1,720,985 research outputs found
Pragmatic relevance/strenght of lexico-grammar 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
"As previous researchers have found":dialogic endorsement in social psychology research articles
No full textThe Kercher/Knox trial: Accommodation Strategies in bi-lingual setting
No full textIn the domain of forensic linguistics, this study investigated Meredith Kercher murder multi-stage process – a case which caught the attention of public opinion both in Italy and abroad.
The Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was utilized for a deeper understanding of these trial interactions. CAT (Giles et al. 1973, 2006; Coupland & Jaworski 1997; Giles, Coupland & Coupland 1991) is a longstanding and perhaps the most prominent framework in the domain of the social psychology of language and has captured cross-disciplinary interests. CAT was initially developed as Speech Accommodation Theory ( Giles et al. 1973), whose key notion was that during interactions people often modify their speech features (accent, dialect, pauses, register) to achieve various goals. Interlocutors may pursue “accommodative” aims, such as seeking the other’s social approval, by signaling belongingness to the same ethnic or socioeconomic group. Instead, non-accommodative motivations are dominating when social distance and even disapproval are emphasized (Street et al. 1982). CAT assumption is that interlocutors’ communicative modes display social markers which convey information about their personal and social identities through both verbal and nonverbal (e.g. prossemics, dress and hair styles) cues.
In a forensic linguistic perspective, in courtroom cross-examinations credibility and positive Face-values are at stake. During trials, interactants use mainly linguistic convergent and/or divergent and/or maintenance strategies in orchestrating the sequential accommodation of their interventions.
Our study aimed at analyzing qualitative samples from different phases of the long lasting Amanda Knox trial by considering four steps exchanges (question-answer-question-answer or answer-question-answer-question). In particular, we evaluated the cohesion between the coerciveness of the prosecutor’s questions and the pertinence of Amanda’s answers. One significant aspect of such exchanges was the presence of an interpreter, which brought about an additional (meta-)communicative dimension. We illustrated the prosecutors’ and Amanda’s strategies also in their interplay with the bi-lingual/language switching setting of the trial
H1N1 influenza/swine flu: conFLUsion or knowledge asymmetry?
No full textIn a Foucauldian perspective, the power/knowledge correlation, which pervades all social relations, prevents some actions while enabling others. A case in point could be the knowledge-making/sharing process in the press communication constellation on swine flu, recently a major focus in the media communication flow, with marked differences between popular papers and specialized journals. As regards the complex notion of (meta)knowledge, the relevant issue for this study is how knowledge can be shared and what the effects might be (Cameron 2006:145). In particular, we intended to investigate – within the theoretical framework of both (Critical) Discourse Analysis and Evaluation/Appraisal – how forms of ‘are conveyed as opposed to ‘Common Ground knowledge’ in epistemic communities (van Dijk 2001, 2003).
When considering the knowledge asymmetries (KAs) between different sources of information (scientific/popular press) on swine flu, we analysed how social knowledge was integrated with grammatical knowledge, and appraised the value of lexicon-grammar variation among textual genres and discourses. Our aim was to assess to what extent KAs may result in different interactional aspects. In tabloids, a large use of direct speech and of ‘catastrophe-oriented’ lexical choices, as well as code-switching to scientific language and to statistics utilized as ‘special effects’, are conducive to unjustified panic and to mystifying disinformation. On the other hand, the specialized jargon of professional journals excludes the general public and prevents people from making informed decisions.
Our paper will provide/evaluate both qualitative and quantitative data from a corpus of 200 articles published in 2009/10:100 Research Articles drawn from leading journals of Medicine and 100 articles from UK tabloids
Mediterranean Heritage in Transit - (Mis)representations via English
No full textIt is mainly within and around Mediterranean itineraries that the European Union seeks its in/tangible cultural heritage. It aims to develop reflective societies, where knowledge can be created in connection with peoples’ heritage, in keeping with its strategic research agenda. In the same years as the McDonaldization/Starbuckization of society (Ritzer 1993; 2008), aspects of Mediterranean cultures have both survived and flourished beyond their natural boundaries, frequently acquiring new connotations/meanings through the medium of communication in English. Through diverse awareness-raising initiatives, it encourages peoples to repossess and safeguard their own unique, ‘indigenous’ cultures. The focus is on “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces [...] – that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage” .
In this arena of contemporary cultural heritage, this volume brings together many different strands of analysis, helping to shed light on the complex and multifaceted phenomena that constitute the vibrant socio-semiotic landscape of the Mediterranean. The latter, in fact, can be seen both as the possible unifying referent of diverse physical and anthropic environments, and as a metonymic embodiment of contemporary social and lingua-cultural paradigm shifts. Such issues have been investigated across a wide range of (transdisciplinary) theoretical analytical frameworks, and also from an educational perspective. Mediterranean Heritage in transit views this vibrant scenario from a dynamic cross-cultural perspective, and investigates the domains of identities and stereotypes, advertising, films, myths and festivals, landscapes, fluid knowledge and new technologies, culture-bound terms, migrating words and food.The book also includes worksheets for each chapter with proposed activities for university students who may be engaged in analyzing webpages, reading and producing tourist brochures, studying subtitling techniques in TV series and comparing multi-language subtitles and dubbing, or replicating experiments, such as implementing a sociolinguistic survey after the design of specific research questions. All these activities are designed to put best practices into effect by enhancing the reading and learning experience and encouraging self-study and self-evaluation in keeping with the theoretical strands proposed in the chapters, thus incorporating research into classroom procedures. The assumption is that a sound method can be successfully reproduced in other contexts: teachers and researchers will be able to transfer their experiences to other contexts, for example by adopting the chapters’ analytical frameworks, methods and contents in other social, linguistic and cultural contexts.
The volume’s principle value, then, can be found in its double design: the chapters can and should be read as research papers and can be utilized both as sources for structuring activities in a range of different classes, and as materials for self-study. The underlying rationale of the book lies in the attempt to bring to the fore the prominent role of English in representing the Mediterranean heritage, although it is a non-Mediterranean language. At the same time it attempts to bridge the gap between academic research and class practice at the university level
Food, Family and Females: (Southern) Italy in U.S. Advertising
No full textAt the cross-over of Italian and North American lingua-cultural frameworks the complex issue of national identities plays a pivotal role, which is variously represented and advertised in media communication.
A country is not only represented through its geography and landscapes, arts, products and artefacts, but also through the verbal output and receptivity of its speech community that shares metaphors, images, icons (Hymes 1980), and through the recurring topics (and even commonplaces or truisms) that frequently occur in discursive interactions. Such mis/representation contributes to shape what Anderson defined Imagined Communities (1983). Imagined communities and national identities are not a clear-cut and a once-and-for-all affair: they mainly consist in a dynamic interplay of symbols, clichés and conventional, anachronistic behavioural models, which are easily communicated through media, and commercials. It is by now a shared notion that when exposed to overused representations on a regular basis, viewers absorb biased contents a-critically. In this perspective, Gerbner (1993, 2002) among others illustrated how media are responsible for shaping or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality. By acting as a pervasive sixth sense, visual media often construct and broadcast unbalanced portrayals, which are predictably filtered through and mediated by the viewers’ race, socioeconomic status, area of residence, and racial predisposition.
Such stereotypical representations are an effective way of simplifying and diffusing complex notions by representing marked clichéd traits, and may even increase emotional identification, contributing to the creation of cultural boundaries between Us and Others, i.e. insiders and outsiders of one’s specific national community. In our case, Americans of Italian heritage are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, such as the ethnocentric sense of family, fixation on food, and mafia.
Regardless of a multifaceted, ever-developing reality, these cultural etiquettes are perpetuated, often construing derogatory meanings that can alter audience attitudes towards minorities, such as American women of Italian heritage who are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, especially in TV commercials. Indeed, the real societal groups can be very different from the frozen image of the ‘advertised’ communities. In 1980s-1990s US TV commercials, Italian American women were depicted either as caring mothers and good-cooks, or overweight grandmothers wearing housecoats or aprons – often with a funny or ironic effect. The typically Italian deli-food fixation is displayed in the setting of welcoming kitchens, and the sense of family appears to be ethnocentric/clannish. In late 1990s-2010 US TV commercials the evolution and foregrounding of ‘updated’ stereotypes is recognizable, though always revolving around food (facilitated) preparation and consumption as the pivot of family life.
Drawing on selected TV commercials, we investigated from an evaluative semantic (Hunston &Thompson 2000; Martin & White 2005; Bednarek & Martin 2010; Fleitz 2010) and multimodal discourse analysis perspective (van Leeuwen 2008, 2013; Kress-van Leeuwen 2001, 2006) the (mis-)representation of Italian American women in US advertising in a diachronic perspective.
Our analysis highlighted how nation-based stereotypes are re-mediated through inter/intra-textual references in a process of re-semiotization that appears to be a successful social practice and a fundamental component of marketing strategies.
Is there any scope, however, for boundary-crossing, meaningful, informative memes in the contemporary US commercial semiosphere? Are genuine Italian artifacts and products actually advertised? Are authentic cultural values, practices, skills and traditions transmitted? Apparently not. Racisms and gender bias in their variety of forms and instantiations have a long history in advertising, inescapably leading to pervasive stereotyping, that is still being written. Not only Italian Americans, but also (or mainly) African Americans, or Asian Americans etc. are frequently framed into unflattering frozen portrayals by national or local brands and agencies to meet the audience expectations – a privilege of Italian Americans being the Mafia connection, not to mention the ‘Guidos’ and ‘Guidettes’ (Cavaliere 2012). However, with the world of social media acting as ‘taste-police’ and giving immediate feedback, many such campaigns quickly garner criticism for being (overtly) racist and get shut down. In this fluid scenario, we could even speak of a lively cross-media communication (or feedback) and reciprocal influence, which, in the long run, could change the dynamics of advertising. But, for the time being, ‘upgraded’ stereotypes are continuously shaped to meet and reinforce the perceptual expectations of the audience, according to the characteristics of the advertised goods. Such ongoing re-contextualization of the ‘Italian’ social/ethnic group in the US commercial semiosphere is mainly carried out through the advertising practices of quoting, paraphrasing, genre-mixing and hybridization, equivocation, ambiguity and shift in expectations – often leading to final effects of surprise. We can say that advertisers have re-voiced/ mimicked fictional old-worlds thanks to the potential of semiosis for mobility across boundaries and practices. Thus, local meanings and fossilized metaphors are continuously created, which can produce comic, grotesque and even paradoxical effects, and a persuasive, if inaccurate, meta-fictional setting is shaped, where the womanly stereotype is reinforced by the ethnic stereotype, thus creating an updated and more alluring commodification of the ‘Italian caring mamma’ and Womanly Homemaker
National identities in the media: Italian-American stereotypes in U.S. advertising
No full textNational identities are not a clear-cut and a once-and-for-all affair: individuals can assume collective identities, also represented by their shared metaphors and images, which can change over time or come into conflict with one another. In the world of the media, ‘imagined’ communities are mainly identified on the basis of symbols and clichés that influence peoples’ way of thinking more than is usually thought. Especially in advertising contexts, such communities are frequently represented through conventional and anachronistic behavioural models, such as the ethnocentric sense of family, fixation on food, and mafia, so far as Italy is concerned. These ‘etiquettes’ – valid both for those who rely on them and for those whom they serve to characterize – may increase emotional identification, thus contributing to the creation of cultural boundaries between Us and Others, between insiders and outsiders of one’s specific national community. Referring to Gerbner’s cultivation theory, which maintains that media are responsible for shaping or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality, we can say that in ads the perceptual expectations of the audience seem to be not only met, but reinforced, according to the requirements of the advertised goods. The need for simplification and diffusion can also play a significant role in stereotyping and can result in unbalanced portrayals and in knowledge asymmetries to be considered in the Foucauldian perspective of the all pervading power/knowledge correlation. By analyzing a corpus of 100 ads, we intend to show how distant real societal groups can be from the ‘advertised’ communities, with a major focus on the difference between the frozen image of people of Italian heritage in the US and their actual life styles and identities
Restorative justice and dialogitic exchange
No full textFollowing the European Union Guidelines (CEPEJ: 2007,13) concerning mediation in penal matters, the Italian criminal justice authorities are developing programs for cooperation with mediation services in order to reach victims and offenders more effectively. Restorative Justice (RJ) is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future. According to Bazemore and Walgrave (1999), RJ can be defined as “every action that is primarily oriented towards doing justice by repairing the harm that has been caused by a crime”.
RJ is not originally a EU concept, and its application in Italy is still tentative and limited. RJ began as an experiment to seek alternatives to criminal prosecution and conventional sentencing, especially where aboriginal populations were involved. The Correctional Service of Canada started to introduce RJ programs in many of its prisons in 1974 and RJ is now widely applied in North America and is attracting growing attention from governments. In the UK, the practice was introduced in the 1980s and then implemented in the 1990s. In 1989 the New Zealand government enacted the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act; Australia followed with the implementation of family group conferencing in several jurisdictions.
What does RJ consist of? It essentially involves “restoring relationships, with establishing or re-establishing social equality in relationships” (Llewellyn & Howse 1998: 1); it involves the victim, the offender, and the community in a search for solutions that promote repair, reconciliation, and reassurance. Considerable emphasis is laid on victims’ needs, which are fully considered in victim/offender mediation practices, whereas the focus in ordinary criminal justice is on offenders.
To use Zehr’s words (1990), it entails a ‘Changing Lenses’ philosophy, aimed at facilitating dialogue between all those affected by the wrongdoing or conflict, while encouraging those responsible for the harm to become accountable for their actions. All those affected should be given the opportunity to share their stories, their feelings and their needs in order to find mutually acceptable ways forward by repairing/building relationships.
RJ actually endeavors to attend to victims’ needs – material, financial, emotional and social–including those personally close to the victims. Another key objective is to prevent re-offending by reintegrating offenders into the community, thereby avoiding the escalation of legal justice and the associated costs.
In our study we analyzed qualitative samples of mediation practices, such as linguistic exchanges, from a cross-cultural perspective by comparing textual data and evaluating it in their contextual implications in the light of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
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
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