bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Romance forms in A. S. Byatt's Possession
Authors: Cuder Domínguez Pilar
Published: April 2016

A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance (1990) is best defined as a quest narrative, as it follows the pattern that Campbell, Propp and Frye among others have described. Although mainly working with archetypes, Byatt also deploys here elements taken from romance subgenres such as detective stories and gothic fiction. Through this generic encoding of her work, Byatt raises questions as to the reception of these archetypes, the function of the author and the very process of reading.
A task-based approach to language teaching: the case for taks-based grammar activities
Authors: Cuesta Cuesta María Rosario
Published: April 2016

Product and process approaches to the teaching of grammar have been enormously influential in language teaching. However, it would appear that not too strict an adherence to either product or process perspectives will prove satisfactory. In view of this, the issue is how to achieve a balance between a controlled approach to language development and the learners' direct involvement in the discourse process. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways of fashioning tasks in the classroom which control learner language while giving her opportunity for self-expression and creativity. The dangers of taking task-based teaching approaches to an extreme will also be analysed. The key with task-based learning is how to ensure a measure of regulation over learner activity, so that the acquisition of fluency is not developed at the expense of accuracy and interlanguage restructuring.
Reconstructing the non-existent: levels of self-reference in Lanark
Authors: Díaz Martínez Mario
Published: April 2016

This paper begins by stressing the importance and the role played by Alasdair Gray's novel Lanark within the framework of contemporary Scottish literature. After discussing the self-referent aspect of the Epilogue section, the essay goes on to analyze the different functions played respectively by the reader, the main character and the author/God, which clearly present the book as a constructed textual world. Other features of Gray's fiction, as the use of textual games and his ironical concern with critical matters, serve to reinforce the idea of a new form of open ending, by indicating in the "Index of plagiarisms" indirect references to chapters which does not exist. So, the paper enters into a reconstruction process of these missing chapters, which results in a wide interpretation of several multiple perspective endings. The attack on authority which derives from the contents of this caleidoscopical novel is paradoxically balanced by the strong structural control of the book, which allows us to see Gray's work as a kind of postmodern paradigm.
A study of the learning strategies used by secondary school and university students of English in Spain
Authors: Palacios Martínez Ignacio M.
Published: April 2016

The aim of this paper is to identify the type and range of the language learning strategies used by Spanish secondary and university learners in their study of English. For the collection of data, eighty students and twenty five teachers of both educational levels were interviewed. The data collected were statistically processed through the Chi-square test. The results obtained indicate that (a) the majority of the students were conscious of their use of strategies, (b) cognitive strategies were by far the type of strategies most commonly reported, (c) university students made use, although not significantly, of a higher number and a wider variety of strategies than secondary school pupils, (d) the majority of the teachers were not aware of their students' use of strategies. The paper concludes by making a series of pedagogical recommendations that can be gathered from the previous work.
Syntactic ambiguity as a device in British humour
Authors: Sánchez Roura María Teresa
Published: April 2016

The present study of ambiguity at the syntactic level in the English language focuses on its resourceful applications in the creation of jokes. Such ambiguity is therefore regarded as something to be exploited in language rather than avoided. One important conclusion will be that British humour should not be regarded as "strange" by speakers of other languages, who can only access to it by means of poor, or should we say, difficult translations, since not all types of ambiguity are translatable across languages. The study is divided into three sections, dealing firstly with bracketing of constituents and labelling of categories and functions; and secondly, focusing on transformational relationships, whereby two underlying structures are related to one surface structure. The illustrations are real jokes collected from a variety of popular joke books.
Anti-style and the postmodernist novel
Authors: Crews Brian
Published: April 2016

A consideration of attitudes towards style in contemporary narratives leads to the conclusion that decorum and convention are often deliberately marked in order to draw attention to their artificiality. In particular, in what are sometimes called postmodernist novels, a critical stance is often adopted towards adequate or appropriate styles, so that anti-style, or a deliberate break with decorum or uniformity, highlights the fictitious nature of what is narrated. In the novels of B.S. Johnson, a combination of styles and deviations from them show that there is no such thing as an authoritative narrative, not even the author's, and, while the conventional nature of language, style and narrative is foregrounded, it is implied that there is always some alternative to the inevitable fabrications and distortions that they involve.
L2 perception of English vowels: testing the validity of Kuhl's prototypes
Authors: García Lecumberri María Luisa , Cenoz Iragui Jasone
Published: April 2016

The present study investigates confusion patterns in the identification of English vowel sounds by native Spanish learners. The aim was to test the validity of Kuhl's Native Language Magnet (NLM) theory for Spanish learners with an intermediate level of competence in English. Following this theory, the English and Spanish vowel systems were compared in order to obtain a set of L2 confusion predictions that could be derived from the NLM model. It was hypothesized that the prototype model would fail to account for all the confusion patterns in our data since our subjects interlanguage phonological system was no longer a direct reflection of their Ll system. A test was conducted in which subjects were asked to identify RP vowels in monosyllabic words after receiving specific phonetic training. It was observed that few perceptual confusions could be explained according to the NLM model as interpreted for L2 acquisition. We propose that the NLM theory can only account for L2 data if revisions are made as to the nature of prototypes in the interlanguage. The NLM model should also take into account other factors that may shape prototypes such as vowel duration and universals principles.
Towards a typological classification of linguistic borrowing (illustrated with anglicisms in Romance languages)
Authors: Gómez Capuz Juan
Published: April 2016

This article offers a brief bibliographic overview and, on this basis, outlines an illustrated typology of linguistic borrowing in which the main criterion is the level where the foreign element belongs: formal (both graphic and phonetic), morphological, semantic, lexical, syntactic, phraseological, and pragmatic. In addition, two cross-categories are devised: degree of modification of the foreign model and degree of novelty of the foreign form. This typology refers in particular to present situations of cultural borrowing from English to the Romance languages; therefore, special attention is paid to the importance of contemporary English as a model for Western languages.
On subject It-extrapositions: evidence from present-day English
Authors: Gómez González María Ángeles
Published: April 2016

This paper reports some results from a bigger project analysing the relevance of Theme, i.e. clause initial position, in Present-day English (PresE). Our aim is to explore the formal features, the communicative properties and the frequencies of one thematic device, It-extrapositions of the type It is strange that the duke gave my aunt that teapot, in the Lancaster Spoken English Corpus (henceforth LSEC). 105 tokens of these constructions were studied, which represented 2.6% of the overall Themes in LSEC. It is argued that the use of It-extrapositions obeys three different, though interrelated, phenomena: (i) the principle of End Weight; (ii) the Given-Before- New principle; and (iii) Theme. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the raison d'être of this device is to act in two capacities: (1) an objective one, expressing an 'objectified', or depersonalised, modality or modulation, and (2) a subjective one, infusing the speaker's angle, or point of view, with thematic highlighting.
Reading models in foreign language teaching
Authors: Redondo Madrigal Marto
Published: April 2016

Reading continues to be essential nowadays in spite of the audiovisual media. Thus, the availability of a pattern to master the mental processes activated when reading would be a panacea, but there is no such a unique reading model. Conversely, the ones devised up to now are partial and incomplete, as the authors themselves declare. This is why psychologists and linguists do not stop researching to find formulae which account for the mental processes taking part in reading as well as how they perform to achieve meaning from the written discourse. This paper tries to pinpoint the main features of the most representative reading models of the last three decades, underlines as much as it concerns to the L2 reading process and shows how the various components of the reading models have evolved to line themselves up under the interactive paradigm. Moreover, it also suggests a psycho-pragmatic model of reading for learners of English as a second language made up of psycho-pragmatic, interactive and pedagogical elements.
Communication, information, and relevance
Authors: García Murga Fernando
Published: April 2016

Relevance theory has been developed as a general model for explaining the cognitive mechanisms underlying human verbal communication. As all theories, Relevance has been built up on several initial hypotheses. In this paper, it will be argued that if Relevance theory intends to be a theory of linguistic performance, what is one of the most characteristic hypotheses of Relevance theory, i.e., the 'communicative hypothesis', should be weakened because of the existence of noncommunicative uses of language. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to work out the consequences that a weakened communicative hypothesis would have on the 'principle of relevance', and on pragmatic theories in general. In this paper, then, it will be maintained that the 'principle of relevance' cannot be the only principle governing human linguistic performance, at least if its formulation is not changed.
The un-Trollopian Trollope: some notes on the Barsetshire novels
Authors: Pérez Pérez Miguel Ángel
Published: April 2016

The six Barsetshire novels are not only Anthony Trollope's most popular ones, but also those which are usually considered to represent the author at his mildest and most conventional, as regards the Victorian social and ethical codes. Without entirely disregarding this view, this paper argues that Trollope disguises many of his own opinions behind an apparently unproblematic presentation of characters, situations and attitudes. The essay is therefore an attempt to delineate some of these techniques of "concealment", with the aim of exposing some of the double readings discoverable in Trollope's novels.
Poe: the concept of poetry and poetic practice with reference to the relationship between The poetic principle and Annabel Lee
Authors: García Parra María Luz
Published: April 2016

This paper begins with the acknowledgment, on the 150th anniversary of his death, of Poe's significance as a great poetic theorist: whatever aesthetic and artistic evaluation the Bostonian Poe's work (1809-1849) may give rise to in the present-day reader, we must agree that his critical judgements of artistic works in themselves and his poetic theories have had far-reaching subsequent repercussions. Starting from this evaluation of Poe as an author of great intellectual lucidity, as the main aim of this work is to make an in-depth study of Poe as a poetic theorist, in order to ascertain to what extent his aesthetic theories are reflected in one of his poems. In order to define the area of reference, I have employed an analytical method which will contrast the basic ideas that appear in The Poetic Principie of 1850, with an earlier poem Annabel Lee written in 1849. Finally, this paper stresses the importance of the creative act as the actual origin, rather than the consequence, of his poetic theses, although Poe's merit lies, above all, in his determination to assign a method to literary creation, that is to say, Poe challenges the Romantic criteria regarding freedom of inspiration, calling for an intellectual and analytical study which would contribute to the rigour of poetic composition.
Objective and subjective variables in two university classes
Authors: Valdeón García Roberto Antonio
Published: April 2016

The importance of the motivational components in the learning of foreign languages has attracted the interest of teachers, linguists and psychologists in recent decades, giving way to a number of acclaimed studies led by the Canadian psychologist Gardner and his associates. His theories, stressing the role of integrative motivation as a key element in successful language learning, aroused the interest of education researchers, who stressed the need to extend the field of research and include educational factors as well as socio-psychological ones. Oxford & Ehrman in the United States and Dörnyei in Europe have introduced new elements for consideration, and the latter has backed his theories with data emerging from Hungarian classrooms. In the present article we aim to underline the need to consider, on the one hand, the connections between objective variables, associated with the formal learning situation, such as class attendance and participation as well as results in language and other related subjects, and, on the other, affective variables in order to assess the importance of motivation in the language classroom.
Genre and translation
Authors: Unger Christoph
Published: April 2016

This paper discusses a variety of translation problems which are often attributed to genre effects. These effects are analyzed and shown to reveal that genre is a diverse notion which can function in various ways in comprehension processes. To explain these, an account of genre based on relevance theory is proposed. The central claim of this account is that genre information can crucially contribute to the fine-tuning of relevance expectations in complex stimuli. On tire theoretical side, this account refines our view of the management of expectations of relevance. On the practical side, it is shown that this account of genre is powerful enough to identify the sources of translation problems attributed to genre effects, and, together with Gutt's (1991; 2000a) explanatory account of translation, guide the translator in a principled way to adequate solutions in given situations.
Welsh writting and postcoloniality : the strategic use of the Blodeuwedd myth in Emyr Humphreys's novels
Authors: Green Diane
Published: April 2016

This essay explores ways in which the literature of the nation of Wales may be discussed in postcolonial terms given that it has existed for centuries in an ambiguous position with regard to colonization. Welsh identity is a complex issue, given its intrinsic connections with the Welsh language, which is only spoken by a minority of Welsh people. This essay focuses on the use of indigenous myth as a ‘strategy of liberation’. Emyr Humphreys is the major novelist of Welsh writing in English. His novels use myth, particularly Celtic myths, in a wide range of ways. One myth, the story of Blodeuwedd, is used by Humphreys throughout his career. This essay explores the reasons for his use of the myth and the ways it interconnects with the use of disabled characters and dysfunctional families. The advantages of using indigenous myth are balanced against the disadvantages of recalling the past (which is the site of colonization) and presenting women as sinful and disruptive and men as weak, whilst simultaneously promoting a matriarchal society in an attempt to undermine patriarchy/ empire. The essay concludes that the concentrated use of this particular myth is probably counter-productive.
Reading and teaching Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible as postcolonial
Authors: Jussawalla Feroza
Published: April 2016

Can an American writer really be considered a “postcolonial” writer? Can a “White American” writer be considered postcolonial when in fact most theoretical positions associate American Literature with imperialism? Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible demonstrates that despite the ethnicity and nationality of a writer, a work can be considered “postcolonial in intent.” Using the model of the postcolonial bildungsroman, we can see that though Kingsolver’s character Leah is of U.S. nationality, she grows into an “Africanness” that seeks a liberation of the Congo from all forms of oppression, colonial, religious and neocolonial. I would like to posit that looking at the bildungsroman of the main character Leah and her identification with the Congolese, Zairians and Angolans and her effort to see herself as growing up together with Africa and into Africa helps to see her growth as a trope for the suffering of this continent.
The hybrid language and society (Afrikaans-English) of the South African postcolonial writing of Pauline Smith (1882-1959) in Spanish translation : "Anna's marriage / La boda de Ana" (1925)
Authors: Zarandona Fernández Juan Miguel
Published: April 2016

The present article intends to be an explanatory introduction, or translator’s preface, for Spanish-speaking audiences, to the postcolonial South African writer Pauline Smith (1882-1959) and, consequently, to this first translation of mine of one of her short stories, included in her book The Little Karoo (1925), into Spanish: Anna’s Marriage / La boda de Anna. An introduction or preface to the underlying cultural, social, political, linguistic and personal conflicts of a difficult and frequently tormented country and national literature that clearly deserve much more attention provided to them by those said Spanish-speaking audiences. Special emphasis will be devoted to the translation problems posed by the aforementioned difficulties, and to the translation strategies applied to deal with them successfully. The purposeful hybrid language, or original mixture of the Afrikaans and English languages, that Pauline Smith made use of, will be paid extra attention.
An interview with Ama Ata Aidoo : 'I learnt my first feminist lessons in Africa'
Authors: Frías Rudolphi María
Published: April 2016

This is an interview with Ghanaian writer AMA ATA AIDOO. It took place in Accra (Ghana), on January 1998. After living abroad for more than fourteen years, Aidoo decided to go back to Ghana. When this interview took place, she was still trying to settle down. Since then, she has kept herself intellectually active, and has been invited to lecture to numerous international universities and prestigious institutions all over the world. With the passing of time, she has become still more vocal and critical, and she continues to be widely admired in Africa and abroad. Aidoo is considered an outspoken African writer who tackles feminist issues in her fiction. Brought up in, and respectful with the Akan tradition she comes from, Aidoo openly states that she learnt her first lessons in feminism from African women, and in Africa. In this interview, we focus on feminist theories—and the controversies around African, African-American, and Western Feminisms—and look at some of her most relevant works, to see to what extent her female protagonists deal with the somewhat schizophrenic reality of colonialism, and post-colonialism, at the same time they face African traditional culture and modernity.
"Flashing into the crystal mirror" : the recurrence of the mirror motif in three Arthurian works
Authors: Lara Rallo Carmen
Published: April 2016

When constructing “The Lady of Shalott”, Tennyson resorts to the medieval atmosphere of King Arthur’s court to set a poem in which the development of the action is dictated by the pervasive force of a mirror. This object, which controls the Lady’s fate, is the one that rules the sense of duality existing in the “The Lady of Shalott”. Indeed, the duplications and contrasts on which the poem is based emerge from the encounter of symmetrical and opposing forces face to face, precisely the type of encounter which lies at the heart of the process of refraction in a mirror. In this sense, the mirror in Tennyson’s poem could be seen not simply as a physical object, but above all as the expression of a motif characterised by the phenomenon of optical repetition and all the processes literally or metaphorically emerging from it. In conflating the Arthurian theme and the exploration of this motif, Tennyson is reviving a pattern which underlies, on different levels, two significant works of the medieval English Arthurian body: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte Darthur. While in Sir Gawain the mirror is the source of the symmetrical structure of the poem, the influence of the mirror motif in Le Morte appears under the form of a multi-shaped duality. The aim of this paper is to investigate the way in which the mirror motif recurs in these three Arthurian works.
Specialized bilingual dictionaries for translators (some considerations for a user-oriented approach)
Authors: Gómez González-Jover Adelina
Published: April 2016

Given the strong demand for multilingual communication aimed at the transfer of research and investigation results of any kind to the dissemination of technological progress on a worldwide scale, specialized bilingual dictionaries are the main tools at the disposal of translators. Although it is generally accepted that dictionaries are to be user-oriented, i.e. designed for specific users, the underlying implications of such an obvious statement are not always taken into consideration. The aim of this paper is thus to present a brief explanation of some aspects that must be considered when carrying out a terminological work designed for a specific user: the mediator of interlinguistic communication.
The interrelation of semantic structure and syntactic variation in Old English verb classes: catalogue of syntactico-semantic constructions
Authors: González Orta Marta
Published: April 2016

The aim of this paper is to motivate the syntactic and morphological behaviour of the Old English verbs which share the core meaning of 'to remember', 'to emit a smell', 'to produce a sound' and 'to speak' from their semantic structure. Firstly, as a result of the analysis of these verb subclasses, I will propose a subclass-based lexical template for each lexical subclass. Within the Lexical Grammar Model, lexical templates are conceived as lexical representations where meaning description is encapsulated and interacts with the syntactic behaviour of lexical units. In order to construct a lexical template, Role and Reference Grammar logical structures will be complemented by a semantic decomposition which will define different lexical (sub-)classes. Secondly, the Lexical Template Modelling Process will stipulate the linking between the syntactic and semantic representation of these verbs. This process will establish the lexical rules that account for the mapping between the different semantic constructions and the syntactic structures and alternations in which these verbs participate and the lexical templates codified by these verb subclasses. As a result, a catalogue of the syntactico-semantic constructions exhibited by these Old English verbal predicates will be provided.
Intonation focus in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English
Authors: Gutiérrez Díez Francisco
Published: April 2016

The present paper is a report on intonation errors made by a group of Spanish learners of EFL in their last year of Secondary School (2° Bachillerato). More specifically, we attempt to identify and classify the errors relating to the students' use of intonation to highlight information. With this aim in mind, we have used the tonetic approach to intonation analysis as the theoretical framework for the study. When comparing the students' performance with English native speakers', two types of errors emerge, interference and developmental. Once more, contrasts between English and Spanish regarding the focalisation of information by means of intonation (tonicity) can serve the purpose of explaining some of the errors (interference). At the same time some developmental errors are detected in the students' intonational interlanguage.
A theoretical review of the speech act of suggesting: towards a taxonomy for its use in FLT
Authors: Martínez Flor Alicia
Published: April 2016

The aim of this paper is to present a taxonomy of linguistic realisation strategies concerning the speech act of suggesting. In this regard, we will first provide a definition of this particular speech act, outlining its main characteristics and differentiating it from other directive speech acts, such as requests. Second, we will review the research conducted on suggestions by examining studies from both the cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics fields. Third, we will present the taxonomy we have drawn up on the basis of two theoretical frameworks, namely those of speech act and politeness theories, as well as findings from previous studies on this particular speech act. Finally, we will propose an example of a teaching approach in which this taxonomy could be implemented in order to develop learners' pragmatic competence when making suggestions.
The discursive construction of the public and the private spheres in media debates: the case of television talk shows
Authors: Burger Marcel
Published: April 2016

Within the framework of an interactionnist perspective on discourse analysis, this paper deals with the discursive construction of the public and private spheres in media debates. Focusing on the French media, one observes a current trend to mix up the construction of the public and the private spheres in the practice of media information and more generally a shift from civic information to pure spectacle. This state of affairs is particularly manifest in debates. We first discuss this issue and then define the discursive properties of three types of debates. One of these: the statement's talk show debate manifests best the blurring of boundaries between public and private domains. Finally, we analyze the discursive dimension of an excerpt of a well-known French program ("C'est mon choix": FR3 channel), which is representative of this genre. Our analysis focuses on the discursive performance of the hostess as it is essential to understand what is at stake with media debates.
A diachronic-synchronic review of gender in English
Authors: Fernández Domínguez Jesús
Published: April 2016

Why does man occur more frequently in the English language than woman does? Has the expression of gender evolved through the centuries or is it a non-changing linguistic universal? To what extent are inflections and word-formation processes able to convey gender in present-day English? This paper reviews a number of questions which have raised interest among scholars for many years, and which can now be reconsidered from a 21st-century perspective. To this end, the expression of gender is examined and illustrated from Old English to contemporary English to observe the alternatives which language provides and the differences in each of the periods covered. This allows taking a broad view of the state of the art, which seems necessary for an understanding of how biological sex can be expressed in the English language.
Teaching intercultural communicative competence through the four skills
Authors: Usó Juan Esther , Martínez Flor Alicia
Published: April 2016

Nowadays, the most accepted instructional framework in second or foreign language (L2) programs is Communicative Language Teaching, whose main goal is to increase learners’ communicative competence. This theoretical term means being able to use the linguistic system effectively and appropriately in the target language and culture. However, the implementation of a communicative methodology is not an easy task since it requires an understanding of the integrated nature of the theoretical concept of communicative competence (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2005). Therefore, it is the main goal of this paper to help language teachers better understand such a theoretical concept for improving their classroom practices. In so doing, we first provide an explanation of the theoretical concept of communicative competence. Then, a current framework of communicative competence, which aims at highlighting the function of the four macro-skills to build discourse competence for communicative purposes and reflects our conceptualization of language teaching is briefly discussed (Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2006a). Finally, on the basis of this framework, and taking the intercultural component as the point of departure, a variety of activities in the four language skills are presented for teaching learners intercultural communicative competence.
Writing with conviction: the use of boosters in modelling persuasion in academic discourses
Authors: Vázquez Orta Ignacio , Giner Diana
Published: April 2016

Hedging and boosting are significant communicative resources to construe and attain persuasion in different fields and particular genres of academic writing. They are both two sides of the same coin in the sense that they both contribute to the persuasive import of academic communication. Although boosting is a much less researched phenomenon than hedging, it is a key aspect of rhetorical persuasion in academic writing. This paper is devoted to the analysis of the use of boosters in a corpus of articles from three different disciplines (Marketing, Biology and Mechanical Engineering), and in this sense it is complementary to our previous article (Vázquez and Giner, 2008) in which we explored the use of epistemic markers used as hedges in the same corpus of RAs. Based on computer readable data, and combining quantitative and qualitative methods, the article argues that boosting deserves particular attention if we want to fully interpret the phenomenon of academic persuasion.
Persuasive nature of image schematic devices in advertising: their use for introducing sexisms
Authors: Velasco Sacristán María Sol , Cortés de los Ríos María Enriqueta
Published: April 2016

This paper explores how persuasive is the exploitation of image-schematic devices in advertising, more specifically how they are used for introducing sexism. Using a combined axiological-relevance-theoretic approach we have analysed ten advertisements selected from an online corpus, ‘The Advertising is Good for You’ blog, and its section on ‘Sexist Advertising’. Our analyses have proved that image schematic devices are used to introduce sexism in the advertisements under analysis, mostly the image schemas of space, force, multiplicity and attribute, and mostly by means of covert and weakly overt forms of communication. These image schematic devices seem to be not merely representative of universal experience, but crucially tied to specific socio-cultural cognition, as also suggested by Sinha (2002), Kimmel (2005) and Zlatev (2005), and special cognitive effort and effects are involved with understanding them. Yet, although they seem to contradict a formal application of the Principle of Relevance, as they involve additional processing effort, this is often offset by the extra effects like the pleasure in processing the ad and ‘getting’ the right meaning and value(s). This pleasurable experience is one important way in which advertisements are persuasive (Meyers-Levy and Malaviya, 1999).
Self-assessment based on language learning outcomes: a study with first year engineering students
Authors: Durán Escribano Pilar , Pierce McMahon Joana
Published: April 2016

As the Bologna Process moves forward, changes in European systems of higher education are expected. The introduction of the ECTS focussing on the students’ achievements described in terms of the learning outcomes and competences acquired is one of the innovations. This process, encouraged by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, signifies a change in teaching focus, from an input model to an output one, which promotes self-assessment in a flexible curriculum, in this case adapted to student’s language profile. To illustrate this new approach in language learning, a pilot experience with Technical English mining engineering students is discussed, with special attention to learner reflection and self-assessment practices. Students’ progress in self-assessment, based on the introduction of learning outcomes in specific language courses, is analysed to conclude that personal engagement and clear purpose -specified in terms of learning outcomes- seem to have become relevant components to student's self-assessment practice.
Violence in the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales: a corpus-based approach
Authors: Alcantud Díaz María
Published: April 2016

The purpose of this article is to carry out a corpus-based study on the presence of violence in a selection of eight tales by the Grimm's Brothers by looking at the terms which can be said to relate to the semantic field of violence. More specifically, this study will analyse a selection of eight tales in which the frequency of the words cut, dead and blood will be studied in detail. These words have been chosen due to their possible connection to violence after carrying out a quantitative analysis of the frequency of the whole main corpus. My initial hypothesis is that the corpus-based study of those eight tales would support my intuition regarding the high percentage of violence in the Brothers Grimm collection as opposed to the content of violence in a wider variety of texts. The study initially involved the analysis of frequencies of the lexical units in the Brothers' Grimm corpus and, secondly, a comparison of the results obtained in the frequency test to two reference corpora: the British National Corpus and the Cobuild Concordancer. The comparison and its results seem to indicate that there was a higher than average percentage of the use of words related directly or indirectly to violence.
Conceptual metaphors in taboo-induced lexical variation
Authors: Crespo Fernández Eliecer
Published: April 2016

Taboo is deeply woven into every culture and society, which is obviously reflected in vocabulary. Indeed, taboo keeps language users from avoiding the forbidden concept and compels them to preserve or violate it, which leads to endless series of cross varietal synonyms for forbidden concepts. In this process, though metaphor stands out as a potent source for euphemistic and dysphemistic reference, the analysis of conceptual metaphor in the Lakoffian tradition as a X-phemistic device has not been dealt with in depth so far. In this regard, the main aim of this paper is twofold: to gain an insight into the process of metaphorical X-phemistic lexical replacements triggered by taboo and explore the role the process of lexicalization of metaphorical units plays in sex and death-related X-phemistic vocabulary. The analysis undertaken demonstrates that whereas lexicalized metaphorical units are deprived of their capacity to conceptualize the taboo in particular terms, both semi-lexicalized and creative metaphors suit the purpose of euphemism and dysphemism by conceptualizing a taboo topic within a conceptual network, which accounts for the X-phemistic function of metaphorical items.
On the pragmatic function of anglicisms in Spanish: a case study
Authors: González Cruz María Isabel , Rodríguez Medina María Jesús
Published: April 2016

Anglicisms are a complex phenomenon resulting from language contact and cultural globalization. They are greatly encouraged by the technological and cultural influence exerted by the Anglo-American world. Little has been said so far about usage as a factor. Besides, there is a type of anglicism of a pragmatic nature which remains almost unexplored. It is used in some communicative situations with a sort of expressive or aesthetic function, which some authors have called “ludic” or “empathic”, since they tend to mark oral discourse with humorous or ironic features. In this article we will approach the concept of pragmatic function within this field of anglicisms. To illustrate it, we will provide some examples taken from research previously carried out in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, with a group of young speakers, undoubtedly the social group most overtly exposed to the influence of anglicisms.
Unconventional English in a conventional setting: the genesis and joy of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Authors: Victor Terry
Published: April 2016

This article is a personal reflection on the pivotal role of Eric Partridge, how his personality and experience shaped his lexicography, and how the inherited ‘spirit’ of Partridge is invested in the new dictionaries that bear his name. An online version is to be published alongside an updated second edition of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Dalzell and Victor 2012) now in preparation. The process of translating an established dictionary model to a digital environment is not without technical challenges but these are outweighed by new opportunities to gather and define previously unclassifiable items.
Shakespeare: Revising and Re-visioning
Authors: Clare Janet
Published: April 2016

This article engages with one of the current critical and bibliographical concerns of Shakespeare studies: the collaborative nature of Shakespeare’s work. Bibliographers have identified other hands in the fabric of Shakespeare’s plays. Here the focus is Shakespeare’s collaboration in the plays of others. Three such instances will be examined; The Book of Sir Thomas More, The Spanish Tragedy and The Chronicle History of King Lear. Substantially different as these cases may be, in all of them Shakespeare is working with the materials of others. Shakespeare’s King Lear is an adaptation of the older Leir play performed by the Queen’s Men and in that sense it is a deeply collaborative work. As this essay concludes, without a model there would be nothing to stimulate, or provoke or exceed.
Identity in Shakespeare
Authors: Halio Jay L.
Published: April 2016

This paper surveys the problems of identity in a number of Shakespeare’s plays, such as The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. In these plays as in many others, Shakespeare explores the complexity of identity, not only through the use of disguise, as in the major comedies, but also through the problems of self-knowledge. The latter issue is prominent and explicit in King Lear when, for example, Lear asks “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” The opening words of Hamlet, “Who’s there?” introduce the problem from the outset, and much of the play is given over to characters trying to discover who the others in the play really are. Is the Ghost an honest ghost, or “a goblin damned?” Is Hamlet really mad or just putting on an “antic disposition” as he struggles to discover his proper course of action as his father’s avenger? Is Kate really a shrew, or just made to act like one by her family and others?
On the Internal Argument(s) of Unaccusative [Verb+Preposition] Structures
Authors: Castillo Orihuela Concepción
Published: April 2016

In this paper I use the feature [+/–animate] to distinguish unaccusative [verb+preposition] structures where the verb projects the internal argument from structures where the preposition projects the internal argument. On the proposed approach, which aims to be a refinement on the original work by Hoekstra (1988), the preposition selects for the internal argument whenever the latter is [–animate]. The analysis is supported by the observation that unaccusative prepositional structures are typically [–animate], by contrast with their non-prepositional counterparts, and by a principled analysis of the differences existing between sequences with march-type verbs vs. sequences with verbs like whistle or eat. By contrast with current works in the literature, the preposition is argued to project two Spec positions in eat-type sequences, and a pP-shell configuration is proposed to match the derivation of unaccusative [verb+preposition] structures that feature one or two arguments internal to the prepositional projection.
Acquiring Competencies in Financial Translation: From the Classroom to the Marketplace
Authors: Román Mínguez Verónica
Published: April 2016

Translating financial texts is a difficult and complex work. The labour market in this specialized area demands much of the translator, not only from the point of view of the translation subject matter itself, but also from the perspective of the translator’s professionalism and preparedness. Our contribution here concerns applied research for teaching specialized translation, particularly for the teaching-learning process regarding financial translation for the language pair English-Spanish. This article will discuss the different translation sub-competencies that we propose students should master, offering a series of teaching-learning objectives and suggesting the use of certain pedagogical material. With respect to professional sub-competencies, and in order to make translation learning experiences in the classroom as close as possible to the actual practice of translation in the real world, i.e. in a professional working environment, we will discuss certain characteristics of the professional labour market in the area of financial translation, as well as some of the professional skills that the student translators should develop in order to survive in this specialized domain of translation.
Plain English in Legal Language: A Comparative Study of Two UK Acts of Parliament
Authors: Riera Catalina
Published: April 2016

The history of England has left its mark on legal English, a language for specific purposes well known for its complexity and conservatism throughout the world, thanks to the widespread reach of the British Empire. According to many scholars, today legal language is excessively entrenched in the past and has remained the same through years. As a consequence, criticism against traditional legal drafting started to arise in the second half of the 20th century introduced by the Plain English Movement, first in the UK and then, with more momentum, in the US. Its supporters fight for the simplification of the language used in legal documents and subsequently, all official documents and propose a series of writing techniques to achieve their purpose of making “legalese” more accessible to the lay public. The aim of this paper is to see whether the drafting of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom (UK) has evolved towards a more modern style of writing leaving behind the conservatism that characterises legal language. In order to carry out the study, two Acts of Parliament of the UK on the same topic, but with a time span of 41 years of difference since their enactment, have been selected for comparison in order to see whether the principles upheld by the Plain English defenders have been applied in the most recent Act.
Canzonieri spagnoli popolareggianti conservati a Roma (I): il Ms. Corsini 625
Authors: Botta Patrizia
Published: April 2016

In queste pagine si dà notizia di un gruppo di ricerca finanziato (PRIN 2012) che ha per oggetto lo studio di alcuni canzonieri spagnoli del Cinque-Seicento conservati a Roma, nei quali è ricco il filone della lirica tradizionale. Si inizia con la descrizione di un canzoniere conservato alla Accademia dei Lincei, il Corsini, Ms. 625 musicale (chitarristico) e piccolo florilegio dei più noti testi di lirica tradizionale.
Letras y motes con función narrativa en el Espejo de príncipes y caballeros (parte III)
Authors: Campos García Rojas Axayácatl
Published: April 2016

En este artículo se presenta y estudian las letras y los motes intercalados en la prosa del libro de caballerías Espejo de príncipes y caballeros (Parte III) de Marcos Martínez. De todos los poemas de este tipo presentes en la obra, sólo se atiende a aquellos con función narrativa, que consiste en explicar y ampliar determinada información significativa para los personajes en la diégesis. Estas composiciones poéticas, sin embargo, también asociadas a las categorías que definen el sentimiento amoroso. Se anuncia un trabajo pendiente y futuro donde se analizará las letras y los motes de justadores en la misma obra.
La matrona en la salud sexual y reproductiva de las mujeres a través de historias de vida
Authors: Martínez Rojo Carmen , Rodríguez Portilla Natalia Emilia
Published: April 2016

Objetivo: Obtener y analizar información de las mujeres residentes en el municipio de Murcia en el año 2010 sobre conceptos en salud sexual y reproductiva para incorporarlos al conocimiento de la disciplina matrona. Para implementar cuidados efectivos en las mujeres murcianas, las matronas necesitan conocer desde el propio discurso de estas, cuales son sus necesidades, modos y sabores entorno a su salud sexual y reproductiva. Método: La investigación que se plantea es de corte descriptivo con un enfoque cualitativo y desde una mirada antropológica enfermera y desde paradigmas epistemológicos construccionistas. Se seleccionó una muestra de cinco mujeres residentes en el municipio de Murcia atendiendo a criterios de muestreo por máxima variedad. La parte central de nuestro trabajo de campo la conforman las historias de vida realizadas a las cinco mujeres obteniendo los resultados a través de un análisis inductivo y posterior categorización de sus discursos. Resultados: Del análisis del discurso se obtienen como relevantes las siguientes categorías: 1- Conceptos en salud sexual y reproductiva (Relaciones sexuales/Decisión de maternidad/Vivencia de partos/ Miedos en el embarazo y maternidad). 2- Influencia cultural en salud sexual y reproductiva (Maternidad. La madre sacrificada: exaltación de la idea de maternidad). Conclusiones: La complejización de la sociedad, hace que la profesión matrona dinamice sus fundamentos entorno al conocimiento cultural de su objeto receptor de cuidados en salud sexual y reproductiva. Las mujeres son las protagonistas necesarias; solo a través de sus miradas nos vincularemos las matronas a sus vidas.
Prevalencia de depresión en pacientes con cáncer de mama. Revisión de la literatura
Authors: Sagardoy Muniesa L. , Miguel Romeo C. , Sebastián Meneses N.
Published: April 2016

1.- INTRODUCCIÓN: La depresión es una sintomatología muy frecuente en los pacientes diagnosticados con cáncer de mama y su tratamiento. Se plantea una revisión de la literatura para analizar la prevalencia de la depresión en personas con cáncer de mama. 2.- METODOS: Revisión sistemática. Bases de datos: EMBASE (1999-2010) PUBMED (1981-2010). Se incluyeron los artículos que relacionaban prevalencia y depresión en cáncer de mama. 3.- RESULTADOS: Se localizaron 49 estudios; sólo 12 cumplieron los criterios de inclusión, se encontró 7 estudios descriptivos y 5 analíticos. La prevalencia de depresión encontrada en los estudios oscila entre el 6%-57%. 4.- CONCLUSIONES: La disparidad de datos obtenidos conlleva a la falta de una evidencia empírica de la prevalencia de la depresión en personas con cáncer de mama.