2020 collection (131 titles)

Indirectness has been a key concept in pragmatic research for over four decades, however the notion as a technical term does not have an agreed-upon definition and remains vague and ambiguous. In this collection, indirectness is examined as a way of communicating meaning that is inferred from textual, contextual and intertextual meaning units. Emphasis is placed on the way in which indirectness serves the representation of diverse voices in the text, and this is examined through three main prisms: (1) the inferential view focuses on textual and contextual cues from which pragmatic indirect meanings might be inferred; (2) the dialogic-intertextual view focuses on dialogic and intertextual cues according to which different voices (social, ideological, literary etc.) are identified in the text; and (3) the functional view focuses on the pragmatic-rhetorical functions fulfilled by indirectness of both kinds.

Incorporating both interview and workplace data, this book examines the discursive and social challenges that former refugees encounter as they navigate successes and failures in the New Zealand labour market. Over five chapters of microlevel discourse analysis – drawing on Bamberg & Georgakopoulou’s (2008) positioning, and interactional sociolinguistic literature – themes emerge of narrative, social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986), linguistic agency, and wider capital-D Discourses (Gee, 1990) surrounding refugeehood. Of particular interest in this study is the inclusion of a longitudinal study of former refugees’ trajectories in the labour market, and the combination of both interview and authentic workplace interactional data, providing rich insight into the multiple and ongoing challenges new arrivals face in their negotiation of employability. This book will be of interest to those engaged in research around migration (particularly those focused on forced migration), employment, language and identity, and narrative identity.

Death inhabits our collective imaginary, even though sometimes, like a squatter, it hides discretely in order to avoid conflicts. It is undoubtedly a multi-faceted subject of study, which requires consideration from an interdisciplinary perspective.

This book deals with this phenomenon, and more specifically with the discourses that surround – and construct our perspectives and understanding of – death and dying. Of course, the present volume does not attempt to be exhaustive, and considers the subject from several standpoints, including linguistics, anthropology, history of medicine, and importantly, literary studies. It combines various points of view and different methodologies of knowledge, in the hope that they come together to constitute a written dialogue –or more precisely, a polylogue.

The ordering of the texts in this volume provides readers with an itinerary that begins with more general approaches, such as a historical presentation of the medicalisation of death and an in-depth reflection on the best way to die, and ends with studies of specific literary works from different periods.

The itinerary that this book provides is framed by a discourse analysis-based overview that explores how different approaches to death and dying intersect and complement each other in an interdisciplinary endeavour. This analysis focuses on literary and non-literary genres in order to shed some new light on a topic that is inexhaustible because of its sociocultural relevance.