1,721,341 research outputs found
Pragmatic relevance/strength of lexico–grammar choices in EU legal documents
No full textThe present study focuses on the communicative relevance of lexical choices in the documents of
the European Union Committee of the Regions (CoR) and of other related bodies within a pragmalinguistic
perspective. The function of the Committee of the Regions is to issue opinions on proposals for Community
legislation which are closest to the citizen interests – education, youth, culture, health. It is thus a voice at the
heart of the EU which aims at increasing the participation of European regions in community life. Our corpus
consists in 100 documents (Proposals and Opinions) whose lexico-grammatical aspects and communicative/
rhetorical strategies are here investigated. Our hypothesis is that such texts aim at creating a holistic we to
construe a common ground of interests, within the constraints of legal intercourses, shared by both the sender and
the receiver of the messages. Frequently occurring lexical items are: welcome, ensure, strengthen, aid. To stress
urgency, generate empathy, emphasize needs and endorse value-positions are the recognizable perlocutionary
effects of such semantic/pragmatic choices. Tools for analysis were taken from the domain of pragmalinguistics,
from Evaluative/Appraisal Frameworks and, also, from social sciences. Particularly relevant appeared the notion
of ‘advocacy’ (i.e., when researchers are asked to use their expertise to defend the subjects’ interests in healthcare,
education, political rights, and cultural autonomy). This study will provide both qualitative and quantitative data
to support our hypothesis, and will offer suggestions for further research
Opioids and mechanical ventilation.
No full textIn last years opioids have been increasingly utilized to sedate patients during mechanical ventilation. First, in Hypnotic Based Sedation (HBS), they were added to hypnotics because of their analgesic properties. Successively, in Analgesic Based Sedation (ABS), both sedative and analgesic properties were utilized and opioids were given alone; hypnotics were added only if adequate sedation was not achieved at maximum dosage. Apart from their analgesic and sedative properties, opioid effects on respiratory function are of particular value in many mechanically-ventilated patients. Dose-dependent inhibition of respiratory drive may usefully prevent spontaneous breathing during controlled ventilation, particularly when permissive hypercapnia is applied, or decrease excessive respiratory rate during assisted or noninvasive ventilation. Even cough inhibition can be valuable in some conditions, for instance, during respiratory weaning and endotracheal tube removal in patients that should not cough because of a recent tracheal resection. On the other hand, excessive respiratory depression may cause hypoventilation and apnea during assisted or spontaneous ventilation and lengthens the weaning process. In order to take advantage from positive effects and to avoid negative ones, opioid dosage should be thoroughly titrated. On this basis remifentanil has become increasingly popular as the opioid agent most suitable for ABS because of its unique, favorable pharmacokinetics
Pragmatic relevance of lexico-grammar choices in EU legal documents
No full textThe present study focused on the communicative
relevance of lexical choices in the documents of the European Union Committee of the Regions (CoR) and of other related bodies
within a pragmalinguistic perspective. The Committee of the Regions is a EU advisory assembly whose function is to issue opinions on proposals for Community legislation which are closest to the citizen interests. It is thus a voice at the heart of the EU
which aims at increasing the participation of European regions in community life. Our corpus consists in 50 documents pertaining
in areas affecting local and regional interests, such as education, youth, culture, health, social and economic cohesion. They are
classified as proposals, opinions and recommendations according to their identities, which are situated along a graded cline of
increasing intensity – or, in Sbisà’s terms (2001) along a scale of varying ‘illocutionary force and degrees of strength in language
use’. Our analysis investigated the value of some lexico-grammatical aspects and communicative/ rhetorical strategies of these
legal texts within the reference Group Knowledge (van Dijk 2001). In particular we examined the functions of weasel words, of
lexico-grammar options and of solidarity or hedging along a cost-benefit scale. Our hypothesis is that such proposals, opinions
and recommendations aim at creating a holistic we to construe a common ground of interests, within the predictable constraints of
legal intercourses, shared by both the sender and the receiver of the messages. Frequently occurring lexical items are, among
others: welcome, ensure, strengthen, aid. To stress urgency, generate empathy, emphasize needs and endorse value-positions are
the recognizable perlocutionary acts of such semantic/pragmatic choices, which not infrequently rely on nominalization (Gotti
1991) and bring into play different communicative purposes and functions. Tools for analysis were mainly taken from the domain
of pragmalinguistics, which revisited fundamental contributions to the theory of meaning and communication by Wittgenstein
1953, Austin , 1962, Searle 1969, Leech 1983, Grice 1989, providing a comprehensive perspective (Mey 1993; Verschueren
1999, 2006). When necessary, such tools were partially ‘blended’ with additional instruments from other Evaluative/Appraisal
frameworks (Hunston & Thompson 2000; Martin & White 2005). Our paper will provide both qualitative and quantitative data to
support our hypothesis, and will offer suggestions for further research
Testing Pragmatic Language Disorders: a culturally-sensitive assessment
No full textRecent years have seen a growing in interest in the application of pragmatic aspects of communication in the
area of language disorders. This has led to the development of a range of different methods of screening to
investigate the subject’s ability to understand and produce different types of communicative acts, in order to
assess the disordered language of both children and adults. Yet, pragmatic language disorders (PLDs) remain
difficult to diagnose, though an early diagnosis in children can quickly ensure the identification of language
problems that could severely interfere with learning. Tests are generally designed to assess six core
subcomponents of pragmatic language: physical setting, audience, topic, purpose (speech acts), visual-gestural
cues, and abstraction. Since the major deficits in pragmatic communication refer to qualitative impairments in
social interaction and communication, standardized measures may not be appropriate to the all racial and ethnic
populations. Hence, the impact of culture/s with respect to how the diagnosis of this language disorder is made
cannot be ignored: the kinds of behaviors thought to be the very deficits that define the disorder may in fact vary
from culture to culture. Applying the same criteria to every child is not only a culturally insensitive choice, but
could also result in serious misclassification of symptoms, since the way in which a child does or does not
respond in specific social situations may very well be mediated by cultural factors. Actually, the dearth of
information on cultural differences in the diagnosis and the perception of these language disorders (whatever
their etiology) does not allow an easy assessment of symptoms for children of different cultures. In a broad
critical discourse analysis perspective, our study aims at investigating a selection of widely used different
screening measures in Italy and English-speaking countries, and at evaluating how cross-cultural differences
may impact on perceptions of PLDs.
Key words: pragmatic language disorders (PLDs), pragmatic language testing, culturally-sensitive screening
measures
Provisional References
Daley, T. (2002). The need for cross-cultural research on the pervasive developmental disorders. Transcultural
Psychiatry, 39(4), 531-550.
Danseco, E. R. (1997). Parental beliefs on childhood disability: Insights on culture, child development and
intervention. International Journal of Disability and Development, 44, 41-52. Directory of Speech-Language
Pathology Assessment Instruments Introduction. http://www.asha.org/SLP/assessment/Assessment-
Introduction/
Hoffmann et al. (2013) Pragmatic Language Assessment in Williams Syndrome. American Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology, 22, 198-204.
Lau, A. S., Garland, A. F., Yeh, M., McCabe, K. M., Wood, P. A., & Hough, R. L. (2004). Race/ethnicity and interinformant
agreement in assessing adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral
Disorders, 12(3), 145-156.
Mandell, D. S., Listerud, J., Levy, S. E., & Pinto-Martin, J. A. (2002). Race differences in the age at diagnosis among
medicaid-eligible children with autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
41(12), 1447-1453.
Mio, J. S., Barker-Hackett, L., & Tumambing. J. (2006). What is multicultural psychology? In Multicultural
psychology: Understanding our diverse communities (pp. 1-32). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Rutter, M. L., Kreppner, J. M., & O’Conner, T. G. (2001). Specificity and heterogeneity in children’s responses to
profound institutional privation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 97-103
Testing Pragmatic Language Disorders: a culturally-sensitive assessment
No full textRecent years have seen a growing in interest in the application of pragmatic aspects of communication in the
area of language disorders. This has led to the development of a range of different methods of screening to
investigate the subject’s ability to understand and produce different types of communicative acts, in order to
assess the disordered language of both children and adults. Yet, pragmatic language disorders (PLDs) remain
difficult to diagnose, though an early diagnosis in children can quickly ensure the identification of language
problems that could severely interfere with learning. Tests are generally designed to assess six core
subcomponents of pragmatic language: physical setting, audience, topic, purpose (speech acts), visual-gestural
cues, and abstraction. Since the major deficits in pragmatic communication refer to qualitative impairments in
social interaction and communication, standardized measures may not be appropriate to the all racial and ethnic
populations. Hence, the impact of culture/s with respect to how the diagnosis of this language disorder is made
cannot be ignored: the kinds of behaviors thought to be the very deficits that define the disorder may in fact vary
from culture to culture. Applying the same criteria to every child is not only a culturally insensitive choice, but
could also result in serious misclassification of symptoms, since the way in which a child does or does not
respond in specific social situations may very well be mediated by cultural factors. Actually, the dearth of
information on cultural differences in the diagnosis and the perception of these language disorders (whatever
their etiology) does not allow an easy assessment of symptoms for children of different cultures. In a broad
critical discourse analysis perspective, our study aims at investigating a selection of widely used different
screening measures in Italy and English-speaking countries, and at evaluating how cross-cultural differences
may impact on perceptions of PLDs.
Key words: pragmatic language disorders (PLDs), pragmatic language testing, culturally-sensitive screening
measures
Provisional References
Daley, T. (2002). The need for cross-cultural research on the pervasive developmental disorders. Transcultural
Psychiatry, 39(4), 531-550.
Danseco, E. R. (1997). Parental beliefs on childhood disability: Insights on culture, child development and
intervention. International Journal of Disability and Development, 44, 41-52. Directory of Speech-Language
Pathology Assessment Instruments Introduction. http://www.asha.org/SLP/assessment/Assessment-
Introduction/
Hoffmann et al. (2013) Pragmatic Language Assessment in Williams Syndrome. American Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology, 22, 198-204.
Lau, A. S., Garland, A. F., Yeh, M., McCabe, K. M., Wood, P. A., & Hough, R. L. (2004). Race/ethnicity and interinformant
agreement in assessing adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral
Disorders, 12(3), 145-156.
Mandell, D. S., Listerud, J., Levy, S. E., & Pinto-Martin, J. A. (2002). Race differences in the age at diagnosis among
medicaid-eligible children with autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
41(12), 1447-1453.
Mio, J. S., Barker-Hackett, L., & Tumambing. J. (2006). What is multicultural psychology? In Multicultural
psychology: Understanding our diverse communities (pp. 1-32). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Rutter, M. L., Kreppner, J. M., & O’Conner, T. G. (2001). Specificity and heterogeneity in children’s responses to
profound institutional privation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 97-103
LOST IN TRANSLATION - ENGLISH VS. ITALIAN UNICEF “ THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2004” REPORT
No full textA close reading of the “State of the World’s Children 2004” Report, in English, reveals that what one would expect to be a neutral, impersonal representation of data - an official statement of facts - claiming for globality, in an informative language, is, instead, an ethically biased report. The parallel reading of its Italian translation, within an Applied Translation Studies framework, has shown that in the documents under investigation many different types of strategies, both covert and/or overt, are at work. Their supposed neutrality is denied on the grounds of targeted options which, ranging from lexico-grammatical and textual choices up to discoursal ones, contribute altogether to the ideological and social connotation of the texts.
In addition to the usual findings of Translation Comparative Studies in the lexico-grammar domain (such as Dislocation/Disruption; Inversion/Loss; Equation/Substitution; Divergence/Convergence;
Amplification/Reduction ; Diffusion/Simplification), what comes into the foreground is how the Target Text tends to neutralize many metaphoric expressions of the Source Text and often uses, instead of visual images, more abstract language. The consistent process of implicitation that the TT has undergone reaches its climax in a repeated series of omissions, not only of single words, but, surprisingly enough, of whole sentences. Such changes do not appear to be textually motivated, and entail loss of meaning. The translator’s stancetaking, considered in the light of the Appraisal framework, significantly differs from the authorial one: the systematic comparison of the two texts highlights very different levels of commitment, involving content itself and, consequently, the ideological value of the text – adhering to a possibly deliberate choice.
As a matter of fact, the ST is decidedly a function-oriented text (information/charity), whose pragmatical implicatures and compassion moves (aimed at involving the reader in ethical and charity enterprises) seem to be ‘softened’ in the TT. While greater visibility for the general reader – and involvement – is the dominating mood of the ST, the TT appears to be a ‘refracted text' where the originally intended social meaning and ideological implications of the ST are altered, owing to ‘dis-aligned’ quality of the translation.
We will discuss the extent of these phenomena and the ethical implications of this ‘politically incorrect’ rendering
- …
