Pragmatics and Society - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2019

Abstract

Speech-language pathologists routinely use picture description tasks to assess expository discourse in clients with disorders such as aphasia and dementia. One picture description task – the Cookie Theft picture from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination – has come to dominate clinical settings more than any other task. In this article, I examine why this particular picture description task has proven to be so successful in assessing expository discourse in clients with language and cognitive disorders. Using data from the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer and Related Dementias Study, recurrent cognitive-linguistic impairments in the Cookie Theft picture descriptions of clients with Alzheimer’s dementia are explored. These impairments are mostly pragmatic in nature. It is argued that the sensitivity of the Cookie Theft picture description task to these impairments makes it an ideal assessment tool for any investigation which aims to identify pragmatic markers of neurodegenerative diseases such as the dementias.

Abstract

‘Sharing economy’ platforms such as Airbnb have recently given rise to new travel trends in which electronic word of mouth and interpersonal contact are central. This study examines 90 positive reviews, with a threefold objective: first, analyse what makes Airbnb a social platform; second, understand online/offline rapport enhancement prior to and during the Airbnb experience; and third, examine the main rapport enhancement strategies in users’ evaluations. The results show that while reviewers place great importance on transactional wants before the experience, during face-to-face contact sociality rights become more important. After the Airbnb experience, however, the main rapport strategies point to enhancing the addressee’s face, while identity is constantly co-constructed. The present study intends to bring to the fore the function of positive rapport in the Airbnb experience, in an online system in which the management of communicative skills may be the main tool for success – or failure.

Abstract

The study investigates the strategies used by English and Polish companies in the process of handling customer complaints on Twitter. Since English and Polish are recognized as representatives of negative and positive politeness cultures, respectively, the analysis was to examine if there are differences in politeness conventions in customer-provider interaction on Twitter. The study found that although similar strategies are used by English and Polish companies in responding to complaints, the frequency of the respective strategies is different. The results of the analysis confirm differences in the use of positive and negative politeness strategies as well as differences in the level of directness in interaction between English and Polish profiles.

Abstract

This study provides a synthesized perspective on the functions and ideological orientation of time adverbials as (re)situated in their socio-political contexts in five speeches by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN. By analysing adverbials of truncated, extending, and fixed time references, the study reveals some systematic ideological formulations of conflict and resolution in the Palestinian political discourse. Adverbials of truncated and extending time are incongruous and generate a sense of interpretive dissonance. The truncated sense is embedded and more particular, thus counteracting the extending time which is established as more progressive, perseverant and consistent. This represents power asymmetries and different ideological orientations to conflict and resolution. Adverbials of fixed time, however, are transformative; they grant an end to a clash of ideologies due to the conflict between truncated and extending temporalities, and therefore resurrect a discourse that is based on equity and justice.

Abstract

Drawing on principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) the proposed study examined and compared the attitudinal positioning of both CNN and Al-Jazeera English (AJE) concerning Iran’s Nuclear Program (INP). The paper has employed the appraisal framework (Martin & White 2005) to reveal the different subtypes of attitude, i.e., affect, judgment, and appreciation, which have been encoded in the selected news items. It has been found that AJE discourse is highly evaluated. AJE has appraised INP positively; yet, it has evaluated Iran (apart from INP) and the US negatively. Unlike CNN, it is very obvious that AJE has various agendas. To achieve its goals, AJE has employed judgment more than the other subsystems of attitude. This is not surprising, given that the function of judgment is to judge people and their actions rather than things. This may explain why AJE news coverage is biased. On the other hand, although CNN relies heavily on appreciation, its coverage is biased as well. Indirectly through appreciating INP as being a nuclear weapons program, CNN has tried to invoke readers’ judgment of Iran. In addition, CNN has highlighted aspects of their opposition towards Iran such as unity, unification, consensus, etc, through the use of (+sec). Unlike AJE, CNN has one agenda and they achieved it through appraising the “self” positively and the “other”, i.e., Iran negatively.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to elaborate tools that would allow us to analyse arguments from authority and guard against fallacious uses of them. To accomplish this aim, we extend the list of existing argumentation schemes representing arguments from authority. For this purpose, we formulate a new argumentation scheme for argument from deontic authority along with a matching set of critical questions used to evaluate it. We argue that clarifying the ambiguity between arguments from epistemic and deontic authority helps building a better explanation of the informal fallacy of appeal to authority (argumentum ad verecundiam).

This article reviews Multilingual Hong Kong: Languages, Literacies and Identities978-3-319-44193-1

This article reviews The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics978-1-138-92008-8