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Care theory and critical discourse analysis were utilized to examine bilingual reference interactions extracted from 20 h of observations in a U.S.-Mexico border town public library. The researchers identified three types of caring discourse, including commiseration, soothing, and expressions of condolence. They also associated five conversation devices with caring discourse: humor, idiomatic expressions, interjections, lexical intensifiers, and whispering. Notably, librarians' infrequent production of elements of care were primarily in English regardless of community members' language choice. Further analysis revealed that linguistic expressions of care frequently masked unintentional, deficit-based perceptions about community members. Other salient themes that emerged include camouflaged community members' needs, clashes between intersectional and shared identity(ies), and librarians' dismissal of community members. Ultimately, bilingual caring discourse in this setting was often an interpersonal and institutional illusion. • Care theory is a valuable framework to investigate reference discourse in public libraries. • Critical discourse analysis illuminates forms of linguistic care in bilingual reference interactions. • Indicators of commiseration, soothing, and condolence masked unintentional, deficit-based stereotypes. • Librarians produced caring discourse infrequently and primarily in English regardless of community members' language choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • There is a lack of evidence to motivate TBI treatment beyond the word level. • Some discourse-based treatments have improved language in TBI. • The treatment focuses on meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic strategies. • Participant demonstrated improve language ability following treatment. • The study's effects were maintained 1-month post treatment. Abstract Background Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) present with numerous discourse deficits associated with impairments to the linguistic system and other cognitive systems. Individuals with TBI may produce discourse that is lacking important information and poorly organized, as well as containing numerous coherence disrupting elements. Yet there are few studies directly addressing discourse deficits in individuals with TBI to guide clinicians. Aims The purpose of the study was to determine if discourse processing treatment improved the discourse production in individual with TBI. Aims of the study included determining if the discourse processing treatment improved completeness and informativeness in TBI discourse samples. Methods & procedures The study included three participants with mild-to-moderate TBI. The study utilized an A-B with maintenance design that incorporated components of functional practice, structured cues in the form of comprehension questions and story guide, and meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic processes. Discourse samples were obtained for baseline, treatment, and maintenance one-week and one-month post treatment. Stimuli included 12 sequential pictures, as well as a single picture and a recount probe. Outcomes & results All participants demonstrated small gains in completeness and informativeness for treated items, and 2 of 3 participants demonstrated a medium therapeutic effect for untreated stimuli. Participants also produced discourse with fewer errors for both treated and untreated stimuli after treatment with no therapeutic effect to a small effect for the generalization stimuli. Conclusions The study demonstrated that the discourse processing treatment is capable of producing small therapeutic effects that persisted one-month post treatment in adults with mild-to-moderate TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters, such as what are known in English as 'floods' and 'wildfires', are increasingly a topic of concern due to the climate emergency, and their vocabulary and public discourses hold much to be explored through linguistics. This article inaugurates the examination of public discourse about extreme weather events through semantically-enhanced discourse studies, an approach which is based on Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and developed herein. Taking the example of floods in the particular geographic, cultural and historical environment of the Australian state of Queensland in 2011, this transtextual study draws on a public inquiry into the event and English as spoken in Australia, more broadly, along with media reports, and literature from humanities and social sciences. Five case studies of vocabulary and discourse patterns are presented to cast cultural and semantic spotlights on the public discourses. It is demonstrated that this approach can provide high resolution analysis of discourse and bring out cultural and historical factors at play in extreme weather language thereby contributing to disaster linguistics, climate change semantics and public discourse studies. • The meanings of words for natural disasters and extreme weather events, like flood , are culturally constructed. • Discourse of 2011 Queensland floods reveal geographic, cultural and historical aspects of English spoken in Australia. • Semantically-enhanced discourse studies is a novel method of public discourse studies based on NSM approach. • Semantically-enhanced discourse studies can provide high resolution analysis of vocabulary and discourse patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]