Pragmatics and Society - Volume 14, Issue 4, 2023

Abstract

While much has been written on the transition of organizational life into the New Work Order (NWO) and the effects this has had on employees in language-centered economic spaces, few studies have attempted to tease out how these NWO-expectations have affected less language-centered workplaces. In this article, I focus on such a workplace, namely a medical lab, and I tease out processes of what I call ‘identity gatekeeping’. With this term I refer to the fact that NWO-employees are expected to be knowledge-workers whose identities need to be aligned with organizational expectations. As such, these identities become a crucial object of intra-organizational gatekeeping. Focusing on three performance appraisal interviews and using a social-realist discourse-analytical approach, I demonstrate how the superior’s interactional identity negotiations either mold or silence dissident identities depending on the employee’s future professional aspirations. Finally, the implications of these interactional negotiation processes for NWO-ways of working are discussed.

Abstract

The paper examines the accession is a race metaphor in the online news articles published in three Western Balkans’ countries (Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Hercegovina), in the context of their accession to the EU. Through the methodological lens of the conceptual metaphor theory and critical metaphor analysis, our study shows that the conceptualisation of the accession as a race might purport different, even mutually conflicted political stances, i.e. it can have a laudatory function praising those at the forefront of the “race”, while at the same time calling for patience invoking the picture of the race as a marathon, long and exhausting, demanding in both time and stamina. Without delving further into the political reasons, concerns and vested interests of the stakeholders involved, what can be said with much certainty is that both the EU and the regional officials have made some creative excuses for the excessive duration of the EU integration process for the WB’s countries, and these have been analysed in the present study. The analysis has shown that the “finish line” of the race (the accession itself), long or short, is far less important in the regional news discourse than reaching further out than your co-runners, i.e. your immediate neighbours and competitors.

Abstract

In Spanish, tener que and haber que + infinitive are modal periphrases that convey deontic meanings. The present investigation analyzes these periphrases as variants used in diverse communicative settings by different kinds of participants, acting as either speakers/writers or addressees. Tener que + infinitive tends to appear in those contexts where a more striking implication or unavoidable recommendation is needed. Haber que + infinitive is used more in a wide range of genres promoting a desubjectivizing-deontic meaning. As for the sex/gender of the participants, men more frequently use tener que + infinitive, whereas women tend to employ haber que + infinitive. The latter feature was also found to be significant when the sex/gender of the addressee is unknown; also, tener que + infinitive resulted more frequently in texts to be read or listened by women. The sociolinguistic distribution of the meanings conveyed by each periphrasis helps to delineate communicative styles based on the objectivity-subjectivity dimension.

Abstract

This qualitative research explores the differences in the interpretation of novel veiling and concealing euphemisms from a relevance-theoretic perspective. I argue that the relevance of an utterance containing a novel veiling euphemism is established (1) via the adjustment of its linguistically encoded meaning so that it communicates the meaning encoded by a dispreferred expression, which is derived as an explicature, or (2) via its linguistically encoded meaning, derived as an explicature, and the meaning encoded by a dispreferred expression, recovered as a strong implicature. The relevance of an utterance containing a novel concealing euphemism is established via its linguistically encoded meaning, recovered as an explicature, and via weak implicatures. The recovery of weakly implicit content is not essential for inferring the speaker’s meaning.

Abstract

The widespread panic associated with media exposure is a serious challenge to worldwide governments in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, alleviating negative social emotions, particularly panic, is an urgent issue for the state media. By using the comments of a Weibo post from The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League, drawing on the notion of extrinsic emotion regulation, this paper conducts a detailed analysis of negative emotions regulation through discourse strategies by the Chinese state media and their effects in the context of COVID-19. The results demonstrate that, by exploiting language strategies, the state media can arouse positive emotions amongst users, thus distract the public from experiencing negative emotions. In addition, the state media participate in online interactions, thereby creating positive public emotional spaces. This study indicates that digital platforms like Weibo, occasionally equipped with emotionalized narrative, are of significant value in the regulation of negative emotions in public crisis contexts.

Abstract

This study investigates metaphorical framing in political language. In particular, we describe dominant metaphoric frames which are used by the conservative and liberal media in the US when debating over the different aspects of the socio-political issues. The data for this study have been collected from the online archives of CNN and Fox news that were published on the two topics of medical healthcare system and immigration. We draw upon the ideas from some of the most recent semi-automated metaphor identification approaches to identify metaphors in texts. The findings of this study indicate that the US conservatives use a wider range of metaphorical frames to discuss the political issues. Some metaphorical frames are often used by both parties, while some others mark the divisive partisan rhetoric. Besides, the findings show that there are some metaphoric frames that are exclusively used to talk about a particular aspect of a topic.

This article reviews The Manipulative Disguise of Truth: Tricks and threats of implicit communication978-90-272-0870-5

This article reviews Complicity in Discourse and Practice9781003206354