Language and Dialogue - Volume 10, Issue 3, 2020

Abstract

Why does our moral intuition tend to differ when a person uses deprecating speech towards her own affiliation group as opposed to an outer affiliation group? This paper offers a descriptive mapping of moral intuitions behind group self-deprecation (GSD) as stemming from two theoretical fields: pragmatics and standing. The first possible explanation to our moral intuition focuses on the moral flaw in the utterance of condemned (i.e., the person using GSD). Here, I argue our moral intuition suggests the group affiliation of the condemned affects the utterance’s pragmatic interpretation, thus affecting its offensiveness. An alternative explanation focuses on the critic. Here, I argue practices of standing lay behind the offhand rejection of critiques from outer-group members, regardless of their validity.

Abstract

A political campaign is a dialogical game that will always make a deployment of discursive resources that manage to generate empathy and in that way, obtain the vote of the people. Animation and myth are resources that politicians use in their favor to construct their messages. The reason? These elements are exceptional dialogical units thanks to their power of meaning and cohesion on a personal and social level. This research focus in two Mexican politicians Alfredo del Mazo and Andres Manuel López Obrador, who during their elections – 2017 and 2018, respectively – used digital animation to create a striking propaganda. The critical frame is based on Joseph Campbell, Rollo May, Carlos A. Scolari, Clifford Geertz and Edna Becerril.

Abstract

Based on a large dataset of Russian material, the paper presents these general features of the home: a place to spend leisure time containing a long-established group of different ages and sexes free to move about in their environment These factors lead to tension between communicants and a diversity of topics of conversation. Inadequate recipient design is an overarching trigger for misunderstanding caused by the speaker. It derives from poor concentration on interaction and the common ground fallacy, and leads to the frequent use of indirect and elliptical expressions. Inadequate concentration causes the recipient to non-listen and overguess. Finally, misunderstandings occur because of mishearings, misinterpretations and misreferences. Misinterpretation may concern the content, intention or mode of the message.

Abstract

Language learning is an interactive, social effort and the role of grammar is no longer focused. Nowadays we consider most language learners to be pluricultural beings aiming at communicative language competence (cf. CEFR 2018) in another language. The role of grammar, thus, plays a subordinate role. Authentic language usage requires the analysis of authentic dialogues (via the Mixed Game Model, MGM) and awareness-raising regarding the phenomenon of language transfer (via Crosslinguistic-influence approaches). These two approaches will be merged within the article – addressed to linguists as well as language teachers.

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which mostly untrained interpreters render accurately the voices of participants in Ghanaian district courts, and how the participants orient to shortcomings in the interpretations. Based on 7.5 hours of audio-recordings, we found that 91% of interpretations were accurate. The 9% of interpretations that were inaccurate were of five types: non-equivalence in propositional content, omissions, elaborations, incorrect grammatical forms and literal translations. We also found that on some occasions, inaccurate interpretations are corrected by other court participants, making the interpreting activity a collaborative effort. Judges were the most likely to intervene when an interpretation went wrong, perhaps a reflection of the sense of responsibility felt by them for anything that happens in their courtroom.

Abstract

The article discusses quotations as linguistic means for constructing authority. It seeks to attenuate two accepted premises regarding quotations and authority in linguistic research: firstly, that the source of quotation is the (single) source of authority, and secondly, the writer’s dichotomic attitude toward it: reliance or refutation. Two opinion essays in Hebrew were examined, authored by a woman and published in a Maskilic periodical during the 19th century – a time when women were denied the social license to write in Hebrew. The pragmatic micro-analysis shows that the writer uses various linguistic means to construct her authority by means of dialogical conflicts between several external sources: the Jewish canonical texts, her educated peers or prevailing viewpoints of the time.

This article reviews Making Sense. Reference, agency, and structure in a grammar of multimodal meaning9781107133303

This article reviews Language is Politics. Exploring an ecological approach to language97803673654319780367654249780429346880