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- Volume 12, Issue 1, 2019
English Text Construction - Volume 12, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 12, Issue 1, 2019
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Closure in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace
Author(s): Sara Saei Dibavar, Pyeaam Abbasi and Hossein Pirnajmuddinpp.: 1–28 (28)More LessAbstractThis article explores the politics of J. M. Coetzee’s writing style in Disgrace. Drawing on Marie-Laure Ryan’s theory of textual universe and Barbara Dancygier’s narrative space construction strategies, we argue that Coetzee’s narrative is set up to expose David Lurie’s deliberately distorted self-representation. Indeed, the conflict between the protagonist’s private worlds and the textual actual world (TAW) results from the protagonist’s distorting of the TAW by his deliberately distorted self-representation clouding his judgment and, accordingly, his so-called knowledge worlds (K-worlds). Also discussed is the process through which the protagonist is brought to a reckoning – not grace – through ontological re-orientation by undergoing a three-step process of social stigmatization, recognizing his vulnerability and situatedness, and coming to terms with his actual environment (TAW).
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Experimentalism and cognition
Author(s): Roghayeh Farsipp.: 29–58 (30)More LessAbstractThis study approaches experimental literary texts from a cognitive perspective. It investigates if a constructivist modeling of cognition can be applied to such texts, and contends that there is a two-way relation between memory and literary experimentations. It suggests a fresh look at literary experimentalism – from the perspective of the cognitive processes involved in challenging (text, language, and world) schemata to varying degrees. There exists a vast body of knowledge on experimental texts, but the study of cognitive processing of such texts has until now been a less studied area of cognitive research.
This study defines two main types of experimental texts based on their closeness to or divergence from the schematic parameters of world, text, and language: proximal and distal. The study shows how distal experimentations are conventionalized over the course of time and call for re-innovation.
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What is ‘global’ in an ELT global coursebook?
Author(s): Laura Gerdaypp.: 59–83 (25)More LessAbstractThe adjective ‘global’ has become a buzzword in recent years, not least in academia. Within the area of English Language Teaching (ELT) in particular, ‘global coursebooks’ have aroused a great deal of interest, but also much suspicion, as their content turns out not to be as universal as the adjective ‘global’ might literally mean. In this paper, I investigate the 2014 New Headway Upper-Intermediate Student’s Book and bring to light some of the ideological constructions underpinning this supposedly global course material. As a result of this analysis, I provide an expanded characterisation of the ELT global textbook, regarding it as a course built upon standard language ideologies rather than, as suggested by previous studies, as an artefact shaped by a predominantly neoliberal agenda.
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A diachronic keyword analysis in research article titles and cited article titles in applied linguistics from 1990 to 2016
Author(s): Wenhsien Yangpp.: 84–102 (19)More LessAbstractDue to the competitiveness in academic publication and the emerging heavy reliance on Internet search engines to expand visibility and readership and to promote publications, writing an attractive and appropriate research article title is essential. In addition, titles may be the first aspect of papers evaluated by journal editors in their screening of submissions in order to meet the requirements of the target audience. These demands call for the use of various academic writing skills, and thus make writing titles challenging. Research on structuring journal article titles has been extensively conducted across disciplines, but what keywords (i.e. lexical items highly distinctive of the titles) are employed to reflect current knowledge and receive high citations is still under-researched. To bridge this gap, the present corpus-driven research collected and investigated titles written in leading applied linguistics journals over 25 years to identify their keywords. These were compared to different time spans to study the significance and relevance of the domain knowledge. The most frequently cited articles were also selected to study how their titles relate to keyword use and to investigate their impact on the domain knowledge. The results reveal that keywords vary in accordance with the research trends over time. In addition, while titles are becoming longer, more keywords are employed by authors in order to expand the paper’s visibility and enhance the citations. The pedagogical implications for teaching academic writing, and suggestions for researching this appendant genre are provided.
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Theory versus practice
Author(s): Bernard De Clerck, Sofie Decock, Jasper Vandenberghe and Mathias Segherspp.: 103–136 (34)More LessAbstractIn this paper, we investigate the attention given to and the impact of interpersonal, people-oriented and transactional, problem-oriented stance in English complaint refusals in business correspondence. The analysis is based on a sample analysis of English e-mail sequences from a Belgian multinational as well as experimental research that probes into the effect of interpersonal strategies on customer outcomes. The sample analysis shows a sharp contrast between theory and practice: while the need for supportive language and interpersonal attention are standard items in textbook instructions, the data show little alignment with the customer through expressions of regret, gratitude, or empathy. The experiment, in its turn, shows a positive impact of interactional stance on interactional justice but little to no impact on satisfaction, perceived professionalism, and loyalty. This raises a number of questions regarding best practice and best practice models.
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Steve Buckledee, The Language of Brexit: How Britain Talked Its Way Out of the European Union
Author(s): Lieven Buyssepp.: 137–142 (6)More LessThis article reviews The Language of Brexit: How Britain Talked Its Way Out of the European Union
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Dancygier, Barbara (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
Author(s): Simon Devylderpp.: 143–153 (11)More LessThis article reviews The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
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Laure Gardelle and Sandrine Sorlin (eds), The Pragmatics of Personal Pronouns
Author(s): Bettina Klugepp.: 154–161 (8)More LessThis article reviews The Pragmatics of Personal Pronouns
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Minna Palander-Collin, Maura Ratia and Irma Taavitsainen (eds), Diachronic Developments in English News Discourse
Author(s): Paul Arblasterpp.: 162–163 (2)More LessThis article reviews Diachronic Developments in English News Discourse
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