59 research outputs found
Against REFonomics: Quantification cannot satisfy the demands of rationality, equity and tolerability.
No full textAcademics are assured by government ministers and institutional heads that research assessment is designed on their behalf. Liz Morrish looks at whether the assessment tools created have extended their reach and left academics exposed. At its best, the REF distorts research agendas and priorities. However, a graver hazard is that a new selective and competitive academic will be formed, whose research trajectory is entirely determined by a regime peripheral to their own intellectual curiosity and academic judgement
Discourse and identity in a corpus of lesbian erotica
No full textThis article uses corpus linguistic methodologies to explore representations of lesbian desires and identities in a corpus of lesbian erotica from the 1980s and 1990s. We provide a critical examination of the ways in which “lesbian gender,” power, and desire are represented, (re-)produced, and enacted, often in ways that challenge hegemonic discourses of gender and sexuality. By examining word frequencies and collocations, we critically analyze some of the themes, processes, and patterns of representation in the texts. Although rooted in linguistics, we hope this article provides an accessible, interdisciplinary, and timely contribution toward developing understandings of discursive practices surrounding gender and sexuality
Gender and sexuality: the discursive limits of 'equality' in higher education [special issue]
No full textThis special issue sets out to investigate a number of areas of concern, regarding gender and sexuality, which are identifiable in the current British higher education environment. We argue that current dominant 'neoliberal' discourses, which emphasise the commodification of higher education in the UK, function to set limits upon 'equality'. While these discourses often suggest a widening of opportunities within higher education, with an emphasis upon unlimited individual freedom and choice, the lived experience can be rather different for women and sexual minorities. This issue explores the impact such discourses are having upon gender and sexuality identities and practices in the academy
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A glass half full or half empty?: A comparison of diversity statements among Russell group UK vs US Research universities
No full textThe term diversity is ubiquitous in university mission statements, strategic plans, recruitment brochures, and university websites. This paper argues aims to compare university diversity statements from US Research Tier 1 universities with those from the elite UK Russell group universities In order to compare the language of diversity, we have used the techniques of corpus linguistics. A corpus is an electronic collection of sample texts which can then be processed by software, in this case the Oxford Wordsmith Tools (Scott 1996) package. This enables a corpus to be searched for frequent words, concordances (the linguistic environment of target words), and collocations (the company that those words keep). The resulting analysis suggests that there are differences between US and UK diversity statements, significant enough that they cannot be said to conform to the same 'genre'. There is overall similarity in terms ofvocabulary choice and of grammatical structures used (nominalizations, modalities etc), however, the UK Russell group diversity statements display a modality position of certainty, which resonates with the noun commitment. In contrast, US Research university diversity statements are formulated more as aspirations, and focus on benefit to the community, but claim a less certain outcome. Diversity is seen as 'a good thing' and signified by multiple linguistic markers of appreciation. The word frequency analysis of the diversity statements suggests that they are largely made up ofsemantically vague lexical items - Strategically Deployable Shifters - which contribute little to the overall meanings of the statements. These words, e.g. excellence, diversity, respect, even equality are multi-functional, polysemic abstractions which invoke fair play. Discursively embracing diversity commits institutions to recognizing little difference, and certainly not to institutional or structural change, rather diversity is seen as the property of individuals, and is congruent with the project of the neoliberal university
Language and Ideology
No full textThis chapter builds upon the basics of language structure and functions (Chapters 2–9) to
demonstrate how texts (spoken or written, long or short) present a particular view of the world
which reflects the ideological position of one (or more) of the perceived producers of the text.
The chapter takes a neutral view of what ideology means, seeing it as referring to sets of values
(and also, in some cases, beliefs) that are held by a group of people, often a society as a whole.
You will be introduced to the framework of critical stylistics, which allows you to analyse the
hidden and implicit ideologies inherent in textual construction. The basis of this framework is
the ‘textual-conceptual function’ which demonstrates how the text is constructing different
aspects of the world of the text by processes such as naming, negating, hypothesizing and
enumerating. This approach shares with critical discourse analysis (CDA) the idea that ideology
is present in all texts, but unlike CDA it is politically neutral rather than taking an explicitly
socialist or Marxist stance in itself.
15.1 INTRODUCTION
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Although we tend to assume that there is some kind of abstract linguistic system in place,
underpinning the things we say and write, linguistics has long recognized that there are
also discrepancies between this ‘idealized’ system which is made up of items (phonemes,
morphemes, words, phrases, clause elements etc.) and the rules for how they combine into
texts (the phonological rules and the grammar) – and the way in which the system is
‘realized’ when it is used. Famously, Saussure (see also Chapter 1), often seen as the founder
of modern linguistics, labelled this distinction (in French) langue (language) and parole
Historical linguistics
No full textThis chapter explains the insights and techniques of historical linguistics, the study of how language changes over time. We begin with a brief explanation of the value of historical linguistics before going on in Section 10.2 to describe the background to its development. In Section 10.3 we examine some key explanations for why languages change over time. In so doing we discuss how changes come about and how they then spread throughout speech communities. Following this, we describe some of the types of change that languages go through. Here we focus particularly on change at the levels of phonology, grammar, lexis and semantics. We give examples of changes that have occurred at these levels of language and describe some influential theories that have sought to explain such developments. We then move on in Section 10.5 to describe some of the main techniques that historical linguists use to study language change. By the end of this chapter you should have a good knowledge of the variety of ways in which languages change, as well as an insight into the methods that linguists use to study such changes.INTRODUCTIONPrimarily, historical linguistics involves describing how and explaining why language changes over time. Much work has focused on sound change, such as the fact that Germanic languages, past and current, have the sound [t] at the beginning of the number ‘two’ (e.g. Gothic twai, English two, Dutch twee, German zwei (pronounced [tsvaɪ])),whereas other Indo-European languages past and current typically have [d] (e.g. Latin duos, Italian due, French deux, Spanish dos, etc.). But other linguistic areas – grammar, semantics and lexis – have also received significant attention, and most recently areas such as pragmatics have come into focus.Why bother with historical linguistics? Importantly, it helps explain language that is used today. For example, why is it that when we say the English word knight we do not pronounce the ? Historical linguistic detective work has been able to establish that the used to be pronounced. But that sound has been subject to a regular process of sound change, mapped out by historical linguists, until it reached the final endpoint of complete loss. Today's spelling simply retains the as an archaeological relic
Leading and containing in Higher Education during Covid-19
No full textStudent mental health has been on the agenda for some time, and of late we are seeing increasing awareness and concerns around staff mental health. This has been documented in HEPI’s publications such as The invisible problem? Improving students’ mental health by Poppy Brown, The Positive and Mindful University by Anthony Seldon and Alan Martin and most recently Pressure Vessels II: An update on mental health among higher education staff in the UK by Dr Liz Morrish, and Professor Nicky Priaulx..
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