bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary continuity and the rate and curve of language evolution
Authors: Győri Gábor
Published: October 2007

One of the most prominent questions in connection with language evolution is whether the human capacity for language can be related to any capacities found in animals. Evolutionary continuity in anatomical structures involved in language is obvious, but in the case of cognitive capacities and behavior it is rather controversial. A correlation has often been implied between quantitative difference and evolutionary continuity on the one hand and qualitative difference and evolutionary discontinuity on the other. Recently these two positions have even incorporated claims of gradualistic and punctuated evolution of language respectively. These suggested correlations can hardly be true because the question of the rate and curve of language evolution is only indirectly connected to the continuity-discontinuity debate. It is highly unlikely that there could be true discontinuity in language evolution due to the lack of any antecedent trait. Rather, seeming missing links can also occur in the case of continuous traits when there is enhanced selection pressure due to rapid or even sudden environmental changes and hence rapid evolutionary change takes place. This is more logical even from an adaptationist point of view than a constant rate evolution. Thus, while elements of the primate communication system, cognitive capacity and social behavior must have served as evolutionary forerunners of language in the form of preadaptations, the rate and curve of language evolution must have depended on the selection pressures driving it.
Conceptual grounding in simulation studies of language acquisition
Authors: Dominey Peter F.
Published: October 2007

In order to understand the evolutionary pathway to the capability for language, we must first clearly understand the functional capabilities that the child brings to the task of language acquisition. Behavioral studies provide insight into infants’ ability to extract statistical and distributional structure directly from the auditory signal, and their capabilities to construct relations between this structure and the structure extracted from perceptual systems. At the interface of these two processes lies a conceptual scene representation that can be accessed by both, and that importantly provides a means for the two systems to constructively interact.

Recent studies have begun to make progress in simulating infants’ capabilities to extract statistical structure (e.g. word segmentation and lexical categorization) directly from the speech sound sequence. The current research examines how this structure interacts with perceptual structure at the level of the conceptualized scene. In particular we demonstrate how the grounding of words and sentences in conceptualized visual scenes permits the system to construct the appropriate relations between words and their referents, and sentences and theirs (structured conceptualizations of scenes representing agents, objects and actions) in the initial phases of acquisition of syntactic structure. These studies simulate behavioral observations of the trajectory of infants’ linguistic acquisition of concrete nouns, followed by concrete verbs and then more abstract nouns and verbs, in parallel with the development of first simple and then more complex syntactic structures. The relevance of these results to infant language acquisition behavior will be discussed. While this research yields interesting new results in characterizing the grounding of language in conceptualized scenes, it also identifies serious limitations of the current methods that will be discussed, along with the associated future extensions.
Archaism and innovation in New Zealand English
Authors: Woods Nicola J.
Published: October 2007

Colonial Englishes have been observed to contain both archaic and innovative linguistic features, and are thus seen to display
evidence of both language preservation and change. This paper examines the use of certain phonological features of New Zealand
English (NZE) and discusses their status as relics or innovations. Examination is made of the diphthong which occurs in the mouth
lexical set and the front short vowels trap, dress and kit. Trends in usage are studied using real time analysis of speakers recorded
in the 1940s and their present day descendants recorded in 1993/94. In this way, the development of NZE is charted by means of
the analysis of different generations of the same New Zealand families.
Distinct, but not too distinct
Authors: Starks Donna
Published: October 2007

This paper shows how a rapid taped survey is used to collect language samples from four New Zealand speech communities. It details the methodology in the study, and presents an analysis of one variable, (s) fronting. This variable is of special interest because, although phoneticians have noted that English speakers sometimes produce this sound in different ways (MacKay 1987: 98; Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996), the sociolinguistic literature does not mention (s) as a variable, apart from references to the homosexual community (Taylor 1998). The findings show that males and females in the majority New Zealand European community use different proportions of the fronted variant of (s), and that minority ethnic groups align themselves around these gender differences in various ways. The paper differs from most research on language and ethnicity in its focus on the similarities between the majority and minority groups, rather than on the differences.
Ghanaianisms
Authors: Dako Kari
Published: October 2007

A list of vocabulary items peculiar to English in Ghana has been compiled over the last ten years. Included are items that have appeared in print at least three times within eight years. Most items were tested on Ghanaians of varying ages, ethnic backgrounds and levels of education to ascertain familiarity and usage.

The paper is based on the above data. It classifies the entries according to (1) origin: English, local, hybrid; and (2) semantic and formal subcategorisations, i.e. (i) which semantic and formal processes the English items have undergone, (ii) from which semantic domains the local items are drawn and (iii) by which processes the hybrids were created.
Jaques Bertins theory of graphics and its development and influence on multimedia cartography
Authors: Koch Wolf Günther
Published: October 2007

Today, we can say that the graphic system of visual variables established and developed by Bertin represents an indispensable and universally recognized theory of the cartographic transcription of geographic information. Various cartographers have used and improved on Bertins System. In the age of automation, GIS and multimedia,
initial results in adapting Bertins graphic system to the dynamic and also non-visual representation of information are now available. Today one can say that despite its fundamental character, Bertins theory has proven to be very adaptable and open towards innovation.
Introduction
Authors: Simlinger Peter
Published: October 2007

After four symposiums in Voralberg (in co-operation with Fachhochschul Vorarlberg) and one in Pittsburgh (in cooperation with Carnegie-Mellon University), Vision Plus 6 took place in Vienna in July 1999. In October 1999 Vision Plus 7 'Design for communities/diversification of minds  conversation in process' had been staged at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Vision Plus 8' Turning information into corporate knowledge/innovative information management: a design challenge' got fixed for July 2000, again in Vienna under the patronage of UNESCO (in cooperation with 'Fachhochschul-Studiengaenge der Wiener Wirtschaft' and 'Werbe Akademie WIFI Wien').
The topic of Vision Plus 6, 'Drawing the process: visual planning and explaining' focused on the visualisation of processes and how visual means can transform complex data into comprehensible information. Three subthemes had been chosen:
- Drawings with a purpose: seeing and understanding
; - Process visualisation and visual planning; - Information + Creation -> Sensation

The Vision Plus symposiums are organised by IIID, the International Institute for Information Design. IIID is indebted to the editors of the Information Design Journal for their close co-operation in having decided to publish a selected number of papers and summaries. These papers and summaries in IDJ 10 (1) that are based on presentations at the Vision Plus 6 conference nicely complement the 'Proceedings, Abstracts, Bibliography' of Vision Plus 6, which can be obtained from the IIID web site.

It is the long term aim of Vision Plus symposia to prepare the grounds for a semi-virtual Information Design University. Representatives of more than twenty renowned universities and research institutes from around the world have already declared themselves ready to contribute actively to its development.

IDJ readers interested in IIID activities in general and Vision Plus symposia in particular are invited to write to
www.info@iiid.net or to visit
www.iiid.net for further information.
A grammar for zooming interfaces: using interaction design strategies to improve users navigation and spatial awareness
Authors: Rogers Deborah
Published: October 2007

As demand increases for systems that view and retrieve large amounts of data, designers and engineers are trying new techniques for data access. One approach that has gained momentum is the area of zooming mechanisms. Zooming interactions offer a variety of benefits. Zooming mechanisms on their own are not sufficient for creating meaningful, dense information interfaces. This paper adapts concepts from wayfinding research, cognitive psychology, and interaction design to improve navigational cues with information displays of zooming interfaces.
Case Study Improving the user-friendliness of a directory of chemical substances: the Approved Supply List
Authors: Reynolds Linda
Published: October 2007

The purpose of this study was to improve the usability of the Approved Supply List, an alphabetical directory of chemical substances containing a series of entries each having a number of standard elements. The original directory consisted of two printed volumes in different formats and involved a two-stage look-up procedure using both volumes. Three new single-volume alternatives were devised, each of which allowed any substance to be looked up alphabetically by name in one operation. These were compared with the original using a timed look-up task and in-depth interviews with a panel of 24 regular users of the directory. Results showed that all three new versions were used almost twice as fast as the original, and were preferred. An A4 layout with two sequences of entries per page was selected for further development, and alternative treatments of typographic detail were assessed by a further 12 users. The improved usability of the final result was accompanied by a reduction of around 45 per cent in the number of pages in the directory, representing considerable savings in paper and distribution costs. The development and testing of alternative prototypes with a panel
of users led to a design solution that could not have been arrived at simply by analysis of problems with the original version.
Co-occurrence Tendencies of Loanwords in Corpora
Authors: Kurtböke Nebiye Petek , Potter Liz
Published: October 2007

This paper investigates some major approaches to the analysis of foreign material in text, commonly known as loanwords. While the nature of data may differ in various fields of linguistic research (e.g., bilingual vs. monolingual corpora), perspectives on the analysis of such material have not been different, and they have traditionally been analysed as singly-occurring items out of context. However, corpus research has shown that words rarely occur in isolation. On the basis of a number of English loans in a corpus of Turkish compiled in a multilingual setting, and a number of Italian loans in a corpus of English compiled in a monolingual setting, we conclude that collocational patterns growing around loanwords are significant and should be included in the treatment of loanwords.
The Process of Designing a Multidisciplinary Monolingual Sample Corpus
Authors: Dash N.S.
Published: October 2007

This paper discusses the approach of developing a sample of printed corpus in Bangla, one of the national languages of India and the only national language of Bangladesh. It is designed from the data collected from various published documents. The paper highlights different issues related to corpus generation, data-file preparation, language analysis, and processing as well as application potentials to different areas of pure and applied linguistics. It also includes statistical studies on the corpus along with some interpretation of the results. The difficulties that one may face during corpus generation are also pointed out.
Semantic Encoding of Electronic Documents
Authors: Brun Caroline , Segond Frédérique
Published: October 2007

This paper presents an unsupervised, all-words, word sense disambiguation system for English. The system associates a word with its meaning in a given context using an electronic dictionary as a tagged corpora in order to extract semantic disambiguation rules. The methodology attempts to avoid the data acquisition bottleneck observed in word sense disambiguation techniques. Semantic rules are used as input of a semantic application program encoding a linguistic strategy in order to select the best rule to apply. The semantic rule extraction process as well as the application program is described. The methodology is developed in a client/server architecture, which enables the treatment of large corpora. The evaluation of the system is then detailed and some possible extensions and perspectives are finally proposed.
The IJS-ELAN Slovene-English Parallel Corpus
Authors: Erjavec Tomaž
Published: October 2007

The paper presents an annotated parallel Slovene-English corpus developed in the scope of the EU ELAN project. The IJS-ELAN corpus was compiled to be a widely distributable dataset for language engineering and for translation and terminology studies. The corpus contains 1 million words from fifteen recent terminology-rich texts. The corpus is sentence aligned and word-tagged with context disambiguated morphosyntactic descriptions and lemmas. These descriptions model simple feature structures, the structure of which is shared between Slovene and English. The corpus is encoded according to the Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange and is freely available on the Web for downloading. Additionally, access to IJS-ELAN is available via a powerful Web concordancer.
Starting with Xhosa English towards a spoken corpus
Authors: de Klerk Vivian
Published: October 2007

This paper describes the underlying motivation for the proposed structure and design of a corpus of Xhosa English, which aims ultimately to form part of a larger corpus of Black South African English (BSAE). The planned corpus will be exclusively based on spoken spontaneous Xhosa English, and full justification for this decision is provided in the paper. In particular the paper argues that the current South African English component of the International Corpus of English (ICE) cannot be regarded as representative of any particular variety of South African English, because of the wide range of Englishes spoken in the country (by mother-tongue speakers, Indians, white and coloured Afrikaans speakers and the speakers of South Africa's nine indigenous languages). In addition, the article problematises theoretical concepts such as deciding what “educated” or standard English is (in a multilingual country with a very complex socio-political history), and argues that some of the text categories of ICE and other spoken corpora are inappropriate for the planned Xhosa English corpus.
Critique of pure technology
Authors: Chan Ho Mun , Gorayska Barbara
Published: October 2007

Every new technology fundamentally changes social and organizational structures. The danger is that technology, when applied with little thought, will dictate the changes, and we may not like the results. This paper draws parallels between our critique of the dangers inherent in pure technology (‘pure’ in the sense of being de-contextualized) and the Kantian critique of pure reason. Two fundamental questions are posed: What are the limits of technological solutions to human related problems? (analogous to the question ‘What are the limits of human thought and reason?’) What are the preconditions under which people can make sense of the technological world? (analogous to the question ‘What are the preconditions in which people can make sense of experience?’). We explore a phenomenon of the unthinking application of pure technology with reference to (1) the human inability to perceive the thresholds beyond which technological solutions no longer apply to human-related problems they were originally intended to solve, and, (2) the human tendency to believe that technologies can be understood outside the context in which they are used.
A walk on the WILD side
Authors: Roschelle Jeremy , Pea Roy
Published: October 2007

Designs for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) applications usually presume a desktop or laptop computer. Yet future classrooms are likely to be organized around Wireless Internet Learning Devices (WILD) that resemble graphing calculators, Palm, or Pocket-PC handhelds, connected by short-range wireless networking. WILD learning will have physical affordances that are different from today’s computer lab, and different from classrooms with 5 students per computer. These differing affordances may lead to learning activities that deviate significantly from today’s images of K-12 CSCL activities. Drawing upon research across a range of recent handheld projects, we suggest application-level affordances around which WILD-based CSCL has begun to organize: (a) augmenting physical space, (b) leveraging topological space, (c) aggregating coherently across all students, (d) conducting the class, and (e) act becomes artifact. We speculate on how CSCL research may consequently evolve towards a focus on kinds of systemic coupling in an augmented activity space.
People, cultures, and languages in contact
Authors: Daneš František
Published: October 2007

After decades of isolation, the Czech community is now re-entering the Euro-Atlantic Community. People eagerly
accept new things coming from the world, on the other hand, they need to square accounts with the stigmatized experience
of the past. The particular moments of this condition remarkably reflect in language, speech and communicative processes.
One particular process is the English impact on Czech.
Management of intercultural input
Authors: Muraoka H.
Published: October 2007

In this paper, I claim that unlike spontaneous discourse, in which language deviations tend to trigger instant
evaluations and adjustments, management of intercultural input is relatively free from time restriction and thus allows re-
management at each stage of deviations from norms, noting, evaluation, adjustment and implementation.
Simplification as a Universal Feature of the Language of Translation
Authors: Ghadessy Mohsen , Gao Yanjie
Published: October 2007

A common belief among a number of applied linguists working with parallel texts (texts from a source language, L1, and their translations into a target language, L2) is that “translated language is different from the original language” (Mauranen 1998: 160). A related research question is “Are translated texts different from comparable texts in the target language as well?” One way to answer the above question is to establish “translation universals” which make translated texts different from comparable texts in the target language. The process of simplification of translated language has been mentioned as one such universal feature (Baker 1993, 1995; Laviosa-Braithwaite 1996). The purpose of the present study is (a) to investigate one of the consequences of the process of simplification, i.e. reduction in lexical density, in a number of texts and their translations from English into Chinese. It will also be hypothesized that (b) translated texts into English and (c) translated texts into Chinese, in comparison with similar monolingual texts in the two languages, will be less lexically dense. A Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) model will be used for defining and calculating lexical density. Some implications of the findings for teaching translation will also be discussed.
Assertiveness as a predictor of compliance and resistance in Taiwan, Japan, and the U. S.
Authors: Bresnahan Mary Jiang , Ohashi Rie , Nebashi Reiko , Liu Yongquan , Liao Chao-Chih
Published: October 2007

The present study investigated the effects of assertiveness on compliance in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. In contrast to what was expected, U. S. Americans overall were the least assertive. The study found that females in Japan and Taiwan were more assertive than their male counterparts. In addition, Americans were significantly more compliant with the request of a work supervisor than either Japanese or Taiwan-Chinese. In general, similar compliance was found between men and women. Participants offered more opposition to high imposition requests. While the discomfort factor of assertiveness accounted for significant variance for females in the equal status condition, situational factors such as imposition and status provided a better overall explanation for variance in behavior.
Reconsidering Chinese modesty
Authors: Spencer-Oatey Helen , Ng Patrick
Published: October 2007

Compliments are usually intended to have a positive effect on interpersonal relations, yet for the outcome actually to be positive, both the compliment and the compliment response need to be handled appropriately. This paper focuses on different types of compliment responses, and explores Chinese people’s evaluative judgements of these different types. Gao and Ting-Toomey (1998) argue that modesty is an important component of Chinese politeness, and that to blatantly accept a compliment is considered impolite. Several studies (e.g. Chen 1993, Yuan 1996 and Loh 1993) have indeed found that compliments are rejected more frequently in Chinese than in English, yet other evidence suggests that acceptance responses are also relatively common in Chinese. This paper explores a number of hypotheses associated with these issues. It reports a study carried out in Mainland China and Hong Kong, and discusses the notion of Chinese modesty in relation to the findings.
“Is there only one China?”:
Authors: Kuo Sai-hua
Published: October 2007

By means of the analytic method of critical linguistics, this study illustrates and discusses how Chinese nationalism manifests itself in the language of a newspaper text, what linguistic devices are employed for this purpose, and how the media production process in China shapes news texts. The study also analyzes how ideological positions can be reflected through lexical and grammatical choices.
Setting standards and language variation
Authors: Tsui Amy B.M. , Andrews Stephen J.
Published: October 2007

In recent years, the setting of standards or benchmarks for teachers as well as for learners has been brought into education as one of the key mechanisms for accountability and quality assurance. Language standards setting is one of the top priorities for policy makers. This paper points out that while standards setting in education raises issues that are largely educational and philosophical, language standards setting is often culturally and politically charged. This is particularly so in English standards setting because of the long-standing association between English and colonialism and cultural and economic domination. The domination of English has not diminished in the post-colonial era. The paper outlines a number of complex issues generated by English standard setting, including whether native or non-native varieties of English will be used as the model for determining standards, whether the same standards should be used for first and second language learners, how one determines whether deviations from the standard English model are errors or variations, and the social and political implications for adopting the standard or the local varieties. A brief summary of how each paper in this Special Issue addresses these issues is provided.
Teacher language awareness and language standards
Authors: Andrews Stephen J.
Published: October 2007

As demand for proficient English speakers increases worldwide, there is growing concern about the standard of English achieved by students during their schooling. With English teachers (rightly or wrongly) receiving much of the blame for a perceived decline in language standards, policy-makers are increasingly interested in the language-related competencies of English teachers: both their language proficiency (or ‘communicative language ability’, CLA) and their ‘knowledge about language’ (or Teacher Language Awareness, TLA). As a result, the assessment of English teachers’ language-related competencies has become more widespread. In any attempt to measure those competencies, however, several important interrelated issues have to be confronted. Some relate to the precise nature of the knowledge/awareness that English teachers have of the language they teach, and the difficulties inherent in setting/measuring standards of Teacher Language Awareness. Others concern the language model(s) of which English teachers are expected to be aware, and about which teachers themselves feel they should be aware. The present paper examines some of these issues. It begins by exploring the nature of TLA, and some of the challenges in TLA measurement. It then considers questions relating to the varieties of English which form models for TLA, with particular reference to Hong Kong.
Constructing an official English for China, 1949–2000
Authors: Adamson Bob , Kwo Ora
Published: October 2007

This paper focuses on the construction of the linguistic contents of the current junior secondary school syllabus and national textbooks in the People’s Republic of China, from which the official English promoted by the state can be identified. Using quantitative and qualitative data, the paper analyses the nature of this official English in five distinct historical phases. It finds that the English curriculum in the different phases was linked to shifting national economic and political priorities, as evidenced by the attention to structured pedagogical approaches that focus on communication during times of economic modernisation and openness to the outside world, and by the stress on political and moral messages during times of hyper-politicisation and relative international isolation. English is constructed for its economic and political utility, based on an exogenous model, British English. It is not officially constructed to reflect an endogenous variety of Chinese English.
Invoking scalarity
Authors: Schwenter Scott A. , Traugott Elizabeth Closs
Published: October 2007

The discourse contexts are analyzed in which clause-internal in fact developed pragmaticalized meanings and came to invoke scalarity in two domains: epistemic sentence adverb (IPAdv), and additive discourse marker (DM). In both these uses, in fact tightens word to world fit (Powell 1992): the world of epistemic belief in the case of the IPAdv, the world of evaluative, rhetorical perspective in the case of the DM. The analysis therefore provides further evidence for (i) pragmatic ambiguities across these worlds (Sweetser 1990), (ii) subjectification that shifts perspectives from interpersonal (adversative) to personal evaluation (Traugott 1989), (iii) the pragmatic relationship between scalarity, adversativity and additivity (Schwenter 1999). The different orientations of the two uses suggest they are polysemous, not contextually bound.
Historical frame analysis
Authors: Bax Marcel
Published: October 2007

In this article, I am concerned with the historical dimension of frame analysis, aiming at an appraisal of the general significance of this method if applied to historical linguistic data, in particular instances of oral or written discourse transmitted from the past. In order to demonstrate how frame analysis can be employed as a means of reconstructing the multiple meaning structures of earlier cases of linguistic communication, I shall examine the opening scene of a seventeenth-century Dutch theatrical play, i.e. Constantijn Huygens’s ribald farce Trijntje Cornelis. The analysis is preceded by a brief outline setting forth some fundamental issues and dilemmas of historical pragmatics. Arguing that there are (at least) two notably distinct ways of approaching the data, I will distinguish between two types of historical pragmatic enquiry, i.e. exostructural and endostructural analysis. As to the question of how these different perspectives can be integrated, I will claim that by and large frame analysis as conceived by Goffman is an effective device. Considering that this sociological theory has its limitations too, the final section will review the extent to which, and in which ways, the application of the notions and techniques of frame analysis enhances our understanding of verbal communication in historical contexts. My analysis of Huygens’s play is thus exemplified within a wider “frame” of scientific interest.
Past ability modality and the derivation of complementary inferences
Authors: Ziegeler Debra
Published: October 2007

Levinson (1995) attributes the counterfactual meanings derived from marked, periphrastic alternatives of the modal verb, could, to the presence of M-inferences related to the Gricean maxim of Manner. He accounts for the complementary nature of inferences associated with the two alternates, could and had the ability to (+ V) by the relative markedness of either expression. The present paper re-examines such claims on the basis that periphrastic modal alternates represent renewals in grammaticalisation cycles, and it is suggested instead that the Gricean second maxim of Quantity may be basic to both forms, could and had the ability to, as well as to another alternate, was/were able to (+V). A diachronic survey reveals that variation in the types of implicatures derived from such forms is due to the frequency of specific grammatical environments in which the forms are evolving, or have evolved historically.
“Plethoras of witty verbiage” and “heathen Greek”
Authors: Fitzmaurice Susan M.
Published: October 2007

This paper draws upon Horn’s reworking of Grice’s conversational maxims as Q- and R-principles in order to provide a rich pragmatic reading of British comic drama, from the London comedies of Ben Jonson, to the restoration comedy of William Wycherley to the late twentieth-century London comedy of Steven Berkoff. I demonstrate that short-circuited implicatures (SCIs) as well as conventional and conversational implicatures operate to illuminate comic meaning for readers, both knowledgeable and unfamiliar with the historical code and the cultural milieu in which these plays may be set. I conclude that two kinds of pragmatic work are involved in reading comic drama: conversational implicature is situation- rather than code-based, and depends upon our ability to construe pragmatic acts in the dramatic text. The other kind of pragmatic work involves the inference that the meanings intended are conventional and cannot be reconstructed or calculated from what is being said.
The discourse of seduction and intrigue
Authors: Pakkala-Weckström Mari
Published: October 2007

This paper focuses on the interaction between the characters in three of Chaucer’s fabliaux — the Miller’s Tale, the Merchant’s Tale and the Shipman’s Tale — from the perspective of historical dialogue analysis. All tales tell a different version of seduction, intrigue and adultery. The plot development is studied through the characters’ speeches, with particular attention to the use of politeness strategies and emotional language. These features are related to character description and genre expectations. The analysis shows that the wives in the Canterbury Tales fabliaux intentionally mislead and divert their husbands by changing into a polite and endearing mode of conversation, while the husbands tend to be consistent in their way of speaking to their wives throughout the story.
On interaction in herbals from Middle English to Early Modern English
Authors: Mäkinen Martti
Published: October 2007

The focus of this article is on interaction in Middle English and Early Modern English herbals. In the Middle Ages, herbals were mainly instructive aids for producing medicines of the plants described in the text. Later, in the Early Modern English period, the herbal genre split into two, retaining the genre called herbals and giving birth to systematic botanical texts. The interaction established in texts can be studied through the use of pronouns (involvement markers) and the use of imperatives. This study shows that the strategies employed in the Middle English period are very different from the strategies in the Early Modern English period: the use of second-person pronouns and imperatives prevails in the Middle English period, whereas the use of first-person pronouns was preferred in the Early Modern English period. In addition to this, another division, irrespective of the time of writing, is observed in the material: the first group includes handbooks and practical herbals, and the other group learned and empirical herbals. Factors which explain these differences in interaction strategies are the purposes for writing and the education of the intended audience.
“Yf ye wyll bergayne wullen cloth or othir marchandise...”
Authors: Becker Monika
Published: October 2007

This paper is based on a corpus of textbook dialogues which were used to teach the basics of English and French in early modern times. I aim to show the relevance of this genre for historical pragmatics. For this purpose, I refer to extra-linguistic aspects such as function, content and target group of these written dialogues which claim to represent spoken language, and I explain why these aspects are likely to indicate a high degree of pragmatic authenticity.

My paper also aims to analyse the verbal interaction represented in the model dialogues. I will focus on sales talk, a discourse type which is a typical element of the phrasebooks and a relevant feature of communication at a time when commercial activities had an increasing social impact. The analysis of the main components reveals that the dialogues are highly standardised but not totally fixed; they offer their users a (restricted) inventory of linguistic devices to negotiate successfully. However, a discourse analytical approach is not sufficient to explain the interaction between buyer and seller. I therefore propose that the pragmatic concept of “face work” is the determining force in the process of bargaining. Furthermore, the analysis of the textbook dialogues illustrates the value of combining very different approaches and levels of analysis.
“I will tell, I will tell”
Authors: Doty Kathleen L. , Hiltunen Risto
Published: October 2007

This study focuses on the records of confessions by individuals accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692, both those presented in direct discourse and in reported discourse. We analyze the material from two viewpoints: the pragmatic features of the discourse and narrative structure and function. The data consists of 29 individual records, with eight cases selected for closer scrutiny. The records span the period from March through September 1692. In the pragmatic analysis we study the question and answer patterns from the point of view of the examiners and the accused.

The analysis of narrative patterns is based on Labov’s work in oral narratives. It provides a multilayered approach to understanding both the structure of the confessions and the spread of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. The categories of orientation and complicating action reveal that each confession presents a vivid representation of the devil, the accused, and the sociohistorical context.
Searching for Europe
Authors: Weiss Gilbert
Published: October 2007

Europe is in a phase of institutional and political transformation. It is however not only the restructuring of the organisational procedures, i.e. the so-called reform of the institutions in the face of the coming enlargement of the European Union (EU), but also questions of the overall identity and legitimacy of Europe that are increasingly approached in political discourses. This essay analyses recent political speeches on Europe; it focuses on the problems of legitimisation and political representation at the “new” supranational level. In a comparison between French and German speeches the different semantic fields in talking about Europe are explored. Particular emphasis will be given to the interplay of ideational and organizational aspects — Making meaning of Europe and Organizing Europe — as being constitutive for these speeches. The discursive construction of past and future, experience and expectation; will be illuminated as well as problems of space and time, strategies of territorialisation and temporalisation.
European identity, institutions and languages in the context of the enlargement
Authors: Bellier Irène
Published: October 2007

The debate on the European Enlargement to East and Central Europe and the negotiations with presently thirteen and possibly more countries later, raise a cultural problem at large, briefly summarized by two questions: what do we have in common? And what is the European identity? Practically it raises the problem of what language will we speak? The paper, written by an anthropologist, is based on extensive periods of observation of EU institutional life and several months of participation to the Commission working operations. It intends to clarify the linguistic situation of the EU, considered as a political entity, by making explicit the relations between three articulated layers that are: the realm of an official polity, the world of the institutions, and society at large. Within the general context of EU making, I distinguish the problematic of the official European languages policy, the use of languages that is made by European officials and their impact on policy making, and the delicate shifting from monolingualism to multilingualism in a social context. The EU destiny is to carry together two antagonistic perspectives such as Unity and Diversity, which constitute its motto. Diversity is at the core of the European identity and within the institutional process itself, bringing, in terms of language, interesting issues for improving communication, through translation, interpretation and personal attitudes. Progresses towards the forms of unity that represent the integration policies and the adoption of a single currency do not lead simply to a linguistic unification, nor to the adoption of English as a common vehicular language. European elite (usually trained in English) and people (located in their own multiple languages) do not live identical linguistic situations. What is at stake is the possibility for individuals to manage several languages for being really part of a European space, which does not limit itself to national and regional boundaries.
Narrative Repair of Threatened Identity
Authors: Schrauf Robert W.
Published: October 2007

In terms of positioning theory (Harré & van Langenhove, 1999), a person who has lost a contest may be said to have been forcibly positioned as a ‘loser.’ This threat to social identity requires some repair. Narrators may then tell stories in which they re-position themselves and other actors—collaborators, judges, publics—in new plots (“the real story”) that exonerate them and repair their threatened social identities. This narrative positioning of the other is also a reflexive positioning of the self, and comprises a careful crafting of one’s persona. These dynamics are explored in stories about carnival contests celebrated annually in Andalucía, Spain. In these contests, minstrel groups prepared for months in advance compete with one another for formal prizes before singing their repertoire on the streets. Narratives of identity repair are examined from the autores (directors) of groups that have lost in these contests. (Narrative Identity, Positioning Theory, Conversation Analysis, Carnival, Spain)
Narrative Identity in a Solo Performance: Craig Gingrich-Philbrook’s “The First Time”
Authors: Peterson Eric E.
Published: October 2007

In the solo performance of autobiographical narrative, the performer’s body is the primary site for the construction of narrative identity. Autobiographical performance emphasizes the tensions between conventionalized forms of representation and the contingent and relational forms of presentation. That is, presenting “a story about myself” both constitutes and performs identity in a narrative that represents this performative accomplishment as having already taken place. The tensions between the presentation and representation of narrative identity are productive opportunities for queer solo performers who seek to make visible and disrupt the power relations and structures of heterosexist discourse. Analysis of a solo performance, “The First Time” by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, illustrates how the critical reiteration of conventions can be used to make explicit the operation of narrative identity.
In the Aftermath of Sexual Abuse: Making and Remaking Meaning in Narratives of Trauma and Recovery
Authors: Harvey Mary R.
Published: October 2007

This paper explores the applicability of a narrative approach to the understanding of psychological trauma and the process of recovery. We focus on a comparison of stories told by three survivors of sexual abuse in research interviews drawn from an ongoing study of recovery and resiliency in treated and untreated trauma survivors. Our aim is to learn how survivors make and remake the meaning of their experiences over the course of their lives and at different stages in their recovery, and to understand the role and functions of survivors’ stories in the recovery process. Replacing long-standing feelings of powerlessness with a new sense of agency and reclaiming a positive identity from a “damaged”self-definition are neither easy nor painless tasks. These accounts suggest the importance of “turning points”that open possibilities for sexual abuse survivors to restory their experiences and arrive at new understandings that support their efforts to confront and deal with past traumas, and move on with their lives. We also call for more attention—by researchers, therapists, and others in survivors’ lives—to the effects of our expectations and needs for coherent stories with positive endings that may make it difficult for us to “hear”what survivors are trying to tell us. (Narrative, Trauma, Sexual abuse)
Positioning as a Means of Understanding the Narrative Construction of Self: A Story of Lesbian Escorting
Authors: Swan Davina
Published: October 2007

In this article we examine the use of narrative strategies in the construction of a self. We focus on the function one woman’s (alias Rachel) narrative serves in terms of constructing a coherent self through her account, via a magazine interview, of “How I became a lesbian escort”. We highlight the relational nature of narrative self construction, i.e., the ongoing dialogue between the use of cultural narratives in a story and the individual’s positioning in relation to such elements to create a unique and coherent self in that setting. (Narrative, Positioning, Construction of Self, Identity, Lesbian Escorting)
I Get Scared All the Time: Passivity and Disaffiliation in Children’s Personal Narratives
Authors: Ely Richard
Published: October 2007

A corpus of children’s personal narratives was analyzed for themes of passivity and disaffiliation, the polar opposites of agency and communion, respectively. The subjects were 96 working class children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. In their personal narratives, children cited themes of passivity more than themes of disaffiliation, with weakness being the most frequently cited individual theme of passivity. With age, children increasingly described weakness in others. Correlations across the agency-passivity and communion-disaffiliation modalities revealed theoretically unpredicted, but empirically interpretable, results.
White trash pride and the exemplary black citizen
Authors: Squire Corinne
Published: October 2007

This paper examines narrative representations of “race” and gender in daytime television talk shows. This television genre is saturated with told stories; indeed, it often seems to be these stories that account for the genre’s critical and academic dismissal, despite its fifteen-year dominance in daytime television, particularly in the US. The genre is also characterised by visual patterns that have narrative features. Disparities have been claimed between “serious” shows that try to analyse social issues and tell “true stories,” and “entertainment” shows in which issues of gender, “race” and sexuality are subsumed by stories of “trailer park” class otherness and emotional anarchy. The paper draws on social-scientific and cultural-studies research, and on two small, time-sampled groups of US shows, to argue for a continuum between serious and entertainment shows. It suggests that serious shows are also characterised by story-telling and moments of emotional incoherence in narrative, and that these elements can be as resistant and persuasive as the shows’ more explicit arguments. On the other hand, entertainment shows can provide a forum for the affective staging of social conflicts, in the process turning their narratives into counter-narratives that are a form of theory. The paper thus argues that visual and auditory narratives on all the shows work in similar ways to produce counternarratives.
Putting names to faces
Authors: Carson Derek R. , Burton A. Mike , Bruce Vicki
Published: October 2007

It is well established that retrieval of names is harder than the retrieval of other identity specific information. This paper offers a review of the more influential accounts put forward as explanations of why names are so difficult to retrieve. A series of five experiments tests a number of these accounts.

Experiments One to Three examine the claims that names are hard to recall because they are typically meaningless (Cohen 1990), or unique (Burton and Bruce 1992; Brédart, Valentine, Calder, and Gassi 1995). Participants are shown photographs of unfamiliar people (Experiments One and Two) or familiar people (Experiment Three) and given three pieces of information about each: a name, a unique piece of information, and a shared piece of information. Learning follows an incidental procedure, and participants are given a surprise recall test. In each experiment shared information is recalled most often, followed by unique information, followed by name. Experiment Four tests both the ‘uniqueness’ account and an account based on the specificity of the naming response (Brédart 1993). Participants are presented with famous faces and asked to categorise them by semantic group (occupation). Results indicate that less time is needed to perform this task when the group is a subset of a larger semantic category. A final experiment examines the claim that names might take longer to access because they are less often retrieved than other classes of information. Latencies show that participants remain more efficient when categorising faces by their occupation than by their name even when they have received extra practice of naming the faces.

We conclude that the explanation best able to account for the data is that names are stored separately from other semantic information and can only be accessed after other identity specific information has been retrieved. However, we also argue that the demands we make of these explanations make it likely that no single theory will be able to account for all existing data.