Respectus Philologicus
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The Subversion of the Meanings of Food Tropes in Salman Rushdie’s Novel “Midnight’s Children”
Full text linkThe article investigates the subversion of the meanings of food tropes in Salman Rushdie’s novel “Midnight’s Children”. The research is carried out within the theoretical framework of Postethnic Narrative Criticism, which postulates that historical and political contexts are relevant for understanding and interpreting the postethnic literary work; however, literature should not be perceived as an accurate representation of reality outside the world of fiction or interpreted as such. The article provides an analysis of the key connotations of the tropes in the description of Doctor Aziz and his family, emphasizing that food-related tropes are restricted to the private life of the characters discussed and are mainly associated with female characters. In portraying the Azizes’ children, the initial meanings of the tropes are subverted and undermined. The process of subversion is determined by societal changes which impact the main characters’ public and private lives
The Rhetorical Impact of Polylingualism Employed by Lithuanian Politicians on Facebook
Full text linkThe aim of the research presented in this article aims to determine the impact of polylingualism on the effectiveness of political rhetoric in Lithuania. The study focuses on elements borrowed from other languages and used by Lithuanian politicians in their Facebook posts. In addition, the motivation behind such use is explored, aiming to establish whether polylingualism is part of a conscious effort of political communication in order to build a positive image. Within the scope of this research are Facebook posts containing cases of polylingualism, specifically, English-language inserts. The authors of these posts are prominent politicians who are native Lithuanian speakers engaged in active communication on social media. Collected during the period of 2018–2021, the research material was examined using the method of rhetorical discourse analysis, resulting in the identification of characteristic instruments of persuasion, i.e. the tools which help enhance the effectiveness of certain discourse. The researchers aimed to determine the general patterns and dominant tendencies of mixed speech within the political discourse on social media. The research reveals the use of polylingualism as a stylistic tool imitating informal speaking and creating contextual discourse
Insulting Rhetorical Questions – Mitigators or Amplifiers?
Full text linkThe paper examines whether rhetorical questions (RQs) with insulting content or implications soften or intensify the insulting content that they express, as compared to corresponding direct statements with similar insulting content. The analysis is based on the results of two online surveys conducted among 276 Bosnian university students (182 and 94, respectively), who evaluated, in regard to their offensiveness, two sets of RQs and corresponding statements with insulting content or implications. Three types of insulting RQs were included in the surveys: insulting RQs without explicitly offensive terms, insulting RQs that incorporate derogatory words, and sarcastic RQs with insulting implications. The expected results were that: a) in line with Frank’s (1990) account of strengthening effects of RQs as their primary function, insulting RQs, with or without derogatory words, will function as amplifiers, and sound more offensive than corresponding declaratives; and b) sarcastic RQs, following Dews and Winner’s (1995) account of softening effects of sarcastic utterances, will function as mitigators, as compared to non-sarcastic declaratives with insulting content. The obtained results indicate that the first hypothesis cannot be verified (in spite of some indications that slight amplifying effects do exist), and the second hypothesis is completely rejected, with some likelihood that the opposite could be true
Transgressive Character of the Femme Fatale Image in Oles Ulianenko’s Novel “Seraphim”
Full text link The article is dedicated to one of the most talented and the most controversial modern Ukrainian writers Oles Ulianenko. However, his literary works did not receive the appropriate professional interpretation because the literary scholars and critics applied either the erroneous or unproductive professional methodology for many objective and subjective reasons. As a result, the writer’s works remain unread or read in an arguable way. Taking one of the most contentious novels of O. Ulianenko’s “Seraphim” as an example for analysis, the aim of this article is to suggest an alternative variant of theoretical and literary analysis based on the corporal-mimetic method to interpret fiction works. Due to the chosen approach, it is possible to draw the conclusion that the image of Seraphim is the image which only seemingly claims the status of the femme fatale; actually, the content of this image is а constant overcoming social, property, status, space, gender, corporal, sexual and other rules and norms. It says about overcoming in order to overcome, about complete overcoming which can be stopped only by death which, being unmotivated, is another variant of phenomenal, namely feminine transgression
Self-Repair Practices in Pharmacist-Patient Interaction and their Role in Preventing Misunderstanding and Maintaining Medication Safety
Full text linkEffective communication between pharmacists and patients can prevent medication errors as it enhances patients’ understanding of their medication and increases their adherence. As misunderstanding may occur in any type of interaction and lead to communication breakdown, repair practices that speakers adopt to enhance understanding in interaction are an especially important area of research in Conversation Analysis (CA). As such, this study aims to identify and explain the self-repair practices used by pharmacists to increase patient understanding in spoken interaction. The study was conducted at the University of Malaya Medical Centre from November to December 2014. Four pharmacists and 27 patients were recruited to participate in an intervention study. A detailed sequential analysis of interaction data revealed the pharmacists’ use of replacement, clarification, verbatim repeat, and repetition with an elaboration designed to increase the clarity and accuracy of the intended message and improve patient understanding. Self-repair practices may have an essential role in increasing medication safety in the healthcare setting
Translating Arabic Poetic Riddles into English: An Approach in Qualitative Studies
Full text linkA riddle is a question that usually occurs in prose and poetic form. The composition of poetic riddles is complicated since it encompasses trick structure of English utterances that require more efforts and deep thinking on the part of readers to reach the intention of the riddle maker. The present study investigated the interpretation of utterances in poetic riddles when translated into English. The main objective was to extend the tricky utterances in poetic riddles to obtain the intention of the riddle maker through translation. To achieve this target, a Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1986; 1995) was adopted to cognitively interpret how the poetic riddles worked through translation. Then, Bach’s (1994) Ambiguity was also used to explain the meaning that fell under a word, phrase or even a statement. Finally, Gutt’s (1991; 1998; 2000) notion on the directness and indirectness of the interpretation was employed. Overall, the results showed that Arabic poetic riddles included ambiguous words as well as implicit meanings that require decoding to gain the intent word made by the riddle maker. Furthermore, Arabic poetic riddles are full of attribute words to help getting the intent word. 
Distribution of Terms Across Genres in the Annotated Lithuanian Cybersecurity Corpus
Full text linkThe paper provides results of the frequential distribution analysis of cybersecurity terms used in the Lithuanian cybersecurity corpus composed of texts of different genres. The research focuses on the following aspects: overall distribution of cybersecurity terms (their density and diversity) across genres, distribution of English and English-Lithuanian terms and their usage patterns in Lithuanian sentences, and, finally, the most frequent cybersecurity terms and their thematic groups in each genre. The research was performed in several stages: compilation of a cybersecurity corpus and its subdivision into genre-specific subcorpora, manual annotation of cybersecurity terms, automatic lemmatisation of annotated terms and, finally, quantitative analysis of the distribution of the terms across the subcorpora. The results reveal the similarities and differences of the use of cybersecurity terminology across genres which are important to consider to get a complete picture of terminology usage trends in this domain
St. Hedwig of Silesia: The Ducal Ideal of a Wife in Light of 15th-century “Sermones de sancta Hedwigis”
Full text linkA collection of 15th-century Latin sermons for the day of St. Hedwig of Silesia (“Sermones de s. Hedwigis”) constitutes the source material for an analysis of matrimonial role models and the ideal of a wife (uxor) in medieval culture. The collection includes 84 sermons about St. Hedwig, preserved in 45 codes of Silesian provenance. The corpus of sermons on St. Hedwig is supplemented by 61 edited versions of “Vita sanctae Hedvigis” written in 47 manuscripts. The present article includes an analysis of St. Hedwig as a married woman, the ideal of a pious wife avoiding the pleasures of the flesh and observing moral norms in marriage, above all in sexual relations. 
Chosen Keywords in the Discourse of British Politicians on Brexit: A Pragmatic Analysis
Full text linkThe aim of the article was to select and analyze keywords concerning central Brexit-related themes found in chosen speeches delivered in the years 2013–2021 by politicians from three British parties: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Brexit Party. The decision regarding Brexit had been made as a result of the referendum in which a slight majority of British citizens had voted for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to leave the EU. Via a pragmatic analysis conducted with the help of the program AntConc on a sample of one hundred transcripts of chosen speeches from sources such as the official UK government website and media websites, two keywords that played a crucial role in the discourse on Brexit were chosen, namely leave and remain. They appeared in the speeches of members of all three parties mentioned above. In their rhetorical and persuasive speeches delivered before the referendum, the politicians tried to convince the British society to support Brexit or be against it. In their speeches given after the referendum, they accented, e.g., that the decision made by the majority of the voters needs to be honoured
