Professional Discourse Research Articles

The role of state policy in the safeguarding and reproduction of the intangible cultural heritage of Russia

The subject of the study is the value-semantic roles and instrumental functions that were assigned to the intangible cultural heritage in Russia's conceptual and strategic documents affecting its preservation and use. The purpose of the work is to determine the current value-semantic and functional position of the intangible heritage in the structure of public administration in Russia, as well as to assess possible prospects for further development of this institution. The implementation of the Russian state approach to the preservation, actualization, popularization and use of intangible cultural heritage is interdisciplinary and interdepartmental. Therefore, in order to assess it more systematically and identify promising areas of development, it is necessary to expand the range of practical research to analyze the entire range of provisions of Russian state policy affecting these issues. The cultural approach seems to be the most heuristic way to achieve this goal. The research uses the method of content analysis, comparative and cultural-historical methods. The author identifies the importance and scope of the intangible cultural heritage at each stage of its institutionalization in Russia, proposes a periodization of the historical dynamics of this process, and substantiates the need to form a Russian national approach to the preservation and use of intangible heritage in comparison with the UNESCO discourse. The author concludes that the progressive institutionalization of the intangible heritage of Russian culture in domestic state policy has allowed us to take into account the creative aspects of scientific, professional and socio-political discourse, as well as harmoniously integrate this institution into a multi-level model of socio-cultural policy. Special attention is paid to the promising tasks of the Russian state policy in the field of intangible heritage in the context of the development of the existing system of its protection.

What is a mantra? Guidance for practitioners, researchers, and editors.

Mantras, sometimes called holy names or prayer words, are increasingly included and studied as components in health and human services interventions. In this emerging field, the term "mantra" has been implicitly defined over several decades in a way that has been useful, largely shared across research teams, and historically resonant. However, confusion has arisen in how "mantra" is defined and used in a small fraction of recent publications that depart from longstanding usage. To provide needed guidance going forward for researchers, editors, reviewers, and practitioners, the present article discusses historical, cross-cultural, conceptual, and empirical background and proposes a definition of "mantra" for use in empirical research on mantra interventions: A mantra is a phrase or sound that has been repeated and sanctified over time within a spiritual tradition. Using this definition, we categorize several dozen empirical studies of mantra repetition interventions. Emphasizing well-established psychosocial processes such as priming and spreading activation, we explain theoretical and empirical bases for expecting repetition of mantras to enlist spiritual resources and provide added value for health and well-being, over and above the repetition of neutral non-mantra sounds or phrases. Although the term mantra should be used carefully in professional discourse, we allow that looser definitions can be acceptable in communications with intervention recipients, clients, and patients, parallel to recent recommendations for how to employ the term "spirituality." Directions for future research are suggested. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The main features of English academic and professional medical discourses

The main features of English academic and professional medical discourses

Strategic Adaptations and Long-Term Organizational Change in Technology Companies Post-Pandemic: An Analysis of Remote Work Implementation and its Implications

This research is investigating the impact of the remote work revolution intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic in the technology companies. The research is comprehensively evaluating that how remote work affects organizational operations, employee adaptability, productivity, and cost savings. It is aiming is for understanding the long-term sustainability of remote work practices and their effect on organizational flexibility and employee satisfaction. The research is employing a qualitative approach, integrating interviews, surveys, and empirical data analysis. It is focusing on the demographic and technological factors that influence work adaptability and the overall experience of remote work. The key findings of this research indicate that while remote work has increased productivity and reduced costs for many organizations but some challenges such as maintaining employee engagement and managing remote communication persist. Despite these challenges, the research is suggesting that remote work can be a sustainable practice if organizations tailor their strategies to address individual and organizational needs effectively. The study contributes to the academic and professional discourse on remote work especially in technology companies, and it is providing actionable insights for organizations to enhance their remote work policies and practices, ultimately it is aiming to optimize both employee well-being and organizational performance in a post-pandemic world.

Образные единицы в коммуникативных практиках медиатизированного политического дискурса

The article is dedicated to the communicative features of mediatized political discourse, which remain insufficiently explored. Using the example of the use of figurative means of language in the genres of media-political communications, it is demonstrated that the mediatized form of communication possesses not only the basic functions of professional discourse but also additional functions: amplifying or softening content, saving linguistic means, emotional and attractive functions. Each of these functions plays a significant role in shaping audience perception and influencing public opinion on political issues. With the help of contextual and semantic analysis, as well as the corpus method, the following results were obtained: in the studied context, figurative units are important linguistic means used for the effective conveyance of specific political views and emotions. These units include figurative metaphors and comparisons, phraseology, proverb, precedent phenomena and colloquial expressions. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of communicative features and functions of figurative units in various genres of mediatized political discourse: political talk shows, political interviews, and internet texts of politicians. The research results can be applied in the practice of media communication, communicative linguistics, and discourse theory.

Disambiguating Concepts of Fairness in Stormwater Management: A Review of Economic Efficiency and Equity

AbstractTo confront the converging challenges of failing infrastructure, climate change, degraded water quality, and fewer undeveloped lands, many municipalities are establishing stormwater utilities (SWUs) to allocate a dedicated funding source to stormwater management (SWM) services. As a public service, creating a “fair” SWU by defining collective values that reflect community and municipal needs is crucial. However, the prevalent professional discourse surrounding SWUs often conflates “equity” with “economic efficiency” when they are two theoretically separate concepts, which obscure concerns raised by service beneficiaries. This paper unpacks ideas of fairness based on a systematic literature review that frames SWM financing in terms of economic efficiency and SWM services in terms of distributional, procedural, and structural equity. The distinction of which is important to set appropriate expectations between SWUs and beneficiaries.

Composition of the Russian armonymic field and its dynamics

The article is devoted to the study of the history of the formation of Russian proper names of aviation and armored military equipment. Our research has shown that the main function of Russian armonyms – the proper names of Russian weapons – is the representative identification of types and brands of weapons produced at state-owned enterprises or unique mechanisms. Armonyms as verbal identifiers of complex military-technical mechanisms function in professional or publicistic discourse. The structure of the armonymic field includes verbal index signs marking types and series of weapons that correspond to the term pragmatonyms (T-90M «Breakthrough»), and proper names of unique weapons objects - chrematonyms (Tu–160 «Ilya Muromets»). The nominations of individual combat units can form armonymic complexes, for example, one of the Tu-160 strategic bombers of the White Swan series has an individual name «Nikolai Kuznetsov». In the process of the official naming of Russian high-tech combat units, the conventionally symbolic and commemorative principles of nomination traditionally occupy a central place. The composition of the armonym is dominated by the conditionally symbolic type of names, as a rule, not motivated by the properties of the named object (UAV «Geranium»), although some names retain an associative connection with the objects of the nomination (UAV «Lancet» – a high-precision kamikaze drone); the memorative type of names is characteristic of individual names of military vehicles (Tu-160 «Igor Sikorsky»). Official nominations occupy the main place in the Russian field of armonymy; however, some of the names may have an unofficial status, for example, the nicknames of the T-80BV tank Alyosha – «Ded Moroz», or «Ded». Armonyms are not a tool for the advertising promotion of weapons, they do not have an attractive and pragmatic function, however, the choice of words is far from accidental – in general, it reflects the symbolic value orientations of the nominating team.

Terminologization of Colouronyms of Metal and Mineral Etymological Origin: The Evolutionary Aspect

This paper is devoted to the study of French colouronyms and their terminologization in different subtypes of scientific discourse. The research is based on colouronyms of mineral origin “(jaune / vert / brun / rouge d’) andalousite” and “quartz (blanc / rose),” as well as those of metallic origin – “jaune d’or” and “jaune / vert de chrome.” The authors carry out an etymological analysis of all the above-mentioned lexical units and consider the main tendencies of the terminologization of words with the semantics of colour in French scientific discourse. The peculiarities of the terminologization of colouronyms of mineral origin are analysed in the chemistry and geology discourse subtypes, whereas trends in the use of colouronyms of mineral origin are presented in the chemistry and physics discourse subtypes.The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolutionary tendencies of the terminologization of French colouronyms in the subtypes of scientific discourse to describe their common and diverging properties at different levels, i.e. structural-semantic, morphological, and syntactic.The empirical material for the research comprises written scientific texts on chemistry(the Annales de chimie et de physique electronic archive of scientific journals), geology (the Planète-Terre electronic archive of scientific journals), and physics (the Futura Sciences electronic archive of scientific journals).The research methods employed include etymological, component, structural-semantic, morphological, and syntactic analyses.The terminologization of colouronyms is a long-term continuous evolutionary discursive process that can be observed in French scientific discourse from the nineteenth century until the present day. The authors investigate the evolutionary tendencies of colouronyms as emerging semantics of colour in lexemes that have not had it before, the development of new structural-semantic models, the increasing numbers of morphological categories of colour terms, the acquisition of new syntactic roles, and the gradual process of the semantic transformation of colouronyms. The transition of colouronyms from one subtype of scientific discourse into another while preserving the structural-syntactic forms and morphological and semantic categories indicates the correlation between the discursive subtypes and the convergence of their functional properties at different levels of the language system. Despite this interdiscursive connectedness, each of the subtypes manifests distinct boundaries, which can be revealed through the study of the semantic specificity of colouronyms and their terminologization in scientific discourse.Transl.: Volkova M.V. 2022. Terminologization of Colouronyms of Metal and Mineral Etymological Origin: The Evolutionary Aspect. Professional Discourse & Communication. 4(2). P. 45–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2022-4-2-45-65

Metaphorization and Metonimization as Tools of Semantic Derivation (Based on English Economics Textbooks)

This paper studies two types of indirect (secondary) nomination: simulative and indicative, taken extracts from English economics textbooks. The similative nomination is actualized through functional transfer, which is interpreted as a separate kind of metaphor termed “actional metaphor”. The analysis of indicative nomination is focused on metonymy and synecdoche (as a closely related device), which is conditioned by the same transfer principle on the basis of an essential attribute. The semantic derivates are considered in sentences representing such a logical form of thought as definition, which reveals the metaphoric and metonymic processes in the field of English economic terminology.Our analysis reveals the interrelations between models of terms and their functions as designators of target and source domains on the one hand, and types of cognitive metaphor (ontological and conceptual), on the other. The author comes to the conclusion that both types can have either simple or complex structures. Similarly, there are simple and complex metonymies. These are the peculiarities of this type of economic discourse from the point of view of semantic derivation. Another feature of economic discourse is the tendency towards the uniform secondary semiotic code when describing metaphorized terms.With regard to indicative secondary nomination, the main findings are as follows: the metonymic lexis is organized as a chain of oppositions: terms and nomens – terms – terms and common lexis – common lexis. The mechanism of forming “mixed” kinds of indirect nominations, i.e. metaphtonymy and synecdoche-metonymy, is revealed in the course of the contextual analysis. This leads the author to a hypothetical argument that it is the actional metaphor that underlies these mixed types of semantic derivatives.Both types of the secondary nomination have a systemic nature: metaphor is described in other system units; metonymies have a field structure and are actualised through specific oppositions. Transl.: Anokhina S.P. 2021. Metaphorization and Metonimization as Tools of Semantic Derivation (Based on English Economics Textbooks). Professional Discourse & Communication. 3(3). P. 65–82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2021-3-3-65-82

Verbalization of Criticism and Praise Intentions in German-Language Pedagogical Discourse

This paper deals with the peculiarities of the German-language pedagogical discourse, in particular teachers’ oral speech. Pedagogical discourse as a type of institutional discourse is characterised by a pronounced cultural component related to the differences in educational systems, traditions and modern practices of communicative interaction between teachers and students. The aim of the study is to analyse teachers’ evaluative and facilitative strategies, which are implemented in the speech acts of criticism and praise. The examples under review are borrowed from German-language speech resources that teachers in German schools are recommended to use in class. To thematically differentiate between the objects of praise and criticism of students the article is based on contextual analysis, which helps to describe the speech acts of praise and censure, using the procedure of detecting teachers’ intentions. The analysis of the grammatical and syntactic construction of the utterances makes it possible to determine the linguistic means of implementing praise and criticism in the German-language teacher discourse and to identify the corpus of linguistic means whose main function is to increase or decrease the semantic and emotional significance of the utterance components.Transl.: Glushak V. M., Mueller J. E., Kovac, M. 2021. Verbalization of Criticism and Praise Intentions in German-Language Pedagogical Discourse. Professional Discourse & Communication. 3(3). P. 52–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126- 2021-3- 3-52-64

“To Use This Word … Would Be Absurd”: How the Brainwashing Label Threatened and Enabled the Troubled-Teen Industry

From the early 1960s to the early 1990s, a range of concerns about “brainwashing” in youth reeducation programs obfuscated professional and political discourse, influencing key outcomes that shaped the development of the troubled-teen industry in the United States. The most significant historical developments related to this controversy involved three different youth programs. In response to accusations of “brainwashing,” program executives created elaborate counterarguments and public-relations campaigns. Instead of working to address inherent risks associated with therapeutic reeducation, the brainwashing label obscured the potential for harm and enabled an unethical teen program industry.

A vision of a more sustainable Slovakia in the light of participatory processes

The paper reflects the results of the ongoing discussion about sustainable development in Slovakia as an increasingly urgent topic resonating across scientific disciplines. Specifically, it deals with the participation processes, which were realized in 2022-2023 under the auspices of the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic (MIRRI), and the second part of which was implemented at the Institute of Management of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava using its expert and organizational capacities. The mentioned activities follow the strategic document entitled Vision and Development Strategy of Slovakia 2030 and are related to the preparation of the document Vision and Development Strategy of the Slovak Republic until 2050 – Slovakia 2050. In the light of the outputs from the participation processes, the paper deals, among other things, with the necessity of accelerating the transformation of regional economies from the industrial towards the post-industrial society, including sustainable innovation-oriented circular economy less dependent on raw materials and energy, with the simultaneous optimization of the system of decision-making and effective management, based on partnership and division of responsibilities between different levels and various actors of sustainable development. It also points out that discussions about this vision have the potential to significantly frame the creation of concepts of integrated territorial innovation-oriented clusters, the urgency of which - in parallel with the frustration of the ineffectiveness of fragmented development processes and activities - is felt at different levels by practically all participating subjects of the professional discourse analyzed in this paper. The results of the participation process fully confirm that Slovakia is not adequately prepared to respond to the challenges associated with all the necessary transformation processes.

Discourse Analysis of the impact of Short Videos on Public Design Awareness and Design Thinking

This paper delves into the context, content, and audience interaction of design-related short videos on Bilibili, examining their impact on design discourse. The study reveals that these short videos merge professional and popular design discourses, making design more accessible to the general public through unique narrative and visual methods. These videos not only provide design knowledge and technical demonstrations but also reflect a critique of fast-paced living and modern consumer culture. Through interactive features such as bullet comments and reviews, a diverse and interactive design discourse space has formed, where the boundaries between designers and viewers are increasingly blurred, facilitating the widespread dissemination of design concepts and innovative methods. Additionally, the platform's algorithms significantly influence the recommendation of video content, further shaping the paths of design discourse dissemination and audience reach. In summary, as a new media tool for design communication, design-related short videos not only broaden the audience for design but also promote the diverse development of design culture.

A scaffolded speaking and writing ELP course for commercial lawyers: An action research case study from an undergraduate law school in Istanbul

The author used action research to implement significant changes to an English for Specific Legal Purposes (ELP) course at a private university in Istanbul to meet the professional discourse needs of Turkish law students. The previous syllabus was focused on American Supreme Court case reports; however most of the students would mainly use English to advise on contracts in commercial law practice. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and genre analytical methodologies were used to develop pedagogy for the new syllabus, which was scaffolded so that students began learning the functional organization and lexico-grammatical properties of a contract before participating in an oral advice role play activity and writing a letter of advice about it to a hypothetical client. In conjunction with discussion of the pedagogical rationales for syllabus design and instructional activities, observations of student participation in the oral advice activity and feedback on a student example of the letter assessment are presented to critically reflect on the utility of this ELP course designed to help undergraduate law students to discursively function as lawyers, especially those learners from non-English speaking backgrounds, who need to communicate in English as the primary lingua franca for international legal practice.

The role of religious education in tertiary crime prevention

Aim: Since man is a being in search of meaning, religion can be defined as a way of ‘sacral search for meaning’ related to certain events in life. While sacrality is central to some people’s systems of meaning-seeking, it is marginal or not sacral at all in the systems of others. It is clear that religion can be an important guide for the individual, as it can influence one’s understanding of the world and make individual challenges and social conflicts understandable and bearable. As faith, in its mature developmental form, underpins the way religious people live their lives, the sacral search for meaning can also play a crucial role in one’s coping processes. However, the extent to which religion is involved in coping with a particular life event depends to a large extent on the extent to which it is part of an individual’s orientation system. The protective effect of religion in coping is a thesis already recognised by scientific psychology and therefore has an undisputed place in the scientific professional discourse on reintegration. The aim of this paper is to provide scientific evidence for the place and legitimacy of religion in reintegration.Methodology: The research is based on two sub-samples, one religious and one control group. Inclusion in the religious group was based on self-reporting, regardless of whether the subjects of the study had a religious experience in the life period prior to serving their sentence. The data were analysed using SPSS statistical software package.Findings: Juveniles in juvenile detention who self-reported being religious showed a different attitude towards conflict management compared to the control group. This suggests that a framework of cooperation between civil churches, the academic community and decision-makers in custodial institutions could be used to develop a diversified, faith-based reintegration model to increase the effectiveness of efforts to reduce crime.Value: The publication is a gap in the empirical study of religion-based reintegration. The topic is a practical one, but its full exploration requires further research.

Gendered organisational and professional discourses of emotions in ‘macho’ social work: ethnographic insights

ABSTRACT Drawing on empirical research this paper explores how gendered discourses position emotions and emotion practices in social work environments characterised as ‘macho’. It highlights the intersection of traditional emotion-reason dualism and gendered constructions of emotions with dominant hegemonic organisational and professional norms. This ethnographic study in an English Children’s Service explored how emotions were understood and used in practice. It identified essentialist negative beliefs and a paradoxical positioning of practitioners’ emotions alongside their constructive use. Problematic perceptions of professionalism fed into notions of conformity, heroism and transgression, devaluing engagement in agile emotion practices which underpin relationship-based systemic practice. Institutionalised dynamics created scope for differential impacts given practitioners’ status and social locations such as, gender, race, age, sexuality or status. These findings contribute new knowledge, relevant to humane social work, professionalism and workforce retention.

“The Past that doesn’t Pass”: National Socialism in the Memory Policy of the FRG and the Historical Policy of the GDR

The article provides a comparative analysis of the coverage of the legacy of National Socialism in the memory policy of the FRG and historical policy of the GDR and various commemorative practices. The author revealed the conceptual apparatus that is used in professional historiography and public discourse. Its various contents and features of use in different chronological periods were also determined in the article. The author considered numerous methodological approaches used by researchers of memory problems. The difference between the concepts of “memory policy” and “memory culture” in content is that the first term provides for a set of government measures to preserve memory, while the second term is broader and focuses on involving public institutions and society in the discussion of “memory” problems. The article shows the differences in the attitude to the National Socialist past in the FRG and the GDR on specific examples. The author paid attention to new approaches to the memory of the World War II in modern Germany, which has resulted from the processes of migration and the transformation of the country into a multicultural community. Two factors influence contemporary debates about the politics of memory in Germany: a) globalization, cultural transfer and migration, which exacerbate conflicts in nationally oriented memory politics. Like most countries in Western Europe, Germany is an immigration country, comprising a population that can’t longer be differentiated by nations and ethnic groups. Accordingly, historical memory refers less and less to national or ethnic historical foundations, as an ever-increasing proportion of the population has a second family origin and is therefore confronted with a past that lies beyond their ethnic beliefs; b) the Russian-Ukrainian war turned attention to the crimes of National Socialism during the Second World War (1939-1945) in Eastern Europe and Ukraine in particular.

Methodical ways of studying proper names in professional discourse while teaching a foreign language to the students of agrarian universities

This article considers the effectiveness of using proper names in teaching a professional foreign language English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to students of various agricultural specialties. In modern studying programs, almost no attention is paid to the study of the proper name, which occupies an essential place in the vocabulary of any language, reflecting important aspects of its history and culture development. Onomastics as a specific branch of linguistics has been formed at the cross point of several fields. The achievements of the regional onomastics determine the source of information relevant for foreign language teachers at the agrarian Universities. The study of writing and culture relicts, data from etymological dictionaries, local history and literature, research of groups of zoonyms, toponyms and anthroponyms determine the necessity of developing and applying new methodological techniques and technologies. All of the above determines the relevance of this article’s topic and defines its goals: to consider the effectiveness of using proper names when learning a foreign language applicable in professional activities; to present effective methodological techniques that contribute to the development of professional competencies. In preparing this article, such methods of scientific analysis and generalization were applied as descriptive, methods of etymological analysis, as well as elements of comparative and typological analysis.

Hospitality Discourse on Social Media: Evaluating Online Complaints and Service Recovery for Luxury Hotels

The number of hotel visitors who post their personal experiences on online hotel review forums after their trips has increased significantly in the digital age. However, there is limited linguistic research that examines 1) how international travelers communicate online to share their negative hotel experiences and 2) how luxury hotel management resolves complaints and regains customer trust. This study examines electronic word-of mouth (eWOM) in the reviews and focuses on posted by international travelers who stayed at Hong Kong's 5-star luxury hotels and e-replies posted by hotel management groups. The data are based on authentic reviews collected from an online travel review forum. The present study employs appraisal analysis (Martin & White, 2005) and specifically the engagement system to investigate heteroglossic voice in 38 sets of complex e-complaints and responses totaling 17,344 words. The findings contribute to the advancement of professional discourse in hospitality service encounters.

Evaluation of strategies in teaching legal discourse in “Professional Kazakh language” course

Relevance. Legal terminology and professional discourse acquisition are a part requirement set for law students when learning the Kazakh professional language. Purpose. The present paper aims at investigating and evaluating the effective strategies of teaching the Kazakh legal discourse to pre-service law students in the “Professional Kazakh language” class. This study also attempted to identify students' attitudes towards the course “Professional Kazakh language” the subject content of teaching Kazakh professional legal discourse and effective strategies of teaching legal discourse to develop communicative and professional competence of law students. Moreover, this paper has studied and analyzed the criteria for evaluating students learning outcomes, and stages of teaching legal discourse in “Professional Kazakh language” courses. The present study was done during the academic year 2020-2021 at the Faculty of Philology and Pedagogy, Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau University. “Professional Kazakh language” course took place twice a week and each class lasted 50 minutes. The participants had different ethnic backgrounds, Kazakh, Russian and Tatar. Methodology. The present study applied mixed methods to identify the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and students' performance. Data was collected from 52 volunteer participants, namely law students, both genders, of the course “Professional Kazakh language” by means of Google forms. Results. The results of the analysis showed that developing communicative skills and legal discourse for law students is considered one of the key requirements, and studying the Kazakh professional language course may provide future law specialists with necessary linguistic and communicative skills. The data collection was done through questionnaires and observation. Conclusions. The results showed that the participants perceive “Professional Kazakh language” courses to be very important for their study and future career and there seemed to be considerable motivation and interest in taking “Professional Kazakh language” courses and strengthen knowledge in the legal Kazakh language.