Discourse Style Research Articles

Douglas Biber and Bethany Gray: GRAMMATICAL COMPLEXITY IN ACADEMIC ENGLISH: LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN WRITING.

For at least two decades there has been a profusion of applied linguistics research on academic writing, inspired either by an interest in its language features or a quest for pedagogical effectiveness. A key issue is the identification of the grammatical and rhetorical complexity in academic discourse, as we can see in a wealth of influential works (e.g. Halliday and Martin 1993; Hyland 2004; Biber 2006). Little attention, however, has been given to diachronic changes in the language of academic writing. Thus Grammatical Complexity in Academic English: Linguistic Change in Writing is valuable reading for those applied linguists who are concerned with academic writing, discourse analysis, and changes in language over time. Based on large-scale corpus analysis, this book challenges stereotypical views about the grammatical complexity of academic writing, and its main theme is phrasal complexity and the discourse functions associated with it. From a synchronic perspective, the authors demonstrate how ‘academic written registers are unlike other registers in their reliance on phrasal complexity features rather than a clausal style of discourse’; from a diachronic perspective, more importantly, their study documents ‘linguistic innovations that have emerged in writing, especially science research writing’ (p. 39). Seven chapters revolve around this running theme. In Chapter 1, by problematizing the dominant stereotypes and assumptions of academic writing, the authors introduce the primary focus of their study. Chapter 2 spells out the corpus-based approach to linguistic analysis, as well as the specific corpora and analytical methods used in the study. Chapters 3–6 present the major findings of the research, with Chapters 3 and 4 on quantitative corpus findings, while Chapters 5 and 6 present more interpretive linguistic analyses. Chapter 7 summarizes the authors’ argument, leading into a discussion of applied implications.

Risking a Miracle: Transcendentally Oriented Improvisation and Catholic Charismatics’ Involvement in a Transylvanian Canonization

Anthropologists have begun to challenge the consensus that sainthood is not an operative factor in Charismatic Christianity, opening up space to re-examine how ritual and narrative shape habitual religious sensibilities. Through an ethnographic study of Transylvanian Catholic Charismatics’ search for miracles to aid a deceased Bishop’s canonization, I argue that canonization is driven by a form of adaptive ritualization and storytelling, which I call ‘transcendentally oriented improvisation’. In this mode, ritualization and storytelling are existential strategies by which subjects extrapolate styles of action and discourse into new situations to transcend disordered being-in-the-world. By engaging in improvisation, my acquaintances renewed a sense of existential potentiality put at risk. Studying transcendentally oriented improvisation draws attention to risk and indeterminacy as central aspects of the lived experience of canonization and other divine mediations. Transylvanian Charismatic Catholics’ involvement in canonization is also evidence that the global Charismatic movement is now integrating into mainstream Catholicism. Movement, memorialization, authority, and religious experience are the central points of contention shaping the outcome of this process.

Discourse and Period Style across the Arts

Discourse and Period Style across the Arts

Urban discourse – city space, city language, city planning: Eco-semiotic approaches to the discourse analysis of urban renewal

Sustainable Urban Planning has to be understood as a communicative process connecting city architecture, technology, city district management and social infrastructure of neighbourhoods. The focus on sustainability raises the question of the necessary discourse conditions that allow architects and city planners enter into a dialogue with other urban stakeholders, citizens, local administrators and politicians, and discuss which cultural heritage should be preserved and where sustainability takes precedence. Looking at the style of discourse in urban communication brings also its socio-cultural modalities into focus. At the intersection of communication and discourse studies, urban ecology and sociology, the article focuses on the growing interest in architectural communication and, taking current approaches as a starting point, seeks to clarify which conversational maxims and discourse requirements by mediation, moderation, and integration are promising for achieving a new urban quality.

Introduction of ClIl approach in Sociological Doctoral Programmes: The Ethnolinguistic focus on theses written in Russian or in English

For a long time, the assumption prevailed that all scientific texts should conform to a common academic style. Then some papers started to emphasise the specificity of a discourse into scientific disciplines. Now, under the influence of globalization and the shift to teaching in the lingua franca languages, there is a question about the peculiarities of a national style of academic discourse. The article continues a series of studies in the field of sociological discourse and its changing after the introduction of SFL-based CLIL approach in non-western sociological doctoral programmes. The current paper is focusing specifically on tools for the structuring of science written discourse that are significantly different in different cultures. The research is interdisciplinary since it is performed at the intersection of sociology and ethnolinguistics. The method is an analysis of discourse markers as one of the widely recognized approaches in ethnolinguistics to the identification of differences in scientific writing in Russian and English. Data collected from doctoral theses in Russian and in English from the field of sociology. It is shown that the average number of discourse markers at 1000 words-3.89 in Russian theses and 1.75 in doctoral theses written in English. The authors suggest that these variations are associated with the structure and goals of a scholarly paper. English academic genres are more empirical, whereas Russian focused on the development of theory. The results of the study clarify the reasons for refusal of Russian professors of scientific advising in English, and their negative attitude towards the English-speaking model of a thesis, traditional for Western science.

The plain style in early anti-slavery discourse: Reassessing the rhetorical beginnings of Quaker and Puritan advocacy

ABSTRACTThe two earliest public protests against slavery in British North America—the Germantown Quakers’ petition and Samuel Sewall’s The Selling of Joseph—are primarily discussed as rhetorical failures and have been largely reduced to entries on an anti-slavery timeline. The texts are further diminished for their lack of intensity compared with later abolitionist discourses. This essay reassesses these germinal protests as dynamic texts that engage and challenge two distinct conceptualizations of the plain style. In so doing, the texts and the plain style are both given renewed significance in the rhetorical history of the anti-slavery movement.

Translating National Ideology in China English －A Diachronic Investigation of Beijing Review

As an expanding circle variety, the distinctive features of China English have been identified as: idiom transfers, loan translations of political terms, connotation changes, semantic shifts, and the orientalized style of discourse. While its characteristics are agreed upon by most researchers, China English does not always display these characteristics to the same extent. A Comparison of articles in Beijing Review (the first English weekly news magazine in the PRC for international consumption) over the years of 1958-2015 shows both endonormative (towards the “Chinese” characteristics) and exonormative (towards “international English”) movements. In general, earlier issues, especially those during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) are more “marked” than recent ones. It is argued that the shaping and re-shaping of China English is a reflection of the changing political, ideological and economic priorities of the nation.

Contextualizing poverty and culture; towards a social economy of community centered knowledge based development

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the critical interrelationships between poverty, culture and knowledge-based community development.Design/methodology/approach– The traditional approaches to the management of poverty such as infrastructure, literacy and economic aid have failed to deliver and ameliorate the lot of common people. The current paper engages in critical constructivist discourse on poverty as unfolding in the era of knowledge economy and seeks to propose a community focussed knowledge-based development model of human economic and social uplift. This model has three dimensions: community knowledge focus, interactions of local, regional and global knowledge shaping and influencing poverty management and finally collective responsibility (collective commitment) of groups to rid them of poverty trap.Findings– First, this paper looks at the social interconnections of poverty, culture and knowledge-based development in a critical discourse context. Second, it discusses the alternative worldviews of economic development. Third, it questions current epistemological and sociological assumptions of development paradigm.Originality/value– The paper looks at the issues of poverty, culture and economic development from a critical pluralistic epistemological standpoint. It also questions some of the prescriptive methods of development by poverty experts. It also proposes to effectively explore and integrate different cognitive styles in development discourse and their usefulness and relevance to global development discourse.

Developer Discourse: Exploring Technical Communication Practices within Video Game Development

ABSTRACTThis study examines the discourse style of managers, developers, engineers, and artists working for an independent game development studio. Fourteen employees were interviewed, and then the results were coded and analyzed using an exploratory, single-case case study methodology. The authors argue that the texts, tactics, and technologies used by these professionals reveal insights into the practical, outcome-oriented dimensions of technical communication within the games industry as well as deeper cultural characteristics of this community.

# Living/minimum wage: Influential citizen talk in twitter

There has been a major cultural shift away from ׳passive׳consumption to more active production of digital texts by citizens. Yet,this does not mean that we all participate in digital media in the same ways and for the same reasons. Nor does it mean that we all have the same level of access to digital networks. This article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the diversity and fluidity of citizen participation in digital environments by examining the discourse style of a particular group of digital users, namely citizens whose contributions become crowdsourced to prominence in microblogging. We refer to this form of citizen participation as ׳influential׳, in as much as the discourse of these citizens attracts inordinate levels of attention and can trigger social contagion. We conduct a Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of a corpus of tweets posted by a group of citizens who emerge as ׳influential׳ within a Twitter debate about the minimum/living wage. Our analysis reveals that their discourse style is characterised by (i) limited content originality but a high participation rate; (ii) a continuum of thematic engagement; (iii) high levels of emotionality; and (iv) a preference towards stance-taking acts that convey full confidence in one׳s views.

Party Thresholds for Registration and Resources—Mechanical Hurdles or Promoting Genuine Political Discourse

Minimum membership thresholds are commonly used in democracies as a criterion for political party registration. These thresholds can have the empowering quality of showing a specified level of popular support for a party and/or its ideology, policies, or leader, but are often a simple mathematical test for a new party, without requirements for political activism or internal party democracy. Thresholds for registration, and/or for access to state resources, impact on the style and scope of political discourse in a democracy, and can also be used as a mechanism to limit political competition. This article provides an international focus centering on three countries. Two countries, Australia and New Zealand, are developed democracies with well-established regulatory regimes. The third country, Papua New Guinea, provides a contrast as a developing democracy attempting to strengthen its party system through regulation. The article provides a comparative analysis of the mechanical nature of membership thresholds, and of further thresholds that impact on parties' ability to be part of the national political narrative.

Promoting sovereignty, rapping mshkiki (medicine): a critical (Anishinaabeg) reading of rapper Tall Paul's ‘prayers in a song’

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes Leech Lake Anishinaabe rapper Tall Paul's ‘Prayers in a Song.' The essay explores these questions: In what ways do Indigenous people use hip-hop to articulate ideas of sovereignty? Through hip-hop, how do Native artists challenge the ideas of authenticity and the modern/traditional binary? Located at the nexus between hip-hop studies and Indigenous studies, this essay argues that, by using both Indigenous and Black discourse styles, Tall Paul is able to assert Indigenous sovereignty. Indigenous artists challenge the idea of ‘authenticity' and the modern/traditional binary by constructing new meanings of what it means to be Indigenous in the twenty-first century. The essay focuses on three major themes. First, it analyzes how hip-hop challenges the modern/traditional binary; second, rapping in Anishinaabemowin is a political project that expresses Indigenous sovereignty; and, finally, hip-hop serves as an avenue through which Indigenous people can reclaim urban spaces, where mainstream society continues to render them invisible.

Poverty, affluence and the Socratic method: Parents' questions versus statements within collaborative problem-solving

Parents' rhetorical questions to preschoolers are ubiquitous within collaborative problem-solving, and central to Vygotskian pedagogy. This perspective privileges questions as a discourse structure, important for emergent metacognitive self-regulation. Few studies investigate effects of poverty on parents' collaborative talk, particularly frequency of questions relative to statements, or factors such as parenting-stress and children's language ability. Analyses of 25 parents' scaffolding language during a construction task revealed suppressed questioning among low-SES parents, and among only those High-SES parents reporting high parenting stress. Correlations controlling for child age and language ability revealed associations between parenting stress and less frequent questioning as a discourse style. Discussion focuses on the question of how exposure to rhetorical questions helps children internalize language as a thinking tool.

Satan in Dialogue with God: A Comparative Study between Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism

This analytical, library-based article compares dialogues between God and Satan in the Qurʾan with other literature from Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. The mysterious personality of Satan and his direct influence on the life of man has long been the focus of investigation. On some occasions, Satan has conversed with God and, since man was created, Satan, as a interlocutor, has been an adventurer and has played an important and controversial role. This article is a comparative study that aims to examine the personality of Satan through his role as a speaker involved in dialogue with God during the story of man’s creation, and to shed light on the style of discourse used by God in His dialogue with Satan. Furthermore, the article discusses crucial events, notions, and structures appearing within the dialogue. Hence, the study reveals that the appointment of Satan as a vengeful enemy in the dialogue is the turning point in the fate of man, a story embedded in literature of Zoroastrianism and in the Qurʾan. It also shows that the polemic and arrogant discourses of Satan, quoted in all the literature of these religions in diverse forms, resulted in horrible consequences. Moreover, Satan’s casting out from heaven was a crucial event and one of the results of his words identified in both the Qurʾan and Judeo-Christian literature. To help future research on related issues, this study also highlights all the dialogues that involve God and Satan in the literature of the mentioned religions.

Integrating Language, Pragmatics, and Social Intervention in a Single-Subject Case Study of a Child With a Developmental Social Communication Disorder

This clinical focus article presents an illustration of a complex communication intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP), as delivered to a child who has a social communication disorder (SCD). The SCIP intervention combined language processing and pragmatic and social understanding therapies in a program of individualized therapy activities and in close liaison with families. The study used an enhanced AB single-subject design in which an 8-year-old child with an SCD participated in 20 therapy sessions with a specialist speech-language pathologist. A procedure of matching assessment findings to intervention choices was followed to construct an individualized treatment program. Examples of intervention content and the embedded structure of SCIP are illustrated. Observational and formal measurements of receptive and expressive language, conversation, and parent-teacher ratings of social communication were completed before therapy, after therapy, and at a 6-month follow-up session. Outcomes revealed change in total and receptive language scores but not in expressive language. Conversation showed marked improvement in responsiveness, appreciation of listener knowledge, turn taking, and adaptation of discourse style. Teacher-reported outcomes included improved classroom behavior and enhanced literacy skills. Parent-reported outcomes included improved verbal interactions with family members and personal narratives. This clinical focus article demonstrates the complexity of needs in a child with an SCD and how these can be addressed in individualized intervention. Findings are discussed in relation to the essential nature of language support including pragmatic therapy for children with SCDs. Discussion of the role of formal and functional outcome measurement as well as the proximity of chosen outcomes to the intervention is included.

Leadership Graduate Degree Programs: A Comparative Review and Analysis of Value Propositions

AbstractThe language used in program descriptions of graduate leadership programs on college and university websites are first attempts at enticing prospective students to consider enrolling. The descriptions invariably include value propositions about the benefits of a particular program, aimed to appeal to readers’ motivations, couched in one of three discourse styles: Formal Impersonal, Formal Personal, and Informal Personal styles. Program descriptions, a de facto rhetorical genre, and demographics of all 154 master's degree programs in Organizational Leadership in existence as of January 2014 are analyzed, using a systematic discourse analysis typology which explored the ways in which value propositions were presented. Four questions concerning discourse types, the kinds of value propositions, the relationship between rankings of universities and kinds of value propositions and discourse types, intrinsic (meaning) and extrinsic (utility) appeals are answered. Detailed cross‐sectional comparative analysis of leadership master's degree programs are also presented.

Editors' Notes

Summer has ended and fall is around the corner. Many of our readers find themselves in the middle of the academic semester. The current issue of the Journal of Leadership Studies contains articles that may take us back to our philosophical foundations. Sprinkled throughout the articles we will find references to St. Anslem, ontology, self, Nisbet, Existential–Experiential, Metaxy, Rogers, Voegelin, Nietzsche, Maslow, Heidegger, and more. Our authors implore us to consider how philosophical traditions can challenge us as leaders or may shape us as leaders. In our lead article, Existential–Experiential View of Self-Sourced (In)Authentic Healthcare Identity, the concept of self is used to frame leadership in healthcare professionals. Although the framework provided by Koskiniemi, Perttula, and Syväjärvi is focused on healthcare professionals (i.e., doctors and nurses), the authors argue that their framework is applicable to leadership in any field (e.g., law, social work) where leaders possess a strong professional identity. Stork, Grant, and Darmo in the second feature article (Leadership Graduate Degree Programs: A Comparative Review and Analysis of Value Propositions) provide an extensive examination and analysis of the discourse styles found on graduate leadership programs’ websites to communicate to potential students the “value” of the program. History in the Study of Leadership is the focus of the symposium. Guest symposium editor Nathan Harter has assembled a variety of articles and authors that explore the context of history on leadership, the intersection of history and leadership, and the role history can play in leadership. Harter argues in his introduction that history is of “greatest importance to the study of leadership.” His article explicates the role and intersection between history and leadership. The second article by Tim Blessing provides an Anselmian argument for the use of history in leadership studies. Blessing uses the logic of St. Anselm's ontological proof for the existence of God to argue that leadership studies has no choice but to deal with a history that “imprisons us” as an “inescapable matrix.” Harter's second article introduces Robert Nisbet's thoughts about history and social change. Harter cautions leadership scholars that history has its own nuances, so that when using history to understand leadership one must be careful to take into account those nuances. The role of history, the understanding of history, and the need to reflect on history is essential for leaders according to Thomas in his article Eric Voegelin, Reflexive Distance, and Harnessing the Benefits of Metaxy: The Leader's Imperative to Participate in History and Becoming. Thomas argues that understanding these aspects of history will provide a leader “a deeper understanding of a person's place in society.” The last two articles of the symposium examine the use of history in training military leaders and the examination of leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Williams offers his robust insights into the “staff ride,” a technique used to train military leaders to take into account the historical aspects of war and its impact on leadership. Chace's article on leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis frames President Kennedy's leadership through the frameworks of historical consciousness (Voegelin) and adaptive leadership (Heifetz). As you can see, this issue of the Journal of Leadership Studies offers significant depth and breadth in its topics. We think this issue of the journal offers readers unique articles that do indeed bring us back to our philosophical foundations.

TRIANGULATING SOME DISCOURSE-RELATED ISSUES IN INDONESIAN EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS WRITTEN NARRATIVES

This paper attempts to document how the notion of discourse was made sense of by EFL teachers from the U.S.A. and by me as an Indonesian who read and commented on 16 narratives written by four male and four female pre-service/student teachers. While the Americans tended to focus on the superficial content and textual organizations, I have found it crucial to appreciate the themes, styles, and philosophies these pre-service teachers presented in their narratives. First, the themes were clustered, thus showing how one pedagogical story relates to or differs from another. Second, the styles of arranging thoughts indicate how Indonesian teachers in this study were overall more indirect so the American readers assumed more responsibility to decipher their implied meanings. From my perspective, however, the salient discourse style is that of philosophizing. In essence, the philosophies in several narratives reflect traces of the ongoing process of believing what these teachers did or practiced as prospective teachers or as colleagues.

“Or so the government would have you believe”: Uses of “you” in Guardian editorials

Although second person pronouns are relatively unusual in formal written genres, they are frequent in the editorials of some newspapers. This has been associated with ongoing trends towards a more informal style of public discourse, and with the construction of more equal relationships between writers and readers, which may be either ideologically or economically motivated. This analysis of all the instances of “you” in Guardian editorials for 2011 brings to light several different ways in which the writer employs the second person. Although the primary motivation appears to be epideictic, in that the writer seeks to forge strong bonds with the readership and thereby strengthen the sense of communion and shared values, some other uses are identified, including dramatisation and irony. This leads on to consideration of the type of reader constructed by these uses of “you”, and the relationships projected between writer/newspaper, reader, and other entities.

Learning from reading argumentive group discussions in Facebook: Rhetoric style matters (again)

We explore the potential of learning from reading discussions in social network settings. Undergraduates were asked to read an argumentive discussion between students of a closed, course-related Facebook group. The discussion revolved around a social-economic-ethical, ‘hot’ topic of debate and contained several links to online resources in support of the discussants’ opinions. Based on previous research on argumentive discourse style, two different online discussions were created to reflect either a disputative or deliberative discourse goal, while controlling for all other verbal content. Students in a control condition only received the links to the same online resources, without the discussions. Following the reading phase, declarative knowledge on the topic was significantly lower in the disputative discourse condition, but no differences were found between the deliberative argumentation and the control condition. Reading behavior measures (time-on-task, time spent reading the online information resources, number of online information sources, time spent reading the discussion) could not account for the differences in knowledge performance. A program for future research is outlined to explore the effects of learning through reading discussions, the role of argumentive style, and the affective and cognitive processes underlying them.