Sep 19
ThE CLOwNannouncements
Self as a Sign, the World, and the Other: Living Semiotics
by Susan Petrilli
Ostentation of the Subject is a practice that is asserting itself ever more in today’s world. Consequently, criticism by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists has been to little effect, considering that they are not immune to such practices themselves. The question of subjectivity concerns the close and the distant, the self and the other, the other from self and the other of self. It is thus connected to the question of the sign. It calls for a semiotic approach because the self is itself a sign; its very own relation with itself is a relation among signs. This book commits to developing a critique of subjectivity in terms of the “material”
that the self is made of, that is, the material of signs.
Susan Petrilli highlights the scholarship of Charles Peirce, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Mary Boole, Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucault, Emmanuel Levinas, Claude Levi-Strauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Charles Morris, Thomas Sebeok, Thomas Szasz, and Victoria Welby. Included are American and European theories and theorists, evidencing the relationships interconnecting American, Italian, French, and German scholarship.
Petrilli covers topics from identity issues that are part of semiotic views, to the corporeal self as well as responsibility, reason, and freedom. Her book should be read by philosophers, semioticians, and other social scientists.
Susan Petrilli is the seventh Thomas A. Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America and professor of philosophy of language and semiotics at the University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Italy. She is the co-author, with Augusto Ponzio, of Semiotics Unbounded and author of Signifying Understanding, among others.
Sep 05
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Analysing Political Speeches
Subtitle: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
http://www.palgrave.com
Book URL: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=405831
Author: Jonathan Charteris-Black
Hardback: ISBN: 9780230274389 Pages: 296 Price: U.K. £ 60.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9780230274396 Pages: 296 Price: U.K. £ 24.99
Abstract:
This new book considers how traditional approaches such as cohesion and
classical rhetoric may be integrated with ‘critical’ approaches to discourse
analysis such as critical metaphor analysis. Charteris-Black presents a range
of critical and discourse theories and considers the relationships between
linguistic features of speeches and their social and cultural contexts.
Aug 26
ThE CLOwNbook review
EDITOR: Giuliana Garzone
EDITOR: Paola Catenaccio
EDITOR: Chiara Degano
TITLE: Genre Change in the Contemporary World
SUBTITLE: Short-term Diachronic Perspectives
SERIES TITLE: Linguistic Insights – Volume 159
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Pejman Habibie, University of Western Ontario
SUMMARY
“Genre Change in the Contemporary World” intends to shed light on the impact
of technological developments , innovations, and social trends having to do
with genre change and evolution in the contemporary world. The volume consists
of fifteen chapters including the opening one. After the opening chapter, the
remaining chapters are grouped into two sections thematically, “Academic and
Scientific Discourse” and “Institutional and Business Discourse”. “Notes on
Contributors” and a reference list constitute the concluding sections of the
volume.
Opening Chapter: Why Do Genres Change?
This chapter describes the overall framework of the book and provides the
reader with a theoretical lens for reading the subsequent chapters. In this
chapter, Giuliana Garzone enumerates textual, social, and cultural factors,
intertextual and interdiscursive interferences, ideological forces, external
pressures, and technological change as underlying factors that give rise to
genre variation and evolution within different discourse communities and in
different domains.
Section One: Academic and Scientific Discourse.
The chapters in this section address genre variation and evolution in academic
and scientific discourse.
Chapter Two: The Evolution of the Abstract as a Genre: 1988-2008. The Case of
Applied Linguistics.
This chapter presents a diachronic study of the evolution of the academic
genre of the abstract in applied linguistics over a period of twenty years.
Adopting a methodological approach that supports a combination of corpus and
discourse perspectives, Marina Bondi and Silvia Cavalieri explore variations
in communicative practices and linguistic features of this genre. The corpus
consists of 70 abstracts from 1988 and 70 abstracts from 2008 collected from
several refereed applied linguistics journals. The results indicate that
writers can be more explicit and objective when talking about their papers and
assessing their research rather than when talking about themselves, and that
locational patterns provide writers with a choice between personalization and
impersonality.
Chapter Three: A Diachronic Study of Genre Variation in Academic Publishing:
The Quarterly Journal of Economics (1965-2004).
This chapter presents an exploratory study of generic dynamics of an
English-medium journal. In this diachronic study, Davide S. Giannoni examines
a corpus of tables of contents and specimen texts published in an influential
economics journal over a span of forty years. The results indicate that
generic diversity has gradually disappeared over the years and highlight the
expanding gap between articles and all other minor contributions that enhance
the conversations of disciplines but are not cited.
Chapter Four: Poster Makers Should Think as Much about Show Business as
Science. The Case of Medical Posters in a Diachronic Perspective.
This chapter describes a diachronic study of the medical poster. Focusing on
the discourse of medical posters and indicators of marketization processes
within this discourse, Stefania M. Maci investigates the relationship between
the socio-financial context and medical discourse and the ways business
aspects of the health care system contribute to genre variation in this
discourse. The corpus consists of 2,638 posters presented at medical
conferences between 1980s-2000s. The results indicate a shift in the language
of medical posters from a narrative to a disjunctive mode. The presence of
this disjunctive mode necessitates adherence to the IMRD (introduction,
method, results, discussion) pattern of scientific discourse. Moreover, the
results reveal a change in the type of lexical items used in medical posters
and the frequent use of the adjective ‘economic’ in the 2000-2009 corpus,
indicating a shift of focus from statistical and empirical analysis in the
years 1980-1999 to socio-economic, socio-political, and socio-cultural issues
in the decade 2000-2009.
Chapter Five: Dialogic Monologues: Commencement Speeches as an Evolving Genre.
This chapter deals with commencement speeches delivered by high-caliber
academic figures at graduation ceremonies in North American universities as an
academic genre. Taking a diachronic perspective, Martin Solly examines generic
and rhetorical strategies and moves used in this genre since 1947. This
investigation indicates that monologues are becoming more and more dialogic
and interactive, and that the marketization of higher education and social
change have had a strong impact on the evolution of this genre. However, some
of the main features of this genre such as its framing in the academic context
have remained the same.
Chapter Six: Diachronic Evolution of Scientific Popularised Articles in Online
Newspapers: Critical Reflections on El Mundo.
This chapter presents the results of a diachronic study of the popularization
of scientific discourse in Spain. In this comparative study, Paula de Santiago
accounts for the evolution of web genres in online newspapers, comparing the
online supplement Salud and the online section Websalud of the Spanish
newspaper El Mundo. The focus of the study is on the form and functionality of
the articles analyzed. The results of this textual analysis are juxtaposed
with insights from three interviews with the Health Department of the
newspaper El Mundo as well. The findings indicate that social relevance is a
significant factor in topic selection and the hyper-textual and hyper-modal
capacities of the world wide web are used to a greater extent in the articles
specifically designed for cyber space.
Chapter Seven: A Diachronic Study of the Q&A Column in a Popular Science
Magazine
This chapter is about the diachronic evolution of science article
popularization in Taiwan over a span of thirty years. It indicates how the
relationship between genre users influences genres and their features over
time. Drawing on a model adopted from critical genre analysis (Bhatia 2004),
Min-Hsiu Liao describes Q&A columns and explains their social and historical
interactions with popular science development. The corpus consists of all the
correspondence in the Q&A column in Science Monthly from 1970-1999. The study
concludes that changes at textual, institutional, and social levels are the
result of the interaction among these layers of practice and do not
necessarily follow a top down or a bottom up pattern.
Section Two: Institutional and Business Discourse.
The chapters in this section address genre variation and evolution in
institutional and business discourse.
Chapter Eight: FAO’s Food Insecurity Reports: An Evolving Genre.
This chapter reports on a diachronic study of the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) reports on the State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) from
1999-2009. Adopting a combination of a text-analytical approach (Werlich,
1983) and the study of the encoding / decoding context (Bhatia, 1993, 2004;
Swales, 1990) as the methodological framework, Annarita Tavani (a) provides
an analysis of distinctive characteristics of the SOFI reports and the
sub-genres they define, and (b) explores the diachronic evolution of
discursive practices used in this domain-specific genre. The corpus consists
of ten issues of the report. The findings indicate that in spite of the
structural stability of the documents, the distribution of text types and the
organization of topics are different across several editions.
Chapter Nine: The Genre Evolution of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Reports
from 1953- 2010.
This chapter deals with a diachronic analysis of the evolution of the UN
Secretary-General’s Annual Reports over a 60-year period. Drawing on Swales
(1990, 2004) and Bhatia’s (1993, 2004) analytical frameworks, Cristina
Pennarola and Germana D’Acquisto indicate how discursive and linguistic
features of this genre have changed and how this genre, as an informative
genre, has evolved into a self-promotional genre expanding its communicative
purpose and domain of address. The corpus consists of 37 UN
Secretary-General’s Annual Reports on the Work of the Organization from
1953-2010. The analysis indicates significant changes in the narrative focus
and the authorial stance across the early and the recent reports.
Chapter Ten: From Making to Promoting Law: An Investigation into the Evolution
of ‘Food safety’ Discourse in EU Summaries.
This chapter presents a diachronic comparative analysis of the Summaries of
European legislation as a popularized form of the specialized genre of
Directives and a manifestation of the institutional legal discourse of the
European Union. Drawing on genre analysis, critical discourse analysis, and
studies on modality, Vanda Polese and Stefania D’Avanzo provide a contextual
framework to the analysis of this genre, analyze its features, and explore the
value of modal auxiliaries in this genre. The corpus consists of Summaries of
EU Directives in the thematic area of food safety from 1982 to 2008. The
findings indicate an increase in the occurrence of shall and migrating quotes
in the 1990s followed by a decrease in the 2000s. The authors conclude that
the discursive strategies identified in this study are functional to
strengthening legitimation and credibility in EU’s involvement in food safety.
Chapter Eleven: Genre-bending for Consensus Building: A Diachronic Perspective
on Monsanto’s Pledge Reports (2000-2009).
This chapter reports on a diachronic analysis of a business genre; namely
pledge reports. Taking a discourse-analytical approach to corporate social
responsibility communication, Paola Catenaccio traces the evolution of the
discursive strategies used in the reports published by the biotechnology giant
Monsanto over a span of 10 years. The corpus consists of all reports issued
between 2000 and 2009. The analysis indicates that although this genre has not
had dramatic changes over the years, the argumentative component of this genre
has increased progressively.
Chapter Twelve: Apologetic Discourse in Financial Reporting: CEO and Chairman
Statements. A Case Study.
This chapter deals with a diachronic study of apologetic discourse in Annual
Company Reports (ACRs). The study investigates the influence of external
circumstances on rhetorical strategies. Drawing upon the findings of Ware and
Linkugel (1973), Cinzia Giglioni analyzes the use of apologetic discourse
over time and its role in generic variation focusing on CEO’s and Chairman’s
Statements in ACRs. The corpus of the study is drawn from online resources and
consists of eighteen company reports issued in 2000 and 2009 by nine UK
companies. The findings reveal variations in this genre and highlight that
variations are related to the nature of economic outlook at each of the
above-mentioned periods.
Chapter Thirteen: The CEO’s New Year’s Message from the 1960s to 2000.
This chapter presents a study of the diachronic evolution of a business genre,
the CEO’s New Year’s message, in the period from the 1960s to 2000. Combining
qualitative and quantitative methods, Sylvain Dieltjens and Priscilla
Heynderickx analyze changes in various aspects of this genre such as length,
format, proportion of negative vs. positive information, structure of the
message, and linguistic features. They also examine the difference in
manifestation of this genre in times of crisis and times of economic
stability. The corpus consists of 142 New Year’s messages collected from the
archives of different Belgian companies. The findings indicate that although
the texts have become longer, the extent of attention to wishes have
decreased. CEOs ask for more dedication, and their sense of obligation to
thank employees for their efforts have decreased. Moreover, there is
variation in this genre in times of economic crisis and economic stability.
Business-related information has increased and become more detailed during
crisis times.
Chapter Fourteen: From Job Announcements to Recruitment Advertising: The
Evolution of Recruitment Ads in a Flemish Newspaper (1946-2010).
This chapter reports on a diachronic study of job ads. Drawing on textual
findings and factors in the Flemish context, Paul Gillaerts describes the
evolution of this genre in the Flemish newspaper De Standard over a period of
sixty years through a combination of various genre analytical approaches. The
findings indicate that in spite of the diachronic development of this genre
and high level of stability of its constituent moves, the strategies and
steps used in this genre indicate genre bending and mixing with other genres
such as direct mail and commercial advertising. The analysis also reveals the
growing significance of stance and interaction in this genre, which in turn
indicate the marketization of the genre.
Chapter Fifteen: Genre Variation and Genre Change: Theory and Applications.
In this chapter, Francesca Santulli focuses on the dynamic relationship
between genre and change, emphasizing attention to synchronic and diachronic
aspects of the concept of genre. She argues that genre functions can only be
explained in the light of their change and evolution. She applies the pattern
of genre variation and evolution to the analysis of the travel guide genre.
The origin of this text genre and some aspects of its recent evolutions are
the two aspects that are taken into account. The findings highlight the
significant role of the historical context in emergence, development, and
evolution of genre in general and the tourist guide in particular.
EVALUATION
“Genre Change in the Contemporary World” is an invaluable collection of
cutting-edge studies in the domain of genre analysis. The chapters are nicely
categorized into two sections, academic discourse and business discourse, and
each chapter demonstrates interesting research into a genre within these two
discourses. The categorization of studies and thematic coherence among them
provide a sense of flow and unity through the book. The volume requires
background knowledge on the concept of genre and genre analysis research. It
is an intriguing and insightful read for novice and established members of the
discourse community. It provides a multi-dimensional picture of genre change
in the contemporary world in the true sense of the word, sketches the concept
of genre in transition, draws attention to forces that shape it, and shed
light on dynamic as well as static aspects of different genres against various
waves of change.
Marina Bondi and Silvia Cavalieri’s research and Davide S. Giannoni’s study
are
noteworthy in terms of their methodological approaches. These studies adopt
an integrative methodological approach combining corpus and discourse
perspectives as well as quantitative and qualitative tools to investigate the
evolution of the abstract and genre variation in academic publishing
respectively. Using mixed data collection methods and tools increases the
reliability and validity of these studies and their findings.
Martin Solly’s chapter is the only chapter in this volume that focuses on an
oral genre, the commencement speech. This is appreciated, since genre studies
have mainly focused on written genres. Moreover, the findings of this research
study in terms of the role of social trends in the evolution of this genre and
its popularizing function are extremely interesting.
Min-Hsiu Liao’s study is also noteworthy in several respects. It addresses the
popularization of scientific discourse as a hot topic in genre studies, and
focuses on the role of genre users as an evolutionary force. It steps beyond
textual features of discourse and expands the investigation to institutional
and social aspects of discourse. Last but not least, it highlights the
interactions and reciprocal relationship among these discoursal spaces.
Sylvain Dieltjens and Priscilla Heynderickx’s research and Cinzia Giglioni’s
study are among the interesting chapters of the second section of this volume.
In addition to the diachronic nature of their analyses, which is a common
feature of research studies in this volume, these papers highlight the key
role of socioeconomic forces and situations in the emergence and evolution of
genres, discursive practices, and rhetorical strategies of genre users.
Francesca Santulli’s exploratory study on the travel guide as a recent text
genre provides a nice closing for this volume. It is noteworthy in that
Santulli highlights the significant role of the historical context in the
emergence, development, and evolution of genre, and presents a theoretical
approach in which she focuses on the dynamic relationship between genre and
change and emphasizes attention to synchronic and diachronic aspects of the
concept of genre.
This volume opens a fresh perspective on research into genre, and highlights
where future research needs to focus. It draws attention to more complicated
aspects of genre, redefining genre analysis in a social context beyond
conventional textual and formalistic aspects. It sheds light on the role of
socio-political and contextual factors in shaping and transforming genres. The
diachronic perspective of the research in this volume highlights the
transitory and context-bound nature of genre. The reciprocal relationship
between genre and discourse community, genre and social context, and text and
context are illustrated and the pivotal role of social trends and phenomena in
evolution, extinction and mutation of genres are nicely demonstrated. Another
distinctive aspect of this volume is its focus on the role of technological
innovations, especially computer-mediated technologies, in creation,
redefinition, transformation, and evolution of genres. Variety in
methodological approaches and implications for further study are also useful
for the reader.
REFERENCES
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings.
London: Loman.
Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-based Approach.
London: Continuum.
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research
settings. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres: Explorations and applications. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Ware, B. L., Linkugel, W. A. (1973). They Spoke in Defense of Themselves: On
the Generic Criticism of Apologia. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 59, 273-283.
Werlich, E. (1983). A Text Grammar of English. Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pejman Habibie is the Lead teacher assistant in the Faculty of Education at
the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests are EAP,
EPAP, academic writing and publishing, genre analysis, and doctoral education.
Aug 24
ThE CLOwNbook review
AUTHOR: Jeremy Munday
TITLE: Evaluation in Translation
SUBTITLE: Critical points of translator decision-making
PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Daniele Russo, University of Milan
SUMMARY
The overarching idea of this volume is that translation and interpretation can
be seen as a means through which different perspectives from both political
and personal viewpoints can be transferred into a target culture; therefore,
this book investigates the linguistic signs of a translator’s intervention and
subjective evaluation when translating an oral or written text. The main
theoretical model adopted is drawn from appraisal theory (Martin and White
2008), which sets out to describe the different components of a speaker’s
attitude, the strength of that attitude (gradation) and the degree of
alignment between the speakers, the sources of attitude and the receiver
(engagement). This theory is based on Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday
1994, Halliday and Mathiessen [sic] 2004) and focuses specifically on the
interpersonal metafunction of language that relates to the social
interactivity between the writer and the reader. The author investigates the
translator’s mediation, or intervention, through an analysis of evaluation
based upon the appraisal model in various translational contexts.
The volume is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is a theoretical
introduction to the main notions regarding appraisal theory and how these can
be applied to translation. The theory is subsequently tested on a range of
translational contexts in order to reveal the points wherein subjectivity can
be encountered and the decision-making processes associated with them. The
following chapters are dedicated to these scenarios.
Chapter 2 investigates the simultaneous interpreting of a key political event
— US President Barack Obama’s inaugural address given on the 20th January
2009 in Washington DC. This speech received world-wide coverage and was
translated or interpreted in different languages in various media in a great
number of countries. This variety of versions provides a good opportunity to
analyze the strategies adopted by the translators. In this chapter three
different translations into Spanish are analyzed, along with written
translations of the same speech, and translations into other languages as well
(namely French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and American Sign Language). As in
this speech judgment is expressed mainly through lexical expressions, the
author suggests that the “graduation” (standardization) of certain critical
points is context-dependent and is performed by translators and interpreters
to maintain the style of the speech and convey the message by avoiding
culture-specific references that are not easily grasped by foreign audiences.
The viewpoints of professional technical translators as to what is critical in
a text are dealt with in Chapter 3, in which the author presents a survey
which he carried out through direct telephone and email interviews and by
analysing a number of discussions on the online forums KudoZ and SENSE. The
data shows that evaluation strategies are deemed fundamental even in the
translation of technical texts, which are usually believed to be more
objective and less subject to interpretation. In this process information
technologies are vital to cover gaps in the translator’s encyclopedic
knowledge and the lack of direct correspondences between source and target
texts.
Chapter 4 focuses upon the literary translator and reviser. In this chapter
translator archives are used to research decision-making processes through the
revisions made at different points of drafts involving multiple subjects, i.e.
author, translator, editor, and reviser. The analysis of the exchange of ideas
between these subjects helps to explain some of these decisions and to point
out the main difficulties in their texts. Three case studies are described:
the revision of the Penguin translation of a text by the 1st century Roman
historian Tacitus, in which paratexts and extratextual factors play a vital
role in determining translation strategy; the translation and revisions of
novels and essays of the Peruvian Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, where
the copious correspondence between all the participants show us their points
of view; and the translation and self-revision by translator David Bellos of
the novel “Life: A User’s Manual” by George Perec. These texts are accompanied
by a great number of archival documents, which, in the author’s opinion, have
so far been underutilized by translation scholars. In the first case, the
paratextual material (preface and endnotes) imposes a specific reading on the
reader, which underlines the misinterpretation of the text by Nazi Germany
(the translation was carried out in the end of World War II) in supporting its
political agenda. In the second case the correspondence between the translator
and Vargas Llosa points out that the most culture-specific elements of the
source texts, such as Peruvian expressions and word related to the flora and
fauna of that country, tend to be more standardized in the target texts,
possibly to bring the narrative context closer to the target reader. Perec’s
novel, the third case study, is characterized by word puzzles, puns and a
large number of intertextual references, all of which represent a great
challenge for a translator. The analysis of the translator’s self-revision of
this translated text show the translator’s intention to make the language more
idiomatic through lexical and syntactic changes in order to avoid calques from
the French text.
In Chapter 5 translation variation is the object of an experiment involving
the translations by various translator-trainee students of the same extract of
about 300 words from Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “Emma Zunz.” The purpose
of the experiment is to see what remains invariant in most of the students’
target texts and what is subject to the most variation. The results are then
compared with some of the students’ translations in the technical field. The
conclusion of this study is that in literary texts, variation is mostly found
on the syntagmatic axis of language (more specifically, at the level of the
individual word) whereas in technical texts the paradigmatic axis (the
disposition of phrases in sentences) is most often involved.
The author’s final conclusions are presented in Chapter 6. He insists on the
usefulness of appraisal theory for the study of translation. The different
case studies in the previous chapters tell us much about the process of
establishing equivalents between source text and target text involved in
translation. As a constant evaluative process, translation requires checking
all possible target texts against the source text in order to balance the
gains and losses of each choice. Therefore, translators mostly show a
“tactical” attitude as they both reproduce and rework the source text (more
often unconsciously but sometimes consciously). This chapter concludes with
future directions of this research, such as the effects of the translator’s
experience in translation choices, the impact of text genre and selections,
and the investigation of reader response.
EVALUATION
The translational contexts summarized in the previous section constitute an
analysis of critical points (as defined by the author) in different modes
(oral or written translation), different genres, different languages, and with
different levels of expertise. This multiple perspective makes this volume
innovative for both its subject matter and the methodology. It is a book worth
reading for researchers and postgraduates studying translation theory and
practice, as it succeeds in combining a sound theoretical framework with
relevant case studies.
In order to tackle the issue of texts being influenced by the translator’s
views this book focuses on the translation process — rather than the product
— and points out the problem areas wherein the translator’s ideology can
interpose between the source text and the foreign reader. The appraisal model
is also tested in order to determine to what extent it can help when analyzing
the translator’s work. The findings of the empirical case studies indicate
that variation is dependent upon word class, as if in every text there is an
invariant core and another part susceptible of variation. Concrete nouns (e.g.
‘table, man, money’) proved the most stable in translation, as well as
abstract words with a precise semantic meaning (e.g. ‘fear’). The elements
that are more likely to show variation are adverbs and modal particles acting
as modifiers (e.g. ‘badly’), culture-specific references (e.g. ‘patchwork
heritage’), descriptive or judging adjectives (e.g. ‘shrinking, deprived,
run-down’), and verbs denoting attitude (e.g. ‘wield, harness’). In literary
translation, in particular, the author observes that markedness is often
reduced — and significantly never increased — in the initial stages but
intensification is adjusted at the revision stage, although the main concern
mostly remains a stylistic natural rendering in the target text.
The case studies analyzed in the book deal with a number of languages with the
support of English translations for those who do not command all of them. The
range of texts is so varied (literary texts, technical texts, students’
translations, oral political speeches, etc.) that Translation Studies scholars
will find interesting contributions for their specific genre of interest.
Compared with previous work in the field this book shows a very pragmatic
approach and provides sensible explanations for the role of evaluation in
translation. Furthermore, this book offer insights about further improvements
in translator and interpreter training and provides valuable contributions to
descriptive translation studies. The most valuable aspect of this book is that
it bridges the gap between academics and industry professionals.
REFERENCES
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London,
Arnold.
Halliday, Michael A. K and Christopher Mathiessen [sic]. 2004. An Introduction to
Functional Grammar. London, Arnold.
Martin, James R. and Peter R. R. White. 2008. The Language of Evaluation:
Appraisal in English. London, Palgrave.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Dr. Daniele Russo is a faculty member at the University of Milan, where he
teaches English Language and English Linguistics to undergraduates. His
research interests include translation criticism, diachronic linguistics,
medical specialised language and translation. He is also a translator of
fiction and specialised literature.
Aug 09
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Call for Papers /Information for contributors
The aim of the International Journal of Language and Culture (IJoLC) is to disseminate cutting-edge research that explores the interrelationship between language and culture. The journal is multidisciplinary in scope and seeks to provide a forum for researchers interested in the interaction between language and culture across several disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, applied linguistics, psychology and cognitive science. The journal publishes high-quality, original and state-of-the-art articles that may be theoretical or empirical in orientation and that advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between language and culture. IJoLC is a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year.
The International Journal of Language and Culture welcomes authoritative, innovative articles. Topics of interest to the Journal include, but are not limited to the following:
a. Culture and the structure of language,
b. Language, culture, and conceptualisation,
c. Language, culture, and politeness,
d. Language, culture, and emotion,
e. Culture and language development,
f. Language, culture, and communication.
http://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/ijolc/main
Manuscripts, books for review and all editorial correspondence can be sent to the Editor: Farzad Sharifian (cl-ijolc@monash.edu)
Aug 09
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Analyzing Genres in Political Communication
Subtitle: Theory and practice
Series Title: Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 50
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/dapsac.50
Editor: Piotr Cap
Editor: Urszula Okulska
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271488 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 149.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271488 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 99.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271488 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 83.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206411 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 104.94
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206411 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 83.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206411 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 149.00
Abstract:
Featuring contributions by leading specialists in the field, the volume is a
survey of cutting edge research in genres in political discourse. Since, as is
demonstrated, “political genres” reveal many of the problems pertaining to the
analysis of communicative genres in general, it is also a state-of-the-art
addition to contemporary genre theory. The book offers new methodological,
theoretical and empirical insights in both the long-established genres
(speeches, interviews, policy documents, etc.), and the modern,
rapidly-evolving generic forms, such as online political ads or weblogs. The
chapters, which engage in timely issues of genre mediatization, hybridity,
multimodality, and the mixing of discursive styles, come from a broad range of
perspectives spanning Critical Discourse Studies, pragmatics, cognitive
psychology, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and media studies. As such,
they constitute essential reading for anyone seeking an interdisciplinary yet
coherent research agenda within the vast and complex territory of today’s
forms of political communication.
Aug 09
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Argumentation in Political Interviews
Subtitle: Analyzing and evaluating responses to accusations of inconsistency
Series Title: Argumentation in Context 5
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/aic.5
Author: Corina Andone
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271754 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 128.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271754 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 85.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027271754 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 71.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027211224 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 90.10
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027211224 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 71.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027211224 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 128.00
Abstract:
In Argumentation in Political Interviews Corina Andone uses the
pragma-dialectical concept of strategic maneuvering to gain a better
understanding of political interviews as argumentative practices. She analyzes
and evaluates the way in which politicians react in political interviews to
the accusation that the position they currently hold is inconsistent with a
position they advanced before. The politicians’ responses to such charges are
examined for their strategic function by concentrating on a number of concrete
cases and explaining how the arguers try to enhance their chances of winning
the discussion. In addition, the soundness criteria are formulated for judging
properly when the politicians’ responses are indeed reasonable.This book is
important to argumentation theorists, discourse analysts, communication
scholars and all other researchers and students interested in the way in which
language is used for the purpose of persuasion in a political context. Corina
Andone is Assistant Professor of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory
and Rhetoric at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam in
the Netherlands.
Jul 21
ThE CLOwNbook review
AUTHOR: Deborah Cameron
TITLE: Verbal Hygiene
SERIES TITLE: Routledge Linguistics Classics
PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Noriko Watanabe, Kwansei Gakuin University
SUMMARY
The volume reviewed here is a new edition of Cameron’s (C hereafter) book,
“Verbal Hygiene”, originally published in 1995. As the author mentions in the
Forward of the new edition, the volume’s main text includes no significant
revisions. Added to the old edition are a foreword (17 pages) and an afterword
(26 pages), which give an updated frame to this classic 17 years after its
first publication.
The Foreword begins with C’s definition of verbal hygiene: “the motley
collection of discourses and practices through which people attempt to ‘clean
up’ language and make its structure or its use conform more closely to their
ideals of beauty, truth, efficiency, logic, correctness and civility” (p.vii).
C emphasizes that verbal hygiene is neither wrong nor right, but exists
because the very notion of language and metalinguistic awareness of language
as a system calls for the practice of imposing normativity. C maintains that,
although there have been changes that pertain to language since the last
edition was published (e.g. the emergence of digital experts on language on
the net and the lessened authority of printed media), her thesis has not
changed since 1995. In fact, she has learned that verbal hygiene is even more
pervasive than she originally thought.
Chapter 1 lays out the issues that C discusses in the subsequent chapters. One
issue is the problems of prescriptivism. According to C, prescriptivism is a
type of verbal hygiene. Linguists view all varieties of English as equally
appropriate for certain contexts, and they do not necessarily make value
judgments about regional and social varieties. At the same time, however, C
points out that the philosophy of “leave your language alone” is also
ideological in itself. C sees both of the positions as not escaping
normativity. Attention to normativity is often magnified because linguistic
order stands for order of a different kind. For example, prescriptivism is
deemed important and necessary because it is often claimed that communication
will break down if it is neglected, and if communication breaks down, the
unity of a nation is threatened. The verbal hygiene of prescriptivism
represents, in C’s view, fear of fragmentation.
Chapter 2 points out that style in English can be hyperstandardized and
commodified, and that the ultimate goal of the verbal hygiene of style is not
uniformity and consistency, but financial and professional satisfaction.
Through her analysis of editorial practices of English-language newspapers and
publishers, as well as the genealogy of the modern writing style, C shows that
“stylistic values are symbolic of moral, social, ideological and political
values” (p. 77).
Chapter 3 reviews the grammar reform and the “hysteria” that surrounded the
Education Reform Act of 1988 in the United Kingdom. C considers the grammar
debate to be a case of moral panic, that is, the phenomenon of a social issue
suddenly receiving intense scrutiny accompanied with attributions of moral
significance that project a sense of urgency and distraught emotion. C points
out that conflicting emotions surface in debates about grammar: failure and
humiliation on one hand, and nostalgia about the good old days of order and
certainty on the other. According to C, grammar stands for moral values, and
the debate is generated out of anxiety over the state of British culture in
the context of emergent pluralism. Conservatives have taken the opportunity to
address the fear and anxiety about the state of British culture through
control of the English language and portrayal of the development of diversity
in linguistic matters as fragmentation of the nation. The stakes in the debate
have been multiplied by the emotional and moral implications that are linked
to political and ideological issues. In the debate in question, language
ultimately served to unite conservatives who feared losing support because of
their own fragmentation as a political party. Here, C proposes that linguists
should be involved in such a debate by proposing better alternatives based on
critical examinations of standards and values.
Chapter 4 focuses on concerns over political correctness as acts of verbal
hygiene. C discusses various debates over political correctness, including
feminist crusades for non-sexist language and controversy over racially
discriminatory expressions. In C’s view, political correctness politicizes
language, and makes it impossible not to offend someone; liberals accuse
people of violating the contract that there is a fixed, word-to-world
relationship, and conservatives accuse political correctness of abusing and
prescribing our relationship with language by restricting freedom of word
meaning. What is behind the tension between political correctness and its
opponents is the question of how a society with diverse points of view and
customs can communicate and possibly share common cultures. This chapter
introduces the idea that a perfect language, in which everyone agrees on what
certain words mean, is almost impossible. As a result of indeterminacy of
meaning, it all comes down to whose meaning prevails and who can be the
authority of word semantics.
Chapter 5 examines advice to women on how to use language. The coaching
literature teaches women to be more “effective” workers, leaders, and partners
in relationships with men. C analyzes the emergence of advice to women as
essentially portraying women as being different from men. It assumes
individual women should change their ways of behaving and use language so that
they can be more like men, or get along with men, for whom there is no need
for change. Aside from the coaching literature, the author’s dissatisfaction
comes from popular literature that is marketed as books on communication
between men and women. As an example, C points out that the readers of Debora
Tannen’s popular book “You Just Don’t Understand” liked reading it not because
it will change the way women speak, or challenge the dichotomy of women and
men’s speech, but because they could find themselves in the book and indulge
in the camaraderie that stories about frustrating communication with men
bring.
Chapter 6 inquires about the functions of verbal hygiene in society. The
intensity with which verbal hygiene is pursued raises questions about the
motives for the quest. C traces the motives to a desire for order and a fear
of disorder. She further states that it is not possible to eliminate verbal
hygiene, but it is possible to tame irrational impulses. C is critical of
linguists’ views that all language usages are equal and that it is natural to
have language change because these views certainly ignore ubiquitous acts of
verbal hygiene, such as correcting grammar and attaching social meanings to
certain forms. In C’s view, rationalization of correctness and normativity is
inevitable, and thus, she questions why linguists assert that such indexical
meanings do not exist.
In the Afterword, C comments on developments since the last edition was
published in 1995: technological advances, which have resulted in the
proliferation of non-standard language in the digital world; a semantic shift
of the term “political correctness”; brain-based accounts of gender
differences, which C terms “neurosexism”; and acts of verbal hygiene that
globalization brings.
EVALUATION
“Verbal Hygiene” is a major work in sociolinguistics that addresses the
critical issue of the relationship between English and its users. It documents
a wide range of activities with which English users in the United Kingdom
attempt to control others to conform to their ideal ways of using the
language. In turn, verbal hygiene is motivated by concerns of a different
dimension, such as political stance or fear of disorder. The author gives
careful thought to case studies of language-related arguments and the politics
that underpin and fuel emotionally charged responses to them. Much of C’s
analyses are applicable to discursive interventions at the metalinguistic and
metapragmatic levels in other modern societies with standardized language,
printed media, and formal education. For this reason, the theoretical
implications of the book go beyond English. Verbal hygiene is closely related
to research on language ideologies (Silverstein 1979, Schieffelin, Woolard &
Kroskrity 1998) and, to some extent, Language Management Theory (Jernudd &
Neustupný 1987, Spolsky 2009), as C acknowledges in the Foreword of the new
edition. While the literature on language ideologies also describes and
discusses heated arguments over languages in which such ideologies are
emergent, C’s book does an excellent job of capturing the psychological
aspects of the hygienic acts and the fastidiousness which originates in
emotional linkage to language. Thus, C’s work highlights how and why arguments
about language often turn into emotionally intense bickering.
One drawback of the way C analyzes verbal hygiene phenomena is that she tends
to focus heavily on explicitly articulated language ideologies and
metalinguistic commentaries. Even though C says that she is interested in the
public’s concerns over language, many of the examples come from published
material and comments of experts in the media, such as editors, authors,
activists, educators, politicians, newspaper columnists, and other linguists.
At times, more detailed data that can support C’s points seem to be missing.
For example, when she discusses a dispute over a particular incident at an
American university regarding whether the use of the words “water buffalo” was
racist, C interprets and imagines what the offended party must have thought
instead of finding support from newspaper articles or interviews (pp.
157-158). In addition, there is no reference given for the incident, and it is
not clear how C learned about it.
There are several interesting theoretical questions the book raises that are
still relevant 17 years after its original publication. The first question is
whether sociolinguistics should be socially engaged. C explicitly questions
the attitudes of linguists who refrain from making judgments on emergent
language matters because of their opposition to what she calls
“prescriptivism”. To C, it is a contradiction that linguists oppose
prescriptivism, while subscribing to the principle of non-involvement as if it
were a prescribed rule for them. In his review of C’s 1995 edition, Milroy
(1997) states that C’s characterization of linguistics here is not fair
because the field of linguistics is populated with scholars whose academic
interests are diverse, and because those who study various subfields of
linguistics are not engaged in norm-making, nor are they interested in making
prescriptive comments to the public on issues of language. Milroy may have a
point about the limitations of C’s view of linguistics, but the question here
is the extent to which linguistics should be constructed as socially relevant
and whether linguists should be engaged with the public when language is at
the center of controversy in the political arena. C is dissatisfied with and
disagrees with the vision of linguistics as it is. In other words, C would
like to propose a change in what linguists think they should do and urge them
to reexamine how linguistics should be conceived in relation to the public and
its concerns. That is an ambitious enterprise.
Although linguists should not forget nor choose to ignore that their research
agendas exist within a broader intellectual frame, including the value system
on which society is built, how linguists engage with society is complicated.
One major point C makes is that she believes in “rational” and “informed”
debates about language matters and that linguists should offer input to
debates over language issues. As she so clearly points out, however, arguments
about language tend to be linked to moral values, and if this recognition of
what language ideologies are is taken seriously, there should be no surprise
that the definition of ‘rational’ has extremely fuzzy boundaries. In fact, at
the end of the present edition, she remarks that her confidence in the public
engaging in rational discussions on politicized linguistic issues is waning,
to some extent (pp. 262-263).
“Verbal Hygiene” is indeed thought-provoking, but there is one issue C
discusses in her Afterword that could have been developed further, possibly
into an additional chapter for the new edition: the issue of the role of
English itself in the increasingly multilingual, borderless world. In her
Afterword, she presents stimulating discussions on how verbal hygiene is used
to manage problems that are brought on by diversity and globalization. For
example, C makes a reference to TV commentator and historian David Starkey’s
linking of speaking Jafaican, a variety of English originating in
multicultural neighborhoods in London, to a 2011 riot. In addition, C
discusses that speaking English is taken as a proof of subscribing to certain
political views and cultural values: English is constructed and conceived as
unifying the country, being modern, democratic, and rational, while other
languages such as Arabic are implicated as “irrational” (pp. 239-243). This is
reminiscent of the issues she examined in Chapter 3, but is reinterpreted in
the emergent context of the post-9/11 era. C’s closer examination of such
issues is likely to be productive.
Overall, “Verbal Hygiene” successfully makes its case that people’s
involvement with language matters is indeed unavoidable and that verbal
hygiene is a pervasive phenomenon. The second edition is merited because the
theoretical issues the book raises are still relevant and worth discussing,
although the present reviewer would have liked C to have added a chapter on
English in the age of globalization and plurilingualism.
REFERENCES
Jernudd, B. H. & Neustupný, J. V. 1987. “Language plannning: For whom?” In L.
Laforge (ed.), Actes du Colloque international sur l’aménagement linguistique
/ Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Language Planning. Québec:
Les Presses de L’Université Laval, 69–84.
Milroy, James. 1997 Review of “Verbal Hygiene” by Deborah Cameron 1995,
London: Routledge, Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1/1, 127–133.
Schieffelin, Bambi.B., Woolard, Kathryn.A., & Kroskrity, Paul.V. (eds.) 1998
Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Silverstein, Michael. 1979 “Language structure and linguistic ideology.” The
Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels. ed. Paul R. Clyne,
William F. Hanks, and Carol L. Hofbauer, Chicago Linguistic Society. 193–247.
Spolsky, B. 2009. Language Management. New York: Cambridge University Press.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Noriko Watanabe holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and has taught Japanese and
English at universities in the United States and Japan. Her research
interests include writing systems, language ideologies, and narrative
discourse.
Jul 20
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhbook review
EDITOR: Roberta Piazza
EDITOR: Monika Bednarek
EDITOR: Fabio Rossi
TITLE: Telecinematic Discourse
SUBTITLE: Approaches to the language of films and television series
SERIES TITLE: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 211
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2011
REVIEWER: Julia Gillen, Lancaster University
SUMMARY
This collection of articles approaches an area of media studies relatively
rarely examined by linguists. A variety of approaches are taken to the
language of films and television series across British, American and Italian
cultures. The authors offer a variety of methodologies and perspectives on the
complexities of telecinematic discourse — more specifically, films, film
trailers and television series. One key theme taken up in several chapters is
that spoken dialogues of such genres have to differ from spontaneous discourse
at every linguistic level to be acceptable; authentic rhythms, content, and a
lack of teleological efficacy of everyday talk would not be tolerated. Yet at
the same time, an impression of verisimilitude has to be established in the
audience’s minds to enable a degree of suspension of disbelief. How such
dilemmas are realised in different genres is one significant focus of the
work, as are the ways in which individual characters can be differentiated.
The authors all argue that when working from a linguistic basis, it is
necessary to combine analyses that attend to other modes and offer diverse,
always detailed, demonstrations of their empirical work.
Chapter 1. Introduction: Analysing telecinematic discourse
Roberta Piazza, Monika Bednarek and Fabio Rossi
This chapter, by the editors, sets out to differentiate the two media
discourses studied — that of cinematic film and TV series. Four key issues
are identified: the relationship between represented and interactive
participants; the interface between the verbal and visual; the definition of
characters; and the relationship between real life and fictional discourses.
The authors explain and illustrate how the re-creation or re-presentation of
the world ”is always in line with the specific socio-cultural conventions of
the society in which telecinematic texts are produced. It is also in line
with a particular ‘media logic’ (Iedema 2001: 187) which differentiates these
products….” (p. 9). This sets the agenda for the following chapters, which
take different approaches to identifying and analysing how media logic
operates in specific examples.
Part I. Cinematic discourse
Chapter 2. Discourse analysis of film dialogues: Italian comedy between
linguistic realism and pragmatic non-realism
Fabio Rossi
Rossi demonstrates how the dubbed audio track featured not just in foreign
films, but also in Italian films, compares with spontaneous real-life talk. He
finds that film genres display fewer characteristics of spontaneous speech
such as redundancy, hesitation, overlap, etc., and show a higher degree of
coherence and cohesion. However, this aligns with audience expectations; just
as camera conventions are not naturalistic, but become expected, the
introduction of an ”excess of realism” would be jarring to the viewer.
Chapter 3. Using film as linguistic specimen: Theoretical and practical issues
Michael Álvarez-Pereyre
The author demonstrates how the very qualities that differentiate film
discourse from spontaneous real-life talk make it suitable for pedagogical
purposes. He points out that the objection that dialogues in films are
different from spontaneous speech is to ignore that substantial proportions of
language as it is encountered are not spontaneous. Thus, Álvarez-Pereyre
further develops investigation of, what he terms, ‘filmspeak’ as a genre.
Chapter 4. Multimodal realisations of mind style in Enduring Love
Rocío Montoro
‘Mind style’ is a stylistics term referring to the ”linguistic features that
project the peculiarities of characters’ cognitive make-up,” (p. 70) in the
author’s explanation. Here, Montoro extends the traditional language-based
approach of stylistics into a multimodal approach. She combines the analysis
of verbal signs as ”mind style indicators” (p. 69) with the analysis of
gestures and camera perspectives. Montoro aims to increase our sensitivity to
how qualities of characterisation achieved in the novel ”Enduring Love” are
skilfully realised in the film adaptation of the same name, including through
the use of camera angles and gesture.
Chapter 5. Pragmatic deviance in realist horror films: A look at films by
Argento and Fincher
Roberta Piazza
As is the case with other authors in this volume, Piazza is particularly
interested in how unconventional characters are depicted, here, in the genre
of ”realist horror” or ”slashers.” He demonstrates how deviance,
characteristic of horror films, is communicated through violation of Gricean
cooperative maxims. As the book exemplifies as a whole, this chapter
endeavours to offer an approach to film studies ”rooted in linguistic
stylistics” (p. 86) and, through painstaking work, to demonstrate the
benefits of this. That is, rather than offer a broad critique of the films,
Piazza considers very short sections intensively, examining the pragmatics of
language used against all elements of the multimodal realisation. It is shown
how in this genre the killers infringe the maxim of relevance, thus presenting
themselves to the audience as abnormal.
Chapter 6. Emotion and empathy in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas : A case study
of the “funny guy” scene
Derek Bousfield and Dan McIntyre
The authors take a pragmatic approach to examining linguistic, paralinguistic
and kinesic manifestations of fear, seen as deriving from a lack of empathy
between two characters. The careful analysis of a two minute and 30 second
scene includes a multimodal transcript, likely to be helpful as a model to
others investigating both linguistic and non-linguistic features of film. They
demonstrate how the emotion of fear is realised in the complex interplay of
modes.
Chapter 7. Quantifying the emotional tone of James Bond films: An application
of the Dictionary of Affect in Language
Rose Ann Kozinski
Kozinski shows how the language of ”official” James Bond films differs from
Austin Powers parodies in the expression of emotionality. She deploys the
Dictionary of Affect in Language (Whissell 2009) to enable quantitative
analysis. The parodies adopt a distinctive tone she terms ”pleasant and
active”, whereas the Bond films demonstrate greater variety over time. Their
tone relates partly to the specific actor and partly according to temporal
cycles of variation in plot.
Chapter 8. Structure and function in the generic staging of film trailers: A
multimodal analysis
Carmen Daniela Maier
This chapter demonstrates an approach to the analysis of comedy film trailers
through examining their narrative structure. The author creates a framework
for investigation drawing on the work of Labov & Waletzky (1967). Applying
this reveals how all the nine stages of the prototypical comedy film trailer
contribute to the purpose of promotion, some implicitly and some explicitly.
Each stage is also associated with certain kinds of information given and
functions. Each specific trailer varies in how many of the stages are used and
their precise sequencing, but overall the model appears robust.
Part II. Televisual discourse
Chapter 9. “I don’t know what they’re saying half the time, but I’m hooked on
the series”: Incomprehensible dialogue and integrated multimodal
characterisation in The Wire
Michael Toolan
This chapter combines quantitative and qualitative analyses of TV series texts
with audience research. Toolan makes use of Kozloff’s (2000) idea of
”linguistic opacity” as part of the aesthetics of the TV series,
demonstrating how a strategy of deliberately inducing comprehension problems
in the audience is, at first sight, paradoxically, one of the means through
which the audience is engaged. So the police officers’ struggles to interpret
the gang’s intercepted communications involve the audience in this process.
Toolan ends by examining how dialogues are embedded multimodally and explains
how, for many viewers, this work was exceptional in conveying psychological
depth and sociological plausibility.
Chapter 10. The stability of the televisual character: A corpus stylistic case
study
Monika Bednarek
Stability of characterisation is usually assumed to be important to TV series,
i.e., that they do not change drastically over time. Using a corpus
linguistics approach, Bednarek demonstrates how stability of characterisation
is achieved, while still permitting the character some room for stylistic
differentiation, important for engaging the audience. Central to her
investigation of the ”Gilmore Girls” are analyses of a character’s
diachronic language variation across seasons and variation according to
interlocutor. For example, a term may appear far more frequently in earlier
episodes as the audience is encouraged to identify a character’s likes and
dislikes, but can later become more implied as the character has become more
established.
Chapter 11. Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine: A case study of language and
character in a televisual text
Susan Mandala
Here, the development of a character through a TV series, an essential part of
the plot, is shown to be achieved in large measure through changes in
(im)politeness strategies. In this case, the character focussed upon makes a
journey from cyborg to near-human, linguistically realised through adaptation
to politeness norms. For example, her early lack of negative politeness (Brown
& Levinson 1987) is gradually modified as she mitigates face-threating acts.
Chapter 12. Relationship impression formation: How viewers know people on the
screen are friends
Claudia Bubel
Using conversation analysis, Bubel investigates alignment patterns among four
central characters of the TV series Sex and the City. The specific interest is
the negotiation of friendship through shifting alignment patterns and
interpersonal affiliation/disaffiliation. In analysing shifting alignment
patterns Bubel considers both the negotiation of intersubjectivity and the
display of common cultural attitudes. She also illustrates the ways in which,
during conversation the four central characters affiliate with, for example,
one other and thus disaffiliate, at least momentarily, with at least one
other.
Chapter 13. Genre, performance and Sex and the City
Brian Paltridge, Angela Thomas and Jianxin Liu
Drawing on Butler’s (2004) notion of performativity, the authors analyse how
gendered identities are performed through the genre of casual conversation. A
major issue here is multimodality: non-linguistic modes of expression
belonging to the character such as dress and gesture are significant, as well
as the means by which these are framed. This chapter links strongly with the
last in providing theorised readings of this TV show that, for many, was a
significant cultural event.
Chapter 14. Bumcivilian: Systemic aspects of humorous communication in
comedies
Alexander Brock
Brock explores the creation of humour at various levels of language in terms
of linguistic deviance or incongruity by discussing a wide variety of
examples. He shows how incongruity can reside at any level of language, for
example, phonological, semantic or in the construction of an alternative
reading of the world. Brock demonstrates how incongruities can become
predictable, thus endangering the effect of humour. He concludes that the
development of a more complex understanding of humour is needed.
EVALUATION
This is a genuinely innovative collection of texts, examining aspects of media
discourse from a variety of different linguistics-based approaches. I can
imagine that a number of the chapters will be much cited as they lead to
promising directions of further investigation. However, I do own to two
questions that keep lingering as I have read and then re-read this book,
wondering how best to communicate its qualities to prospective readers. I want
to achieve something more useful in an evaluation than a mere reflection of my
own subjective responses to the chapters, grounded in my personal experiences.
I find it difficult to move far from my subjective responses with what became
my first major question: Is it necessary for the reader to have engaged with
the particular film or TV series in question in order to relate to the
chapters, and does a depth of engagement (i.e. in practice a liking for the
film or TV series) help? I have to admit that in general, I did often more
vividly appreciate the authors’ approaches when I was already familiar with
the media product. So, for example, my own strong positive responses to ”The
Wire”, ”Sex and the City” and ”Star Trek: Voyager” assisted my
understandings of some of the chapters about TV series. In particular,
Toolan’s multifaceted approach to the language of ”The Wire” seemed
extremely informative and original. When I was not familiar with the topic, I
sometimes struggled to understand the authors’ points. For example, it was
completely reasonable of Piazza, Bednarek and Rossi to illustrate their
introductory arguments in Chapter 1 through an extract from ”No Country for
Old Men,” a 2007 Coen brothers film, as a substantial proportion of likely
readers may be assumed to have seen it. As it happens, I regret to admit I
have not. For me, the extract the authors chose to discuss seemed hackneyed
and lifeless. Two unsubtle pieces of characterisation jump off the page as
indicative of psychopathic travelling baddie first encountering a hapless,
defenceless victim. I emphasise, of course, that this is no comment against
the film, but rather a reference to how the text seemed narrow and clichéd to
me when unfamiliar with the full multimodal presentation. As a result, I
doubtless lost something in my understanding of the discussion.
Yet, to return to my original question, it was not always the case that
familiarity with the media product led to my learning more from or further
appreciating the chapters. Rossi’s chapter, working with dubbing in
mid-twentieth century Italian films, conveyed fascinating insights into the
nature of film language. There are many very good chapters in the book; each
possesses some good qualities, but space precludes me from writing a proper
appreciation of them all. In my opinion, Rossi’s and Toolan’s chapters were
the most informative, multifaceted and enjoyable to read. Toolan’s energy in
combining a number of different approaches positively fizzes off the page.
Through willingness to combine methods including audience research, he wisely
avoided the presumption of homogeneity of reception, that for me at the very
least flavoured some interpretations in other chapters.
My second question remains one that still genuinely puzzles me. For me, there
is a glaring dividing line between the two approaches taken in the book. Did
the editors expect this dichotomy to emerge? The issue here is between two
approaches to telecinematic discourse. The first approach, that is most
clearly introduced by the editors, and exemplified in most chapters, is an
explicit recognition of the crafted nature of telecinematic discourse. Both
Rossi and Toolan, among others, never lose sight of the artificiality of the
media product. All authors, whether explicitly or implicitly, contribute
insights into how scripts are written and become effective. However, some tend
to occlude attention to the realised character as crafted, and instead analyse
the language of characters virtually as if they were real. Personal intentions
and communicative means through which they are pursued are ascribed to the
character herself or himself. There is always some reference to the context as
a media product, but nonetheless, I felt the tone to be very different from
the more dominant recognition of media product as craft. I regret that the
editors did not choose to discuss this issue and matters arising — a
concluding chapter could have been fascinating.
In sum, this is a thought-provoking book, appropriate for those who wish to
experiment with diverse approaches to media discourse from linguistic
perspectives that take account of other modalities. The editors and publishers
have done an excellent job of presentation; the texts are enhanced by careful
figures and tables, and the composite index is admirable.
REFERENCES
Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in
language useage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.
Iedema, Rick. 2001. Analysing film and television: a social semiotic account
of Hospital: an unhealthy business. In van Leeuwen, T. & Jewitt, C. Handbook
of visual analysis. London: Sage (183-204).
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California Press.
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personal experience. In J. Helm (ed). Essays on the verbal and visual arts.
Seattle: American Ethnological Society (12-44).
Whissell, Cynthia 2009. Using the revised Dictionary of Affect in Language to
quantify the emotional undertones of samples of natural language.
Psychological Reports 102: 469-483.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Julia Gillen is Senior Lecturer in Digital Literacies in the Literacy Research
Centre and Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster
University, UK. Her teaching responsibilities include supervising
dissertations in language and the media and convening an undergraduate course
called Understanding Media. She researches language in multimodal
interaction, approached through a sociocultural perspective. Fields of study
include: virtual worlds; Twitter; early childhood; sports journalism and the
Edwardian postcard.
Jul 20
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhbook review
AUTHOR: Nicholas J. Enfield
TITLE: The Anatomy of Meaning
SUBTITLE: Speech, Gesture, and Composite Utterances
SERIES TITLE: Language Culture and Cognition 8
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Katharine Parton, University of Melbourne
SUMMARY
This book analyzes utterances which occur using both speech and gesture.
Enfield argues that speech and gesture can be, in his examples, understood as
co-occurring signs which, in that co-occurrence, become composite utterances,
and as such, carry new, composite meanings. Enfield explores this perspective
on gesture and speech composite utterances through examples from speakers of
Lao, focusing first on pointing gestures with speech, and then examining
illustrative gestures with their co-occurring talk. He argues that in order to
understand social interaction and the meanings that people create with and for
one another in each interaction, it is the composite utterance (i.e. the
gesture plus speech) that needs to form the basis of interactional analysis.
In the book’s opening chapter Enfield argues that meaning’s genesis, following
a neo-Peircean semiotic and neo-Gricean pragmatic perspective, is not
language. Rather, language forms one part of the complexity of signs that
create meaning between people. Enfield first lays out examples of composite
utterances across a variety of modalities. He posits that meaning across
examples from artwork, such as paintings, requires an examination of visual
aspects and titles of paintings to understand the meaning the artist intends.
A photograph of a historically significant moment demonstrates that the
meaning of the photographic semiotic whole only becomes apparent when the
complexity of the photograph’s historical and social context is identified,
and thus, that meaning itself is composite in nature. Enfield goes on to
position his analysis of speech and gesture as signs within both gesture and
semiotic research.
The remaining chapters are grouped into two parts: the first deals with
deictic components of moves and the second with illustrative components of
moves. Enfield examines demonstratives, lip-pointing and hand-pointing as
deictic components and includes modeling, diagramming and editing in the
illustrative moves he discusses.
Chapter 2, on demonstratives, uses data from video-recorded interactions
between Lao speakers in a variety of face-to-face, naturally occurring
situations, from market places to riverside discussions. Enfield focuses on
the Lao system of spatial proximity description, arguing that, through an
examination of the speaker’s gestures, the two-term system ‘nii4’ and ‘nan4’,
previously defined as ‘proximal’ and ‘distal’, should be seen as
context-dependent and descriptive of social interactional space relations
rather than as a binary, static distinction. He argues that these
demonstratives rely on both semantic and pragmatic meaning for interactional
deployment, and as such, are composite utterances. Chapter 2 argues that the
meaning of ‘nii4’ and ‘nan4’ can be seen as constructed by interactants,
through the use of demonstratives, to create ‘engagement areas’ and
‘here-spaces’, which form the basis of Enfield’s analysis. He further argues
that these areas/spaces and ‘co-constructing’ uses of ‘nii4’ and ‘nan4’ are
conventionalized and predictable and that they are locally constructed with
fluid meaning, depending on the interaction and interactional space.
In opening Chapter 3, Enfield problematizes the labeling of so-called
‘lip-pointing’. He shows that it is a widely occurring phenomenon studied in
linguistics and gesture studies across a number of languages and geographical
locations. Chapter 3 surveys a number of lip-pointing examples from a variety
of languages, allowing Enfield to argue that lip-pointing rarely, if ever,
involves only the lips. Interactions between Lao speakers are again shown
using stills from video of speakers’ interactions, with a focus on the
relationships between lip-pointing and co-occurring hand-pointing and gaze
direction (both matched and mismatched with lip-pointing directionality).
Enfield concludes that the lip-pointing practice in Lao is used to describe
the location of referents, and, when combined with other deictic practices,
can result in varying interactional purposes.
Following the chapter on lip-pointing, Chapter 4 provides an account of an
empirical study of hand-pointing across Lao speakers. Here, the data comes
from both Lao interactions and semi-structured interviews eliciting pointing
gestures. Enfield argues that Big and Small (i.e. B-point and S-point)
gestures have different functions within Lao social interactions, but that
both types of gestures and the gestures’ co-occurring speech should be
considered as fundamentally composite utterances.
Part II of “The Anatomy of Meaning” focuses on the illustrative components of
moves using longer extracts of interaction (again, video-recorded) along with
transcriptions, including images taken from the recordings. The examples in
Chapter 5 are descriptions of the fishing equipment used locally and the
examples in Chapter 7 are explanations of kinship systems and marriage
practices within those kinship systems. Chapter 6 uses both kinship and
fishing examples.
In Chapter 5, Enfield discusses examples of descriptions of fishing equipment,
showing that the gestures which co-occur with the verbal descriptions model
the actual, physical equipment and its use. Supporting one of the main thrusts
of the book, the verbal description alone is insufficient to understand the
appearance and functionality of the fishing equipment, and therefore, the
speech and gesture must be understood, Enfield argues, as composite to access
the full meaning of the utterance. Further, he shows that these modeling
gestures are both combinatoric and linear in interactional uses. He argues for
a predominance of two handed symmetry in the first stage of the gesture
sequence, followed by one hand taking over the representation of the first
stage, while the other hand is able to manipulate what the first hand is now
‘standing for’. As such, Enfield argues that meaning from the composite
utterance is built over several gestural moves in a linear fashion.
Enfield builds on the modeling examples to put forward an argument that Lao
speakers use the body and gestures as cognitive artifacts. In Chapter 6, he
first gives a comprehensive overview of Lao kinship systems and the rules
governing marriage within that community. He then uses the examples of kinship
diagramming over both speech and gesture to argue that not only are the bodies
and gestures cognitive artifacts, but that they are, in fact, separate
cognitive artifacts because the gestures have existence, in these examples,
which outlasts their physical performance.
An argument Enfield continues in the next chapter (Chapter 7), on ‘Editing’,
is that the gesturers can return to the site of earlier gestures in order to
manipulate the diagrams as they were ‘drawn’. Enfield gives a limited typology
of the types of editing that gesturers perform (p. 220) and calls for further
research on the editing practices of gestures that interact with gestural
diagrams in this way.
EVALUATION
Enfield’s book positions itself as research on meaning, specifically, the
‘unification of meaning’, and he argues for understanding component signs
within interactional moves as parts of wholes which must taken together when
analyzing interaction. As such, “The Anatomy of Meaning” is an invaluable
resource for anyone working on how interactants create, maintain or change and
transmit meaning within interactions, whether these are face-to-face, heavily
gestural, or otherwise. However, given the book’s focus on the gestural, it
would potentially be helpful to readers of this research if videos of the
interactions analyzed were made available by the publishers, perhaps online,
to complement the transcriptions and images in the printed book.
Enfield’s book has obvious relevance for gesture studies as a whole; first,
because it argues for the importance of gesture in any interactional analysis,
and second, because of the specific types of gestures described and analyzed
across several chapters. The chapters on diagramming and editing hold
particular interest for researchers in cognition, whether it be from a social
or distributed perspective. The in-depth analysis of the previously-called
proximal/distal ‘nii4’ and ‘nan4’ system shows a fascinating insight into how
descriptive linguistics could use gesture to more accurately delve into the
meanings of various linguistic features in all languages.
Obviously, “The Anatomy of Meaning” gives significant insight into Lao
speakers’ cultural practices in its discussion of kinship and fishing
practices, and as such, would be of great relevance to anthropologists and
linguists working in that area. Its focus on kinship diagramming opens a line
of inquiry into the describing of kinship practices across linguistic (and
cultural) variation, which should be of interest to anyone studying kinship
terms, organization, and marriage practices, both within communities of Lao
speakers and cross-culturally.
Enfield’s book calls for further research on a number of points he raises
within his analysis and argumentation and this call needs to be answered from
researchers across semiotics and meaning, gesture studies, anthropology,
typology and descriptive linguistics, as well as those engaging in the study
of interaction and cognition.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Katharine Parton is a PhD candidate in the School of Languages & Linguistics
at the University of Melbourne. Her research examines interaction in
orchestral rehearsal, focussing on gesture. Her broader research interests
include epistemics, social cognition, gesture and social interaction.
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