, get embedded in benchmark datasets and machine learning algorithms, and get formalized in company policies and labor practices surrounding content moderation. The presentation begins with an examination of workplace culture at Google, gaining insights from Department of Labor investigations, testimonials from previous employees, and informal surveys and discourse analysis conducted by employees during the circulation of James Damore's infamous 'Google memo'. The presentation then moves on to examine bias embedded in benchmark datasets like WordNet and ImageNet, both of which served as the training datasets for Google's Image Recognition algorithms (like GoogLeNet). Lastly, the presentation turns to Facebook's heteronormative and cisnormative content moderation policies and the outsourced labor practices it uses to institute what Facebook has described as 'human algorithms' to review content in accordance with these policies. Throughout the presentation I demonstrate that we can piece together information about proprietary code by looking to leaked documents, public records, press releases, open-source code, and benchmark datasets, all of which, in this instance, instigate a systemic heteronormative and cisnormative bias that is increasingly being embedded in the internet.

Does Airbnb impact non-hosting Residents' quality of life? Comparing media discourse with empirical evidence

In addition to disrupting the hotel industry, Airbnb has been portrayed in the media as significantly diminishing the quality of life of residents in neighborhoods where it is available. There is little empirical research to support such rhetoric, particularly as provided by the residents themselves. To address this gap, the present study uses the social exchange theory framework to develop and test two alternative models of residents' attitudes towards Airbnb. Findings indicate that residents are generally positive towards Airbnb, perceiving higher positive than negative impacts. Moreover, those residents who possess more knowledge of Airbnb, engage more with their communities, and perceive potential benefits from Airbnb also perceive higher positive impacts, while the need for regulation serves as the key determinant of residents' perceptions of Airbnb's negative impacts. The positive impacts, in turn, have a stronger direct effect on residents' support for Airbnb, and tourism more generally, than the dampening effect of Airbnb's negative impacts. Quality of life was not found to have a significant mediating effect on these relationships, a finding that contradicts previous discourse and opens up avenues for future research on the role of this important construct.

Do we need a ‘circular society’? Competing narratives of the circular economy in the French food sector

How a circular economy (CE) can promote social equity remains largely unknown. We analyze how CE narratives affect interpretations of problems and actions on waste in the French food sector, particularly around the Loi Garot. We identify CE narratives that challenge the sector's previous discourse of a social and solidarity economy (SSE) by advancing market-focused solutions and actors. We show how these narratives create solutions that do not automatically serve social goals and demand food waste instead of mitigating it. Our results suggest that the new CE narratives may either open sector debates to more viable solutions for limited access to food or exacerbate the social and environmental problems of food waste. If we want CE policies and initiatives to address pressing issues of distributive justice and equality of opportunity that often underpin wastefulness, CE narratives need to foreground these issues. A possible way to do so could be to develope narratives for a ‘circular society’ instead of a ‘circular economy’. We suggest future research to explore options for such new narratives, emphasizing problems of social equity and offering visions for a ‘circular society’.

“Marriage was not an option”: ethnoreligious mixed marriage in Israel

ABSTRACT This study explores the way Jewish women negotiate their crossing ethnoreligious borders in a deeply divided society through 15 in-depth interviews. Despite social, economic and political exclusion of Palestinians in Israel, in certain circumstances, the ethnic and religious borders are weakening. The core findings have led to three conclusions. First, ethnic mixed marriage occurs between Palestinian men and Jewish women from diverse groups with heterogeneity in their socioeconomic features, which places in doubt previous discourse that this kind of marriage appears among people from marginalized groups in Israel. Second, the ethnic hierarchical relationship between the two groups carries over into their intimate relationships. Third, the rigid borders of ethnoreligious belonging to the Israeli society and the extent of belonging to the Jewish mainstream differ among Jewish immigrants from different origins, produce different types of negotiations among the Jewish women while they are crossing the ethnoreligious borders by marrying Palestinian men.

Exploring the wellbeing of ambulance staff using the ‘public value’ perspective: opportunities and challenges for research

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the problematic nature of ambulance paramedics’ wellbeing and applies the conceptualizations and theoretical perspective of public value (PV) to understand and potentially improve their experience. It synthesizes previous discourse from public accounting and public management and applies it to NHS ambulance services which have been prominent in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic but are currently under-researched in public management literature. The authors suggest a future interdisciplinary research agenda.

Demonstratives as bundlers of conceptual structure

Pronoun resolution has long been central to psycholinguistics, but research has mostly focused on personal pronouns (“he”/“she”). However, much of linguistic reference is to events and objects, in English often using demonstrative pronouns, like “that”, and the non-personal pronoun “it”, respectively. Very little is known about potential form-specific preferences of non-personal and demonstrative pronouns and the cognitive mechanisms involved in reference using demonstratives. We present a novel analysis arguing that the bare demonstrative “that” serves a different function by bundling, and making linguistically accessible, complex conceptual structures, while the non-personal pronoun “it” has a form-specific preference to refer to noun phrases mentioned in the previous discourse. In two English self-paced reading studies, each replicated once with slight variations, we show that readers are reading the demonstrative slower throughout, independently of frequency or complexity of the referent, as a reflection of differences in processing demonstratives vs. pronouns. These findings contribute to two distinct but connected research areas: First, they are compatible with an emergent experimental literature showing that pronominal reference to events is preferably done with demonstratives. Second, our model of demonstratives as conceptual bundlers provides a unified framework for future research on demonstratives as operators on the interface between language and broader cognition.

Introduction: classroom discourse at the intersection of language education and materiality

ABSTRACT This special issue provides a collection of research that examines the relationships between classroom materials and discourse in various second language education contexts. Together, these studies add to the field of language teaching and learning materials use research by offering new understandings of how materials – and how they are used in the classroom – can shape discourse. By utilising a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches to explore materials use research, the contributors of the special issue demonstrate the importance of considering the material aspect of the language teaching/learning environment when studying classroom discourse. This introduction will situate the articles in the special issue in relationship to previous discourse and materials use research.

Grammatical Encoding of Discourse Structure: A Case Study of The Arabic Discourse Particle Tara

AbstractThis study shows that the discourse particle tara in Jordanian Arabic identifies whether its utterance presents new or given information. In other words, there exists a relation between the presence of this particle (i.e. its position) and the type of information packaging of its utterance. When tara appears utterance‐initially, the accompanying utterance is presented as being in sentence focus (i.e. as all‐new). By contrast, when tara appears utterance‐finally, the accompanying utterance is presented as all‐given, and the hearer in such cases is instructed to pay attention to the content of the utterance which he/she should be previously aware of, from the speaker’s perspective. Additionally, this paper shows that tara can be used as a topic marker when it appears utterance‐internally. In such cases, tara is preceded by the element(s) expressing Referential Topic(s) (RTop) which convey the shared and anaphoric information with respect to the interlocutors’ mental state and previous discourse.

On adverbial clauses in spoken Lithuanian

The aim of the paper is to investigate adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession in spontaneous private communication. The study explores semantic relations between the main and subordinate clauses, grammatical features and predominant conjunctions.The data for the research was collected from the morphologically annotated Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian, namely, its sub-corpus of spontaneous private speech which is used at home, at friends’ place, or which is produced by close friends.The analysis of spontaneous private communication shows that the finite adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession are related to a set of conjunctions, but other indicators such as the use of verbal categories (especially tense, aspect and mood), contextual lexical markers as well as pragmatic inference also help to determine the semantic relationship between the main and the subordinate clause.In a spoken language, temporal clauses are usually combined with the conjunctions kai, kaip ‘when’, kol ‘while’, less frequently – with kada ‘when’; causal clauses are combined with the conjunction nes ‘because; since’, less frequently – with kad and kadangi ‘because’; conditional clauses are typically combined with the conjunction jeigu ‘if’, less frequently – with jei ‘if’, concessive clauses – with the conjunction nors ‘though’. The conjunctions kai ‘when’, kol ‘while’, kadangi ‘because’, jeigu and jei ‘if’ correlate with the particle tai that is very frequent in a spoken language, while the conjunction nors ‘though’ – with the contrastive conjunction bet ‘but’.In the natural language flow, the structure of adverbial sentences is modified: other sentential and discourse units can intervene between the main and the subordinate clauses, and the adverbial conjunction moves from the initial to the medial position.Traditional Lithuanian grammars emphasise that the position of adverbial clauses is undefined: they can appear before or after the main clause. However, the analysis of spontaneous speech shows that the position of a subordinate clause is influenced by the semantic relationship between the clauses. If a subordinate clause refers to a previous action or event, then it dominates in a preposition. Besides, the position of an adverbial clause is also influenced by correlative conjunctions: the main clause with the correlative particle tai dominates in the postposition.The research also revealed that Lithuanian adverbial clauses could function at the discourse level: in dialogues, the structure of a complex sentence is broken down and subordinate adverbial clauses can acquire additional – discourse – functions. Adverbial conjunctions, in their turn, can indicate relations with a previous discourse.