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The present study aims to analyze how the digital environment has influenced the production of a specific genre: the paper presentation in scientific events. Thus, based on a brief overview of studies around the notion of genre (Voloschinov, 1997; Adam, 2001; Adam and Heidman, 2011, Marcuschi, 2008), we seek to point out to what extent this genre maintains or not its characteristics in the face of technodiscursive affordances (Paveau, 2017) in the online production mode. For this, we started by analyzing three presentations made during the Linguistweets event, organized by ABRALIN, on Twitter. The analysis of the productions allowed us to trace a continuum of possibilities of appropriation of the technodiscursive potentialities afforded by the platform from two poles. One tends to maintain a more traditional model of this genre, and the other moves towards its updating. These emerge from the way the readwriters mobilize Twitter's technodiscursive affordances. Thus, we verify, on the one hand, the maintenance of certain characteristics of offline presentations and, on the other hand, the production of multi/delinearized presentations, marked by relationality, by enunciative augmentation, by more horizontal and symmetrical dynamics, which characterize, therefore, the digital native discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his book, The Plato Papers, Peter Ackroyd offers a novel configuration of power: far from being monolithic and self-evident, it takes on subtle dimensions, exerting not a towering influence, but rather manifesting itself in word-making and world-writing: it is not just discourse in the Foucauldian sense that evinces traces of this power, but speech in its literal denotation. Plato, London's philosopher, expounds upon the City's history as both teacher and historian, thus appropriating power. His recounting - and therefore, reshaping - of history is made possible through an agency that is seized within the social sphere. The mutability of the past, its ambiguities and uncertainties, are the playing field within which antagonistic forces meet, inextricably dialectical. But it is an emplotted realm, rooted in a (meta)physical space, that is the subject of retelling: London itself, a ghost city, fluid. Set firmly in the middle of paradigmatic war, it is both pivot and catalyst, acting as an arena for clashing world-views. My paper seeks to investigate precisely how the interplay of time and space factor into notions of agency and power, what destabilizing workings they enforce, and what configurations they give rise to. Methodologies will include urban studies, critical theory and liminality studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of language to alienate, ostracize, dehumanize, and mobilize people on racial, ethnic, and other forms of profiling has been a prominent feature of the Ethiopian conflict between the government of Mr Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). In fact, the jingoistic vitriol in the civil war amounted to hate speech which reflected the deeper ethno-regional fissures which have been embedded in Ethiopia's political tapestry for many years. The Tigray/Addis Ababa conflict not only heightened both the ethno-cultural and political divides in the country, but also, worsened the vitriolic speech in the framing processes of the adversarial "other." This rendered language itself a choice weapon of warfare. Using discourse analysis, the hermeneutic analysis and the articulatory theory, this paper, therefore, argues that Ethiopia's ethno-provincialist politics, fragmental federalism and the state's hegemonic discourses have together exacerbated and further entrenched the political disintegration of the Ethiopian body politic while also rendering post-conflict peace-making and nation-building efforts more hazardous. While the parties to the conflict have agreed an African Union (AU) sponsored ceasefire, genuine peace-building efforts, this paper urges, must begin with the disavowal of inflammatory language by all the belligerents and a concurrent detoxification of the national political discourse. Plain language summary: The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent of the hate speech that emerged in the Ethiopian Civil War of 2021 to 2022, and how its usage on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter served to fix war discourses, labels and the framing of political issues that further inflamed the conflict. The paper relied on desk top reading of social media posts and articles related to the research field. It used discourse analysis, hermeneutic analysis, and articulation theories to evaluate the meanings and effects of the posts, speeches, and some offensive terms. The paper concluded that many actors in the Ethiopian conflict used hate speech to profile their opponents and justify their political positions and military actions. Consequently, the paper recommended any genuine peace-making and peace building programs had to begin with addressing hate speech as a serious problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between March and June of 1759, a general military campaign ("entrada general") towards Chaco was held by the Governance of Tucumán, Buenos Aires and Paraguay. Despite the high amount of documents that were produced at the moment -both written papers and maps- this event has aroused little interest in historiography. In this paper, we aim at reviewing this military campaign from a historico-anthropological approach that resituates the documents in their contexts of production, by considering the complex relationships that link empirical facts -the actions-, imaginaries -the representations- and what is registered in the documents -the discourses. In this way, we present an ethnographic interpretation of the military campaign that delves into the facts, the different actors' objectives and motivations, and the distinct interethnic scenarios that were developed on the borders of Chaco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe and demonstrate the value of adopting a psychosocial methodology to explore unique sexual socialisation experiences emphasising the role of reflexivity. Psychosocial methodology emerges from Psychosocial Studies, a "transdisciplinary" area interested in phenomena from "both" a social and personal perspective and in this paper is employed to investigate how sexual socialisation is shaped by psychological processes "and" social relations, and how these can be "thought together" (Frosh & Vyrgioti, 2022). Psychosocial data analytic strategies involve applying narrative and discursive psychology alongside psychoanalytic concepts to understand the possible reasons for a participant's investment in particular discourses, understanding these investments as serving unique unconscious defensive purposes, alongside social functions. To illustrate this, we use data from a Free Association Narrative Interview with an isiXhosa-speaking "Black" socioeconomically disadvantaged woman in South Africa about her experiences of sexuality socialisation within her sister-sister relationship. We show how a psychosocial emphasis traverses traditional boundaries between discourse and affect, talk and experience, researcher and researched, moving across disciplinary spaces. Furthermore, we pay attention to what is frequently considered the background of research - the study context; the emotional quality of the interview encounter between the researcher and participant; the researchers' relationship with one another and their contribution to both the data production and analysis. This emphasis on reflexivity in psychosocial methodology is consistent with the political and philosophical position of Psychosocial Studies that is critical of the reification of disciplinary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Yogācāra epistemology, the term prapañca refers to various dimensions of the cognitive process in aspects ranging from consciousness, language formation, the conceptualization of subject–object duality, mental defilements, and ignorance. Given that the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra conveys the richness of early tenets for both the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka traditions, an investigation of the meaning and discourse context of prapañca is a necessity. This paper conducts a contextual examination of the word prapañca, primarily addressing (1) a range of meanings, (2) possible characteristics, (3) conditions and consequences, especially the associations with the conceptualization (vikalpa) process, and (4) the significance of the elimination of prapañca that the corresponding dialogue implies. This paper finds that prapañca is associated with dualistic conceptualization and the evolution of consciousness within saṃsāra. It shows some qualities of the beginningless conceptual structure of saṃsāric conditioned negativity and is related to language formation. As the discourse in Laṅka adduces it as the root of suffering, liberation from it is a prerequisite for reaching enlightenment and achieving the state of Buddhahood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how political discourse reaches different audiences through neurocommunication. The specific case studied is the speech delivered by Donald J. Trump to announce his candidacy for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. A review of concepts such as neurocommunication, neuropolitics and sociolinguistics is carried out. All of these are key elements in understanding how the public perceives leaders' speeches, especially in a competitive environment where leaders are trying to reach as many people as possible. The audiovisual material of the speech is used to investigate, through a codebook, the interaction between the ideas of the speaker and the audience, the way of speaking and the tone used by the leader to convince the different audiences or the deliberate use of certain words to achieve the intended purpose, in this case, to secure votes. With these codes, results are achieved that indicate that many of the registers used in Trump's speech influence the psychology of voters when making their decisions, again in an environment where there is a large number of offers. These are factors that serve to convince and persuade the public. This paper offers, through innovative approaches and methods, an analysis of how political discourse can be competitive in the current international context. The main advantage of using these codes is that they make speeches more efficient for different audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the socio-political dimension of the political changes in Assam vis-a-vis "regionalism" and its contestations. The Changing contours of regionalism in Assam reflect its distinct character marked by the simultaneous articulation of regional, sub-regional and national identity in a complex socio-ethnic and historical context. The recent political trajectory of Assam bears testimony to the dual challenges facing the forces of regionalism; the presence of sub-regional ethnic identity articulation and the appropriation of regional space and issues by the national parties. Further, the shifting allegiance of ethnic identity-based parties to the national parties is critical to understand the dynamics of regionalism in Assam. Socio-political developments subsequent to the rise of BJP post-2014 provide an interesting landscape to comprehend the complexities inherent in understanding regionalism in contemporary Assam. On a contextual note, the paper also locates the question of regionalism in the ongoing debates of NRC and CAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper deals with the division of pragmatic labor between two types of wh -interrogatives in Marzahn German (MG). Use of the first type, marked by the enclitic particle n ([ n - int ]), is near obligatory for and confined to canonical, i.e., information-seeking question acts. The second type, lacking n ([∅- int ]), has to be employed in non-canonical questions, such as rhetorical ones. This pattern of apparent markedness-reversal challenges the pretense-based approach to exam questions by Plunze and Zimmermann (2006) (Section 2) and plausibilizes an approach to information-seeking questions in terms of social cost in the sense of Levinson (2012) (Section 3.1). Overall empirical evidence, however, favors an account of n -marking as reinforcement of question act defaults in line with Farkas (2022) (Section 3.2). Section 5 offers a formulation of reinforcement in terms of the "table model" of discourse (Farkas 2022), such that the peculiar status of MG [ n - int ] follows from the prohibition of contextually overriding "basic conventional discourse effects". In the course of the above discussion, we will scrutinize different notions of interrogative sentential force (Sections 1, 2, 5), illustrate the form and workings of several types of non-canonical questions (guess, rhetorical, echo etc.), and analyze question use in the light of institutional settings and interpersonal effects (3.3). • Division of pragmatic labor for [± n ]-marked wh -interrogatives in Marzahn German. • Particle n reserved for information-seeking questions. • Reinforcement of question act defaults with advantages over recording social costs. • Ban on contextual overrides as the special conventional discourse effect of n. • Evidence from exam questions against pretense-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the distribution, linear ordering and functions of sequences of linguistic elements occurring at the left and right peripheries of discourse units across three genres of written English discourse. Based on a corpus of news reports, commentaries and personal narratives, the paper aims to account for discourse-genre-specific preferences in the use of peripheral two-part sequences such as and so, but I think or now though. The data show considerable variation across genres in terms of (i) which formal types of sequences occur at the peripheries, (ii) how peripheral elements are sequentially ordered, and (iii) which discourse-pragmatic functions left- and right-peripheral sequences fulfil in written English discourse. The observed variation in the use of peripheral sequences across news reports, commentaries and personal narratives can be explained by discourse-related factors as well as the specific communicative purposes of each genre. The present article argues for a prototype-anchored conceptualization of the internal structure of discourse units: On the one hand, the left and right peripheries are conceptualized as containing a wide range of – more and less prototypical – linguistic elements (i.e. extra-clausal constituents and adjuncts); on the other hand, the boundary between core and periphery is conceptualized as fuzzy and gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The character is a complex combination of elements that represent the focal point around which the narrative discourse revolves. It is the backbone upon which the narrative relies. The concept of literary work is subject to the concept of action and event, and the character is a new construction undertaken more by the reader than by the text itself. The character in the novel is an important element around which events and narration revolve. It is the idea around which events are woven, serving as the mask that the novelist wears to perform roles in his work. It constitutes an effective element in driving the narrative event, and it is a paper person produced by the novelist to achieve some aesthetic goal. This novel utilizes a system that defines the concepts of character at its multiple levels. The diversity in the character of Azam Al-Abdullah within the narrative structure presents us with several levels to highlight this character from all aspects of life and to move the scene effectively, attracting the recipient through this diversity occurring among the levels of the novel, as the character is a new construction undertaken more by the reader than by the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes a dialogue between hermeneutic phenomenology—specifically that of Heideggerian inspiration— and discourse studies to reflect on the phenomenon of metaphor and its essential functioning in the production of meaning and truth, as well as in its conceptual/discursive (re)production of ideologies. There is a relative isomorphism between the operational and structural modalities of what Heidegger calls “fundamental metaphysical positions” and ideology understood according to Althusser and Van Dijk. Between the two lies the metaphor as a way of accessing the dynamics of these heterogeneous but complementary dimensions. Understanding its systematic and significant character will allow us to better understand the way in which the truth grounds our world and our factual life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the social reproduction discourse from the 1970s onwards, or the so-called domestic labour debate, has been about two things: value on the one hand, and the body and intimacy on the other. While there is a highly visible stake in how domestic labour is understood from the viewpoint of value, which is still debated today, the contribution of the discourse to understanding the body and intimacy in capitalism is more hidden and less discussed. In this paper, I review the discourse on social reproduction from the perspective of value, with a particular focus on recent contributions, Jared Sacks' and Alessandra Mezzadri's works. Then, I will discuss the discourse of social reproduction from the perspective of the body and intimacy and finally link this aspect to the lessons around value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstrative forms in Cebuano are highly versatile and, as often seen crosslinguistically, can serve discourse deictic, discourse marking, and placeholding functions. Some of the demonstratives have also developed into speaker stance markers. Using data from spontaneous conversations, this paper examines how Cebuano demonstratives, especially the form kanάng , have extended their use from the referential domain to the non-referential (in particular, pragmatic) domain. The demonstrative form kanάng , spoken with a tone of uncertainty, is often used as a repair marker and filler, as a topic marker and mental staging device for upcoming information, as well as a hedge when a speaker is dealing with sensitive or awkward topics. This study also compares kanάng with other stance markers, in particular negation markers and interjectory particles that are likewise recruited in clause-initial position to mark varying stance intensities, with results indicating that kanάng expresses the mildest stance, hence its frequent use as a politeness marking device. • Demonstrative forms in Cebuano are highly versatile. • Cebuano kanang is used as a hedge for dealing with sensitive or awkward topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary discourse, inclusion has evolved into a core value, with inclusive societies being lauded as progressive and inherently positive. Conversely, exclusion and excluding practices are typically deemed undesirable. However, this paper questions the prevailing assumption that inclusion is always synonymous with societal progress. Could it be that exclusion, in certain contexts, serves as a more effective tool for advancing societal development? Is there a more intricate interconnection between these phenomena than conventionally acknowledged? This paper advocates moving beyond a simplistic inclusion/exclusion dichotomy and puts forth two theses. First, it posits that exclusion can, at times, be a superior metric for gauging progress. Second, it contends that inclusion and exclusion are thoroughly entwined, challenging the notion of a clear demarcation between them. The underlying premise is that, much like inclusion, there can be meaningful value associated with exclusion. Furthermore, applying a rigid inclusion/exclusion dichotomy oversimplifies the discourse on societal progress, providing an artificial representation of what constitutes advancement. Such oversimplification hampers both contemporary research in the humanities and broader political discourse. The primary objective of this paper is to introduce a fresh perspective to the discourse surrounding societal progress. By challenging the fundamental conceptual framework, it seeks to add nuance to the ongoing debate, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent in measuring progress within society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical implementation of a circular economy in the European Union poses significant challenges, notably for the EU-11 (Central and Eastern Europe) countries. The aim of this paper is to analyze the transition of the EU-11 countries toward a CE by examining existing circular strategies, national-level policies, as well as bottom-up initiatives, and on the other hand to explore the prevalent circularity discourses within the EU-11 countries. The study employs a discourse analysis method to comprehensively examine documents related to the CE aspects. This methodology integrates both quantitative categorization (codes and categories) and qualitative interpretation (reading and explanation) to support the understanding of circularity discourses. The results of this paper indicate that the countries within the EU-11 are actively advancing their efforts towards a CE. These countries are seen to be proactively developing a circular vision and setting ambitious objectives to facilitate a transition to a circular economic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to argue that the ontological character of the image in Plato’s Sophist is a strange and extraordinary (or atopic) solution to the paradox (aporía) of the false. This is related to the educational confrontation regarding the foundations of philosophical discourses and the disagreement with the radicalized thesis of some sophists who defended the impossibility of saying what is false. It will be pointed out that the being of the false and the being of non-being have a connection with the being of the image and they constitute the ontological foundation of language against those who refuse at the same time the possibility of existing and saying the false, the non-being and the images. The strange existence of the images is responsible for offering a first intertwining between being and non-being that will be fundamental to face the paradox of the impossibility of the false, as we will prove. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernist literature decidedly experiments with such modes of discourse representation as free indirect discourse (FID) to highlight the subjective nature of reality and reflect the estrangement of the modern subject. Accordingly, an analysis of discourse representation has proved to be integral in exploring Modernist narratives. The discourse representation in movies, however, has received little attention from film narratologists. After an overview of discourse representation in literature and film, the present paper examines Virginia Woolf's modernist masterpiece Mrs Dalloway (1925) and its cinematic adaptation of the same title by Marleen Gorris (1997) and its interconnectedness to present characters' subjectivities. The basic claim of this study is that the (free) indirect discourses of the novel are turned into free direct discourse in the movie using the technique of internal sound or flashback. Although there are instances of internal focalisation in this movie, they are so disjointed or short that the dominant discourse remains that of the narrator. Therefore, the findings of the present essay demonstrate that Gorris' film is not creative enough to bring about effects equal to or beyond those produced by Woolf's or reproduce the underlying forces of "difference" at play in Woolf's text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placed at the intersection of semantics and pragmatics, the concept of semantic prosody has been associated with various notions including evaluative meaning, attitudinal meaning and connotations, and there is no agreement among researchers as to its definition and operationalization. In this critical-reflection theoretical paper, we provide an overview of collocational and discoursal approaches to semantic prosody, which we treat as distinct and, at the same time, complementary. Furthermore, we suggest that the semantic prosody can be conceptualised as an interaction between a source and a target term, where the target term has a descriptive semantic content, and it receives its evaluative meaning from the source term, which can be either only evaluative (thin) or both evaluative and descriptive (thick). Next, we propose that the source of semantic prosody can be accounted for in terms of value judgments. In particular, a value judgment that a speaker ascribes to the factual content of a term is always relative to a certain kind of standard. Thus, our proposal supports the view that the speaker's stance, manifested in value judgments that they ascribe to terms, can be considered as a source of semantic prosody. • We propose a new theoretical reading of semantic prosody grounded in the philosophy of language. • We argue that semantic prosody arises as a result of interaction between thin and thick terms. • We argue that the semantics of expressions that have semantic prosody can be understood in terms of value judgments. • We argue that value judgements ascribed by speakers to expressions are relative to a culturally-marked kind of standard. • Our proposal supports both the collocational and discoursal views of semantic prosody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the information structural properties of so-called premise (also factual) conditionals, conditional sentences whose antecedent repeats previously evoked content. We argue that, semantically, premise conditionals are hypothetical conditionals, with two pragmatic properties: their antecedent is echoic and thematic. We show that some of the differences identified in the literature between hypothetical and premise conditionals follow from the informational status of the antecedent. While the antecedent of a premise conditional is thematic, the antecedent of a hypothetical conditional can also be rhematic. Rhematic conditionals happen to be compatible with all the characteristics that stand out as incompatible with premise conditionals. Additionally, we argue that echoicity is a definitional property of the premise reading of indicative conditionals. • Premise (also called factual) conditionals are not a syntactic/semantic object on their own. • They are just a possible interpretation of an indicative conditional given the right discourse conditions. • We define them as thematic and echoic; the antecedent need not be Common Ground. • Thematicity explains previously observed characteristics of premise conditionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Diogenes Laertius, Hipparchia of Maroneia decided to use for her education the time she was going to waste on the loom (VI98=SSR V I 1). The aim of this paper is to analyze the reason and implications of this decision. I will point out that it is based on the gender equality thesis supported by the Cynics, and I will try to show that it has at least two implications: not only the defense of a certain kind of education, but also of parrhesia, i.e. the practice of free, frank, and open discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For several decades, Brazil's Grupo Globo, which controls radio, TV, and newspaper, served as the hegemonic voice controlling the audio, visual, and narrative dimensions of social phenomena that formed and informed social, political, and cultural attitudes among Brazilians. Of all their divisions, none has been more influential than the TV Globo network. Lately, with the popularization of free access to digital media, such as those offered by YouTube, TV Globo's viewership has substantially declined. This paper discusses the concept of controlling images to analyze examples of TV Globo's constructed visual image of the hypersexualized Afro-Brazilian female body in the network's soap operas. It also analyzes cases of TV Globo's constructed narrative over another subaltern Brazilian group: the LGBTQIA+ community. Recently, Afro-Brazilian and Queer-centric YouTube channels have attracted subscribers by emphasizing content centered on negritude, gender politics, and place of speech while deconstructing and de-normalizing Eurocentric and patriarchal controlling images. Against examples of TV Globo's normative discourse of the past decades, the YouTube channels discussed in this paper represent alternative mediums for agency, visibility, and unbiased representations of gender and racial identities in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on human sacrifice and cannibalism in the Vedas by examining newly discovered descriptions in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā III 6.6. This passage appears to contain fairly specific points that ancient practitioners were meant to consider when engaging in cannibalism, points that are not found elsewhere. Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā III 6 is a chapter about the purification (dīkṣā) of the sacrificer before the soma ritual, repeatedly emphasizing sacrificer's transformation into a suitable sacrificial victim. By compiling and examining such descriptions, the paper demonstrates how concerns related to human sacrifice were deeply embedded in the dīkṣā rite of the Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York was the politics of the US-led war on terror encompassing secularism and calls for Islamic reformation. The political discourse of war on terror was not limited to the Americas but was witnessed in other Western nations, such as Australia. The discourse of "Islam needs reforming" by the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, in response to the Lindt Café siege (labelled as "Islamic terrorism") tacitly associates Islam with terrorism and represents Muslims negatively to the wider Australian society. This paper with the research question of "How does 'Islam needs reforming' discourse perpetuate Islamophobia?" carried out critical discourse analysis on the selected speeches of Tony Abbott in response to the Lindt Café siege in 2014 to find out the context and implications of Abbott's discourse in relation to calls for Islamic revolution. The study found that Abbott through the example of al-Sisi's (Egypt's president) calls for Islamic reformation forwarded his stance of the need for change in Islam to counter terrorism. Therefore, the present paper argues that the calls for Islamic reformation in response to terrorism can associate Islam with terrorism, thus, perpetuating Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we look at the role that macrostructures in discourse have to play in the study of swearing. While studied in isolation, such macrostructures have not yet been studied comprehensively and the range of macrostructures studied has been small. By contrast, work on microstructures is much better developed. In response to this, using spoken corpus data from the BNC2014, we take two approaches to studying discourse in this paper. In the first approach, we explore spoken data which has been annotated with a functional discourse coding scheme that shows, across the corpus, the distribution of a set of macrostructures, discourse units, that generally characterise conversation. Our goal is to see how swearing distributes according to discourse unit function and to account for any observations made. Following from that, we explore a single macrostructure of discourse - narrative, including its sub-elements - to see whether swearing interacts with this macrostructure and its component parts. We conclude by arguing that discourse is an important dimension along which the use of swearing may vary, that such variation is likely to relate to emotion, and that the different perspectives on macrostructure taken in the paper are complementary. • The need for swearing research to shift to consider macrostructure as well as microstructure. • Functional views of discourse and swearing. • Discourse unit and narrative annotation of conversational data. • Nesting of macrostructures in discourse. • Swearing, emotion and macrostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This rhetorical study investigated the employment of interpersonal metadiscourse in applied linguistics articles written in English by Anglo-American and Iranian academic writers. To this end, a representative sample of 60 conclusion sections written by the two groups of writers was selected as the corpus. The two groups of writers were compared in terms of their use of “hedges”, “emphatics”, and “attitude markers” in the extracts. The interpersonal categories were also broken down into subtypes depending on the linguistic items used, and analyzed for distribution in the conclusion sections. The functional–contextual analysis shows similarities and differences in the rhetorical behaviour of these authors in their use of interpersonal metadiscourse. There was a remarkable tendency by both writer groups towards hedging their propositions. Pronounced differences were mainly in the higher use of emphatics and attitude markers by Anglo-American authors. High certainty avoidance and abstinence from attitudinal language was noticeable amongst Iranian experts. The differences are attributed to the degree of rhetorical sensitivity to and awareness of audience, purpose, cultural leanings, and the proclivities of the disciplinary genre. The implications of this study can be helpful in academic writing, EFL writing instruction, and genre analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction for the issue of the "Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient" is presented.

This paper examines forms through which black/Afro-descendant migrants are represented in a newspaper from Brazil and another from South Africa, mostly considering meaning effects on the construction of race and ethnicity in news articles published by both media outlets in 2015. This work also uses Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis in order to deal with the verbal language of both periodicals. Preliminary conclusions suggest that black/Afro-descendant migrants are represented from the perspective of criminality, either as victims or agents of illegality. Furthermore, these subjects are generally positioned as mere beneficiaries of solidarity, particularly in the case of Brazil, or as offenders in the case of the South African newspaper. Although a passivizing representation is common between the two outlets, the Brazilian newspaper employs more editorial resources of reported speech on migrants, while the South African newspaper either silences them or applies fewer editorial strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, religious freedom has become a heated and divisive political and public policy issue in Australia. While rarely defined or interrogated, 'religious freedom' does not exist as a value-neutral principle with a single meaning. Rather, its discursive constructions are varied and serve to promote certain interests at the expense of others. Offering a new perspective on the politics of religious freedom, this paper draws together four separate studies of the public discourse of religious freedom in Australia (spanning 35 years from 1984 to 2019) to chart how its framing has changed over time and to explore the implications of these changes. This analysis reveals three major discourses of religious freedom emerging over three phases: 'religious diversity'; 'balancing rights'; and 'freedom of belief'. This paper demonstrates how, once used to promote a progressive social agenda, religious freedom has become weaponised by the Christian Right and culture warriors in their battle to entrench in law the ongoing acceptability of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article explores how the concept of metacognition has evolved, from its philosophical origins to current interdisciplinary applications. The paper transversally traces, how metacognitive theories have been integrated by various fields. First of all, is emphasized the progressive character of the development of the metacognitive theory; second, the features that establish it as an independent theory are highlighted. Finally, the article explores current and future concerns, trends and directions in research. Thus, the following discourse exploratively investigates how metacognition with its ancient history on ''thinking about thinking'', have been innovated by various current scientific fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultimately unsuccessful attempts to organize a public dispute with the Jesuits from Poznań in 1574--1575 forced Jakub Niemojewski (d. 1586), a vigorous reformer and talented orator, to write and publish "diatribe or friendly discussion" ("diatribe albo kolacyja przyjacielska") in 1577. Due to a Jesuit intervention, to whom the first pages of the printed text were given, the publication was immediately suspended. They had the printer's workshop destroyed, he was sentenced to whipping in the pillory, and the books were finally burnt. Despite the fact that only over a dozen pages of the text have survived, it may be interesting for historians of rhetoric for at least two reasons. Firstly, it is associated with the beginnings of anti-Jesuit literature in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, written to confine increasing influences of this expansive religious order. Secondly, it may be treated as an intriguing case of debate on the art of debate or negotiating the initial conditions for public dispute, which reveal significant differences in the understanding of its nature, form, and purpose. Taking into account this meta-rhetorical dimension of Niemojewski's polemic, the paper aims at specifying the meaning of the title term "discussion" ("kolacyja") as a semantic equivalent of "diatribe" in three interrelated contexts: art of argumentation (collatio argumentorum), Erasmian model of polemic on theological questions (collatio Erasmiana), and a topos of "friendly" discourse (collatio amica). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents how the Sōtō Zen priest, Kōshō Uchiyama, and the mercurial and polarizing German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, approach what the former calls "opening the hand of thought" (omoi no te banashi). For Uchiyama, the metaphoric opening of our mental hand requires the meditative practice of zazen or "just sitting" (shikantaza) and is said to mean that we avoid the act of thinking. Conversely, Heidegger maintains that the "releasement" (Gelassenheit) of our conceptual grasp is the basis of a more essential and "meditative" mode of thinking and discourse (besinnliches Denken). While Uchiyama and Heidegger appear to be at odds, their approaches are in fact compatible. By engaging in a cross-tradition examination of these two thinkers, I provide an original contribution about how both Uchiyama and Heidegger view opening the hand of thought as the critical step toward a more attuned and compassionate mode of thinking and discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the dialogue between Xerxes and Demaratus in book VII of Herodotus' Historiae. The dialogue argues in defense of the supremacy of nomos. That is why many scholars consider this passage as an echo of the discussion around the antithesis nomos-physis, in which the defense of the supremacy of nomos can be thought as influenced by the political thought of Protagoras of Abdera. This paper intends to show that Herodotus' discourse runs as an "act of intellectual intervention" within the debate of φύσις-νόμος during the fifth century B. C. However, we do not think about the Historian influenced by Protagoras, but as his particular reception within nomos-physis discussion, in which Herodotus' position is antagonic towards Protagoras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union has always been tumultuous and problematic, and European integration has always been a controversial topic in the UK's contemporary politics. However, current research on the Brexit referendum's news discourse hardly addresses this topic directly. Therefore, this paper analyses the discursive construction of the UK versus the EU during the campaign coverage of the Brexit referendum in major British broadsheets. To do so, a corpus of four major British broadsheets along ideological lines (left-right) and Brexit stance (Leave-Remain) was analysed by applying a mixed method approach of Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies (Discursive News Values Analysis along with some Corpus Linguistic tools and techniques). The way news values were adopted in the campaign coverage of the British broadsheets shows a certain continuation of historical discourses around the relationship of the entities. The results show that news values during the campaign coverage were adopted by the pro-leave outlets to construct a highly negative and elite-associated image of the EU in contrast to the UK, while the pro-remain broadsheets mostly focused on a limited, practical and economic argument in favour of the EU, maintaining and highlighting the importance of UK independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show how topoi warrant inferences for interpreting and producing dialogue contributions, particularly in the case of enthymemes where the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises. We situate our theory of topoi in the context of pragmatic theory by relating it to other theories of inference and coherence. Through detailed analysis of a single dialogue, we show how dialogue participants can incrementally entertain and resolve mismatching interpretations of an enthymematic utterance. We discuss how the notions of topoi and enthymemes can add to a generalisable model of coherence in dialogue. • We argue that topoi are relevant to the production and interpretation of utterances in interaction. • Whether or not arguments in discourse are seen as valid depends on the topoi one is willing to accept. • Misunderstandings in dialogue may be related to a mismatch of topoi between speakers. • We present a model of how agents can entertain and resolve mismatching utterance interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of critical theories and legal regulations that criminalize racism and accentuate tolerant and liberal values, racist discourses turned to be articulated indirectly (Essed, 1990; van Dijk & Wodak, 2000; Wodak, 2008), and a neo-racist discourse replaced classical racism to be ostensibly respectable and democratic with reference to cultural, rather than racial, difference (Barker 1981; Jayasuriya, 2002; van Dijk, 1997, 2000). However, a blatant and essentialist racist discourse has found its way back to the public sphere in light of the Russia-Ukraine war. Racist remarks have been documented in different types of texts directed to the masses. Therefore, this paper investigates the discursive strategies through which classical racism normalizes its reappearance in a supposedly liberal and democratic political environment. To achieve its objectives, the study adopts the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak, 2008) to analyse 18 texts of politicians and media reporters and commentators that include racist and discriminatory remarks in justifying the classification of refugees into 'like us' and 'different' categories. The study finds that the racist discourse uses special rhetoric in order to adapt to the current socio- political realities by combining classical elements of racism, including those of culture, race, and religion, with spatial proximity. The result is that the close White Christian Europeans are the only social actors who belong in the in- (superior) group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the notion of morality developed by Joan-Carles Mèlich to propose an interpretation of Sara Mesa's Cara de pan as a novel that tries to break with the functional logic of morality. Mesa's work exposes a series of issues that point to the problematization of certain moral and social codes, challenging official discourses according to which the world is what it is, and is the best of all possible worlds. Mèlich's approach is based on the idea that we are born into a world that is always already codified, ordered and (pre)established by morality and its frameworks. However, morality is not ahistorical rather, it is a construct elaborated to structure and give meaning to the world, and, as such, it varies according to the hegemonic system. Mèlich's contributions, which I will relate to some concepts from Foucault or Esposito, enable me to break down the configuration of morality and, with it, some of its categories and mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the advertising discourses about social commitment in Spanish. Businesses express trough them their values and describe their activity for helping in any social cause, such as environment, sustainable economy, decent jobs, or human rights. These are texts found on company websites and are usually longer than many other types of messages realised by any business. The argumentation is not aimed directly at sales, but at improving the public image of the company itself. This image-work in turn serves as an argument for users to trust the company. Due to this special argumentative activity, this research pursues to identify the main mechanisms of textual construction aimed at this persuasive purpose. To this end, a macrosyntax model is applied. This presupposes the existence of a discourse grammar and defines textual units, categories, and functions from a pragmatic approach. This model allows to explain the main discursive phenomena which create this type of advertising texts, such as a moderate density of information, a low hierarchisation of information, the use of topics, a tendency to express coordination or the abundant use of gerunds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse a set of macrosintactic elements in the speech of the football players of two Spanish teams: Real Betis Balompié and Sevilla Fútbol Club, in order to determine how they speak about victories and defeats. To make it possible, the Pragmatics linguistics model of Fuentes Rodríguez is used as a analytical tool. The results show that argumentative operators are the most common elements of speech, specially intensifiers, as it occurs in the case of other argumentative markers. Moreover, modal operators, the second group in frequency, reveal that the football players prefer to mitigate their assertions. Finally, in the case of enunciative operators, despite their low frequency, those that characterize their speech as honest are used. We suggest that football players' speech are mostly persuasive, although they do not present their assertions as a doubtless, something that has to do with the polemic context of football as a mass entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the discourse on migration from the official Twitter accounts of 5 political parties in Spain (PSOE, PP, Podemos, Ciudadanos and Vox), during the so-called «migration crisis» that took place in Ceuta in May 2021. The methodology followed allows us to describe the activity of the different political party accounts, the centrality of the migration issue in them, the topics and discursive strategies contained in the publications and their engagement. The findings of the work carried out point to the existence of a hardening of the political discourse on immigration in the context studied, accompanied by a loss of «political correctness» -characteristic of previous times- to address migration issues, which only alerts us to the normalization of racist hate speech in the network considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of pena and its formal variants illustrates how the emotional and subjective content can take on an argumentative value and become an additional tool for persuasive discourse. With a Pragmatic Linguistics approach (Fuentes Rodríguez, 2017a[2000] and 2017b), this paper explains emotion at the sentence and the macrosyntax level, relating the study of (im)politeness with operations of face and argumentative force. Basing the analysis on examples taken from the MEsA digital corpus and from documents about politics in CREA and CORPES XXI, this study presents syntactic patterns of great persuasive value in current Spanish and illustrates that pena has not reached the degree of grammaticalization as a discursive operator of lástima. In addition, the results confirm that the meaning of pena can be exploited in various discursive strategies: with the value of apology, of interpersonal closeness, of empathy with the misfortune of others, as an operation of self-image, as an increase of the argumentative force of the discourse or as an attenuator and intensifier of impoliteness. The conclusions relate such functions to the different types of discourse studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous scholarship in qualitative methodologies commonly classifies researchers' status in the field into insiders or outsiders. However, the prevalence of participatory observation in numerous social science disciplines has blurred the insider/outsider dichotomy and highlighted that the levels of researchers' involvement in the field are becoming context-specific and far more complex than just insider or outsider. Inspired by this tendency in fieldwork methodology, this paper seeks insights from a theory in communication studies, role theory, to understand researchers' status regarding the roles they adopt in their interactions with research participants. Through reference to relevant sociological and psychological schools of thought, this paper highlights discourse as a crucial instrument for researchers' role-making in fieldwork. This study draws on the author's experience conducting fieldwork in a Central China city to demonstrate how a researcher engages in shifting field contexts by intentionally assuming numerous roles. To explore state-firm relations in local development, the author recruited two groups of research participants: government officials and business managers. The author actively learned and employed comparable discursive techniques in interactions with each group of participants, thereby assuming various roles in different contexts. These findings underscore the purposeful self-presentation and intentional role-playing/change as effective means for human geographers and researchers in extensive disciplines to be involved in participant groups for gathering data more efficiently. Meanwhile, the author's self-reflection also illuminates the consequent impacts on research outcomes and ethical issues due to the involvement of researchers in their participants, therefore highlighting the necessity for detachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the lack of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in water governance and management has been identified as a serious problem that affects the validity of decisions. Because water governance and management institutions, processes, and practices at all scales involve dialogue, it is important to understand DEIJ in water dialogues. This paper reports on the results of a systematic literature survey that was undertaken to guide efforts by The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center to improve diversity and inclusion in its engagement practices and outreach strategies. Three questions are explored: 1) How is DEIJ defined, conceptualized, and measured in water dialogues?, 2) How does a lack of DEIJ in water dialogues affect water‐related outcomes and actors?, and 3) What are the approaches that can be used to increase DEIJ in water dialogues, especially with respect to underrepresented groups? The review synthesizes definitions of DEIJ and examines theories and methods from the literatures on discourse, diversity, social learning, and environmental justice. The lens of dialogue focused these disparate literatures on how people with diverse voices can be engaged and enabled to effectively participate in water dialogues. Despite the paucity of DEIJ literature relating to water resources in general, and to water dialogues more specifically, the review identified characteristics of DEIJ, factors that contribute to DEIJ issues, general lessons, and pathways that apply to increasing DEIJ in water dialogue participation. Further, this paper articulates a conceptual framework for understanding and addressing DEIJ failures in water dialogues. A concept of "just water dialogues" emerged that integrates insights from the literature reviewed with notions of environmental justice to help with identifying and resolving "water dialogue justice" (i.e., DEIJ failures). Review results suggest that DEIJ in water resources dialogues depends on the distribution of knowledge resources, and on broader issues that include cultural, political, and other often ignored contextual factors. Importantly, addressing DEIJ problems through the creation and maintenance of just water dialogues requires tackling power imbalances, enhancing individual and organizational capacity, and building bridges through effective engagement of diverse voices, especially those of underrepresented groups. Strategies that have demonstrated effectiveness in other contexts are highlighted, and future research needed to improve practices to enhance DEIJ in water dialogues is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the discourse concerning Islam and Muslims by assessing the extreme right-wing party, Vox, on Twitter. In addition, this paper examines the incidence (impact and reactions) of this party on the users of this social network. The objectives of this study are as follows: to identify themes and topics concerning this discourse; to analyze how the discourse is articulated and represented; and to understand the impact of this discourse by measuring the engagement of the most viral publications. To do so, we observed the publications posted by the party via its official account throughout 2022. The research methodology was based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis, and the publications themselves were monitored to ascertain the level of engagement. The results of this study clearly show that Vox created Islamophobic narratives; thus, Islam and Muslims are explicit targets of Vox's hate speech. Their rhetoric referred to security threats and threats to national identity, with the recurrent use of the idea that there is a "danger of Islamization" in Spain. The party uses disinformation and hoaxes, and users respond in a polarized way. The results of this study alert us to the worrying levels of radicalization and the normalization of Islamophobic racist discourse in the examined context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an influx of misinformation surrounding the virus and its origins. This paper examines the negative consequences of neoliberal self-care discourses related to COVID-19 that contributed to the disinfodemic, focusing on the wellness industry. Some health gurus and wellness instructors promoted lifestyle adjustments and self-care to prevent contracting the virus and sometimes blamed COVID-19 patients for contracting it. These claims contributed to vaccine hesitancy and pseudo-scientific beliefs. The misinformation was attractive partly because it promised individual control and independence from mainstream (scientific) advice. These discourses existed before the pandemic but were amplified within the wellness community after the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper concludes by exploring the feminist notions of care and solidarity as a counter to the neoliberal notion of self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the mining sector's potential to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by examining its past engagement with sustainable development. Once a pariah, the mining industry is now very active in the sustainability space and played a key role in the development of the SDGs. In this paper, we first examine two key texts in evolving institutional frameworks: the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) Project and the recent Mapping Mining to the SDGs, highlighting their limited framing of sustainable development. Then, we examine how sustainable development concerns and voluntary standards have been translated into practice by mining companies. Analysing this history and track record shows an approach to sustainable development which sidesteps contradictions at the heart of the mining industry's production processes, all of which bode ill for their potential to contribute meaningfully to the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The concept of control has long been suggested as a central factor in eating disorder (ED) aetiology. The concept is now so mainstream that it risks being used in a potentially reductionist, stigmatising or otherwise harmful manner. In this paper, we explore and discuss our positions on the use of control-related terminology for EDs. Methods: The authors of this auto-ethnographic position paper include academic researchers, individuals with lived experience and clinicians (not mutually exclusive). In sharing our experiences and observations, we aim to raise awareness of the wider impacts that control framing can have on ED perceptions, treatment, recovery and individuals' lived experience. Results: We argue that although control can play a role in some ED experiences, an overemphasis upon this factor to the exclusion of other conceptualisations is not beneficial. Conclusions: To mitigate against pathologisation of an individual, it is important to challenge a discourse that can lead to EDs being perceived as something 'wrong' with the individual, rather than a consequence of life events or other environmental influences. We identify priorities for the future for researchers, clinicians, policy makers and the wider public. Plain English summary: Control has often been described as a central factor within Eating Disorders (EDs). Whilst control can play a role in ED experiences, we argue that overemphasis upon this factor can result in other important factors being overlooked. For many individuals, EDs are the consequence of life events and/or other environmental influences. With this in mind, discourse which overemphasises control (e.g., rather than coping) can inaccurately portray EDs as something 'wrong' with the individual. It is important to challenge this discourse to encourage more appropriate perceptions of EDs. In turn, this could improve understanding and treatment of EDs, reduce stigma, and promote recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate how Buddhism is related to science as a mechanism for legitimizing its meditative practices and worldview. The first part takes a historical review of the different moments that mark the dialogue between Buddhism and the scientific worldview in the Western sociocultural context. Then, the paper explores the narratives of various contemporary Buddhist leaders and personalities from the scientific field to identify the different argumentative modalities that support the compatibility between Buddhism and science. From this conceptual scheme, the last section of the article analyzes the stories of committed practitioners of Buddhist centers formed in Argentina in recent decades to investigate the modalities of reception and appropriation of this discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theory of interpreting argument types as an integral part of a systematic and comprehensive 'hermeneutics of persuasive discourse'. It first explains how such a hermeneutics can be developed based on pragmatic insights about the use of language for persuasive purposes expressed in the philosophy of argument. Then, after having provided an overview of the main hermeneutical stages involved in interpreting persuasive discourse, the paper focuses on the stage of argument type identification. It formulates a 'hermeneutics of argument type' in terms of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA), an argument categorization framework systematizing existing accounts of arguments in the broad sense of the term (topoi , loci , argument schemes, fallacies, means of persuasion). For each of the three parameters within this framework, 'argument form', 'argument substance', and 'argument lever', the paper describes how to determine their value by analyzing several examples of natural arguments. • Offers detailed pragmatic insights about the use of language for argumentative or persuasive purposes. • Provides a general overview of the hermeneutical stages involved in interpreting argumentative or persuasive discourse. • Contains an explanation of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA) and its application to analyzing argumentation in the wild. • Provides clear guidelines for annotating corpora of argumentative or persuasive discourse. • Can be used to design empirical cognitive psychological research into how people process persuasive messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language standardization has historically been a critical area of inquiry in language policy and planning (LPP) research. This is a political matter, which contributes to “more (and hierarchical) heterogeneity” rather than linguistic homogeneity (Gal 2006: 171). The paper empirically explores extralinguistic arguments, which are used by language professionals (planners, academics, educators) in mainstream media discourse. This public discourse is initiated by the launch of an Estonian “superdictionary” in 2019 (see Tavast et al. 2020), and its public reception. By using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a method, the paper also provides insight into the discursive construction of language as such and (Standard) Estonian by different LPP actors. Above all, it aims to understand the issues of power and authority in language standardization. The discourse illustrates the paradigmatic change in standardization and lexicography: from including selected language samples to the acceptance of non-elite language variants and varieties. This change has generated a polarization of stance among language professionals, and similar discursive moves, e.g., references to the past and future dangers, metaphors and other comparisons are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]