1,721,041 research outputs found
Transitioning between small talk and work talk through discourse markers. Evidence from a workplace spoken corpus
Full text linkThe focus of this article revolves around discourse markers (DMs) that are used when switching between work talk and small talk in workplace interactions. Research in this field has showed how discourse markers are used to manage several interpersonal dynamics in interaction. This study is aimed at identifying which DMs are used in the workplace to operate a shift of topic, how often DMs are used at the juncture of interaction, and what are their specific pragmatic and discursive function when they are used in these situations. This study is based on a workplace small-talk corpus of spoken American English. Results show that DMs are often used to mark the shift to a different topic or mode of discourse; in particular, shifts to work talk are marked more often than shifts to more small talk on different topics. Also, speakers may select different DMs based on the type of shift. The role and function of the highest-ranking discourse markers were observed, as well as pragmatic implications and impact in the daily interactions among co-workers
Humor, language varieties, and ideology. Implications for L2 language teaching
Full text linkLe interazioni quotidiane sono permeate da umorismo e varietà linguistiche; proprio per la loro importanza e forza ideologica, linee guida ufficiali ed esperti ne incoraggiano l’introduzione all’interno dei curricula disciplinari in ambito linguistico. Si rileva però la necessità di analizzare e sperimentare modalità efficienti per integrare simultaneamente l’umorismo e la diversità linguistica all’interno della classe di lingue; in particolare, appare essenziale l’esplorazione delle impalcature ideologiche connesse con l’umorismo verbale diatopicamente marcato. In questo lavoro vengono presentate alcune riflessioni e proposte su come operare tali integrazioni all’interno delle attività didattiche.Humor and language varieties characterize everyday interactions and because of their relevance and ideological force, official guidelines and experts have advocated for them to be integrated in the language curricula. However, much work still needs to be carried out to explore ways to simultaneously implement humor and linguistic diversity in the language classroom. In particular, the hidden ideological underpinnings of much diatopically marked language humor need to be clarified. This paper suggests ways in which these issues can be integrated in curricular activities
The nature and function of vocalizations in atypical communication
No full textPurpose of Review A survey of current research including people with disorders in which speech is impaired shows that
vocalizations are vastly discussed as a communication strategy, used both in isolation or paired with other aids. The principal
goal of this paper is to describe the ways researchers are using the term vocalizations and the meanings and functions attributed to
it. We also discuss possible future developments for specific research on unaided communication.
Recent Findings Although research has not focused specifically on the nature and function of vocalizations, several scholars were
able to highlight the crucial role of vocalizations in interactions including people with complex communication needs.
Summary This paper has demonstrated the need for systematizing the discourse on vocalizations both in formal terms and in
regard to the object of study itself. Furthermore, it has been shown that vocalizations have a powerful interactional potential,
which, if investigated, could be exploited by dedicated training and technology
Discovering English grammar and variation
No full textThis book is a basic English grammar, based on decades of teaching. It is organized around two core points: 1) the discovery of grammatical regularities, and 2) language variation. The first core point uses both a top-down approach, using a set of simple discovery procedures (heuristics), and a bottom-up approach, in which the learner is invited to notice similarities and differences and to build their own rules. The second core point is that language is not a monolith, but rather a variable system, in which the socio-economic situation in which the speakers interact affects their linguistic choices. Therefore it is necessary to consider these sociolinguistic factors for a deep understanding of grammar and its uses
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Manipulating climate change discourse: how airlines re-present topic and data
No full textDiscourse on environmental sustainability has been often linked to aviation whose technology and
communication strategies strongly impact climate change debate (among others Goodman 2009,
Gössling & Peeters 2007, Hupe 2001, Upham et al. 2003, Walker & Cook 2009).
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the United Nations’ body that aims to
implement global standards in civil air transportation. After 2010’s ICAO Assembly resolution
A37-19 (ICAO A37-19), airlines started to include in their documents to stakeholders discussions
about their environmental impact beyond the issues of noise abatement and local air quality to
encompass more global themes.
The discourse of six airlines about environmental protection has been analyzed on the basis of two
subsets of features: textual-semantic features include terms of comparison, hypernyms, hyponyms,
meronyms, numerical data format; pragmatic features include presuppositions, and entailments.
The results of the analysis uncover how airlines’ business and linguistic strategies are aimed to
transfer responsibility and commitment onto passengers and governmental bodies, to present data
in a way greener than it really is, and to water the topic down with commitment in other areas of
Corporate Social Responsibility
Six years of E-JournALL. Reflections on open access, international, multilingual applied linguistics publishing
Full text linkE-JournALL, EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages published its first issue in November 2014. The journal was meant to be a bridge: between scholars working in Europe and the Americas; between scholars writing in English, Italian, and Spanish; and between scholars publishing in the journal and researchers and language teachers across the world with or without university-paid access to expensive journal subscriptions. The journal was founded, therefore, on three pillars: internationalism, multilingualism, and open access.
In this reflection, written at the end of our sixth year as a journal—and with the release of our 12th issue and 97th article—we look back on the last six years, taking stock of how well we have lived up to our founding principles, and we look ahead to the journal’s next six years
Those who get lost in communication science. Promotion and downplay in university press releases
No full textThe present study is part of a larger project based on two matching corpora: one comprising academic articles and the other collecting the respective popularized pieces. Here, we present the preliminary results on a sub-corpus of 39 university e-releases on Covid-19 research. The objective of this study is to investigate how universities use press releases to disseminate research studies while promoting themselves. The analysis puts university press releases and academic articles in correlation by looking at the correspondence between the authors mentioned in the dissemination pieces with the authors and affiliations of the original research. It is argued that in the attempt to promote themselves through press releases, universities might tend to overemphasize the participation of their affiliated authors at the cost of overshadowing external collaborations. The quantitative analysis reveals a tendency for universities releasing popularized pieces to mention more often (and sometimes only) their affiliated authors, even when they are not first authors. External authors’ names and their affiliations are consistently omitted and vague language is used to misrepresent content and authorship
In this issue
No full textIn this first editorial we introduce the reader to E-‐JournALL, its mission and objectives, and then present the content of the articles of the first issue and how they fit within the scope of the journal
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