GLOCALIZATION OR "LOOKING IN BOTH DIRECTIONS"
The paper analyses and compares glocalization and GILT processes in general and also applied to website localization. Glocalization is considered from several perspectives.
More...We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The paper analyses and compares glocalization and GILT processes in general and also applied to website localization. Glocalization is considered from several perspectives.
More...
Can the use of linguistic devices to achieve persuasion, such as metaphor, irony and hyperbole, ever be “too persuasive”, i.e., overshoot its rhetorical aim? More specifically, can the combination of such devices be “too much of a good thing” in that it commits speakers (and approving hearers) to actions that they were not part of their persuasion intentions? This paper investigates the semantic and pragmatic development of the Brexit-related applications of the metaphorical proverb, You cannot have your cake and eat it, during 2016–2019 in British public discourse. At the start of that period, the proverb’s reversal into the assertion “We can have our cake and eat it!” by the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and other “Brexiteers” became a highly prominent endorsement of Brexit and its supposed benefits for the UK; it even temporarily set the agenda for the public perception of UK–EU negotiations. Over time it became an object of hyperbolic praise as well as derision and recently seems to have lost much of its persuasive force. The paper argues that the proverb’s new reversed application by Johnson was initially successful in reviving its metaphorical meaning and framing it in a hyperbolic rhetorical context but that it also pushed Brexit proponents to an “all-or-nothing” outcome of the conflict narrative, both vis-à-vis the EU and within the British political debate. Thus, rhetorical success can lead to argumentative (and political) commitments that may have been not foreseen by the speaker and may run counter to their persuasive interests.
More...
This article studies figurative uses of metaphors and metonymies utilized to frame the discourse of transplantology. We assume a somewhat wider view of framing than is usually found in the literature and argue that framing effects can be observed on a cline stretching from the private to the institutional pole. We combine this approach with the findings of the prospect theory that distinguishes between gain-framing and loss-framing as two strategic choices in tackling an issue in discourse. The framing tools, as we show in our analysis of authentic materials, in order to be effective need to be adapted to the section of, or the point on, the cline occupied by a particular subtype of discourse. Although the focus in the cognitive linguistic literature is on how conceptual metaphors are employed in framing discourse, we point out that metonymies, interacting with these metaphors, can also play a very important role. The framing tools used in public campaign aimed at winning new organ donors are strategically mostly gain-framed, and as a rule globally based on the GIFT metaphor. It seems that the metaphorical use of GIFT as a global choice in institutional contexts is not very efficient since it is too general and vague to make discourse more persuasive at the personal level, as expected in the light of the exemplification theory. This metaphor is more effective when adapted accordingly, as we demonstrated on some campaigns supported by or based on metonymic presentation of various aspects stressing the quality of life after transplantation
More...
According to political realism, conflict is an immanent feature of world politics (Morgenthau 1948/1973). Drawing on this basic premise, it can be expected that the CONFLICT frame is routinely exploited by politicians to explain and justify their foreign policy (Musolff 2016). Conflict is especially prevalent in populist narratives, where the “pure people” are juxtaposed with the “corrupt elite” (Mudde 2004). Accordingly, we hypothesized that the current Hungarian populist government would also frame its turbulent relationship with the EU by metaphorically conceptualizing it as a violent conflict. Drawing on a discourse dynamics approach to metaphor identification (Cameron et al. 2009; 2010), we analysed the metaphorical framing of the term Brüsszel (‘Brussels’) found in articles published on official government websites between 2015 and 2017. Our results indicate that explicit manifestation of the CONFLICT frame in the form of violent conflict (such as a military operation) is less prevalent in contemporary government rhetoric, as opposed to the EU AS PERSON frame. This latter conceptualization, however, is manifested by metaphorical scenarios that evoke conflictual relations with varying degrees (and thus feed into populist narratives) by making sense of the EU as an authority figure, a partner in a joint venture, a bully, and an opponent in a battle.
More...
Applying conceptual blending theory, the paper analyses the construction of the meaning of a satirical text ridiculing the language employed by politicians to frame the debate on current political and social issues. In particular, it focuses on the language used by Donald Trump in explaining his anti-immigration stances through a poem based on the fable about the farmer and the viper, and a satirical text providing a new version of the poem, which criticizes Trump’s immigration policy. The paper examines the creation of the humorous meaning of the text in conceptual blending. The humorous meaning is created in the blended space due to the unusual combination of related structures, which results in incongruity (Coulson 2002; Marín-Arrese 2003). Furthermore, as blending can be used as a rhetorical tool influencing the audience to change the reality and even act upon it (Coulson 2006; Coulson & Oakley 2006; Coulson & Pascual 2006; Oakley & Coulson 2008), the analysis of the construction of the meaning of the satirical text as a product of conceptual blending can reveal rhetorical and argumentative goals in political discourse.
More...
Four experiments with 48 participants were conducted to study humour perception and memorization. A computerized method (FVW) from Vienna Test System was used (Kessler, Pietrzyk & Puhr, 2003), as well as humour associations, the recall of three funny stories, a short text evoking admiration and respect. The research was focused on what was associated with the word “humour” and on the types of the best remembered stories. The results indicated that the participants remembered better concrete rather than abstract stimuli, as well as meaningful rather than meaningless stimuli. The participants remembered well short verbal stimuli. They associated humour mainly with positive meaning, positive emotions (joy, happiness, amusement, satisfaction). The participants remembered better and non-intentionally the verbal stories heard by them that they estimated as the funniest compared to the stories estimated by them as less funny or the sentences provoking other positive emotions (admiration and respect). The funniest estimated stories were relevant to their personal experience, no matter if they contained puns or not. The estimated least funny story also contained puns, but contradicted some social norms related to the appropriate behaviour at the workplace.
More...
In the paper we analyse humorous modified proverbs in light of the theory of conceptual integration. Unlike traditional proverbs, which teach us something and elucidate some aspects of human life, modified proverbs are here primarily to entertain us. The theory of conceptual integration is particularly suitable for the interpretation of modified proverbs since they present novel structures that are not part of our mental lexicon and which we need to interpret online in dynamic meaning construction. Our examples of humorous modified proverbs show that although jokes are verbalised in the form of proverbs, the humour is derived from the same mechanisms that are employed in other types of verbal humour: puns, play on words, metonymies, elements of surprise, exploitation of taboos, etc. The evidence for this is found in the fact that those modified proverbs that employ only some of these elements, or do not employ any of them, are found to be less humorous or not humorous at all.
More...
This is a collection of international papers on the roles that humour can play in education. It brings together authors from Australia, Canada, Colombia, the USA, and the UK. Consequently, the special issue is a collaborative effort, and while collaborative efforts come in many shapes and sizes, this particular special issue is, in many ways, a reflection of the “superdiverse” societies we live in (Blommaert & Rampton 2011), one where the differences in social locations are (re)connected through a belief that humour in the classroom is particularly effective and new forms of affinities are developed (Black 2009; González Lopera 2015; Mora 2013a, 2014). Modern technology makes the creation of such networks a more expedient process. The papers comprising this issue were first presented as a panel at the Ninth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Mora 2013b). The panel was judged a success and reinforced the collegial bonds among the authors. Issues of relevance for the authors emerged from the panel in relation to the new ways in which all the authors have tackled humour as an educational tool. All the presentations showed the need to look more deeply at these issues from a contemporary perspective. Thus the process of taking part in the panel critically developed the ideas in this special issue. This special issue is important because it provides
More...
The conception of a comedic hero as a trickster functions as a useful trope for evaluating the attempts teachers make as advocates in schools. The specific elements of the trope that the authors find useful are (a) comedy as a space where the absurd mingles with the tragic; (b) resurrection or bringing forward from the dead as major plot device; and (c) the goal of societal integration. These elements of the comedic trickster trope are used to interpret three narratives of teacher advocacy in a junior high school. By analysing these narratives of advocacy in the frame of the comedic trickster, the authors argue that current teacher education practices described in research literature provide little guidance for how teacher candidates moving into school systems can develop and proactively maintain a stance of advocacy in their interactions with students and colleagues. Teacher candidates are not being prepared to handle absurdity, tragedy, resurrection, or the integration of students. Further, the authors assert practicing teachers who engage in advocacy in the frame of a comedic trickster are in danger of succumbing to an ironic plotline where they are unable to do what they want to and know they should. Acknowledging the presence of comedic tricksters might open up spaces for practicing teachers to write new stories of themselves as advocates and avoid the entrapment of irony.
More...
The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) by Martin et al. (2003) measures four humour styles, namely affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating. In contrast to former humour instruments, the HSQ has strong relations to various measures of psychological well-being. However, its incremental validity in relation to basic personality traits has not been sufficiently studied. Two studies analysed how much unique variance the HSQ contributed to predicting psychological well-being over and above personality. While the affiliative, self-enhancing and self-defeating humour style were potent predictors of well-being in Study 1, the results also indicated that these humour styles had small effects when personality was controlled for. Study 2 tested a possible explanation for these findings, namely that the context (i.e., non-humorous components) of the HSQ items dominates their humour-specific content. Two questionnaires were utilised to separate context and humour components in the HSQ. Results showed that (a) the HSQ contributed little in predicting personality and psychological well-being once context was controlled for, and that (b) the humour component of each HSQ scale correlated highly with other humour instruments and neither of them were detrimental or maladaptive in terms of psychological well-being. Thus, these two studies showed a low incremental validity of humour styles in predicting psychological well-being beyond personality and hint to a limited role that humour plays in the these relationships. Overall, the humour components of the HSQ rather resemble those of other self-report measures and mainly comprise humour appreciation and humour production in everyday life.
More...
In February of 1914 Saki began to write Potted Parliament (‘potted’ being the English expression for ‘in a nutshell’ or ‘for dummies’) for The Outlook, a London weekly. His commentary contains much satire. Through his tone and barbed comments, he does more than report the speeches and events. He also includes conversations, which are not usually presented in Parliamentary reports. In addition, Saki inserts fictional characters into his reports. Several examples of Saki’s reports and the reasons for and results of his fictional insertions are presented here. This technique allows for the satirical tone mentioned above and allows a mix of styles, from the most reportedly to the most humorous. It makes a distinction between the reportedly voice, which is supposed to be faithful to the facts of the Parliamentary sessions, and the voice of the fictional characters, which can carry the comment and the risk of irresponsibility. These observations suggest that Saki was concerned about a certain form of protection from the censorship of the time and from the average reading public which still took political reporting seriously. Saki’s choice of tones constitutes a departure from habitual political reporting which is refreshing and contributed to a release from earnestness.
More...
The humorous poetry of late medieval Scotland is diverse in genre, including among its forms the drinking song, farce, parody, burlesque, elrich fantasy, and satiric invective. Some examples, closely related to other popular entertainments of the time, lack technical subtlety, making use of stereotypes and crude plots. Others however are works of imaginative and technical skill, with jesting allusion to classical precedents. Although many forms, especially parody, draw upon Continental examples, the Scottish examples across all genres are also enriched and made distinctive by their great verbal and situational invention.
More...
The paper explores the reception of Aristophanes’ first extant comedy 'The Acharnians' (425 BC) in post-war Greek modern theatre by the two government-sponsored theatre institutions of Greece, namely the National Theatre of Greece (NTG) and the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG). It discusses translation trends of Aristophanes’ text and focuses on the transference of source text humour in five playscripts, which were all performed from 1961 to 2010. Consequently, it will hopefully address issues of humour translation from a theatrical perspective. The paper applies linguistic tools and humour translation methodology in order to examine source text humour transference in a self-compiled corpus of target texts. I will focus on the paratragedy scene of the comic hero’s (Dikaiopolis’) visit to the house of Euripides (lines 394–488) in order to show that translators systematically mix verbal and referential humour in their texts, even when source text humour is clearly referential. I will also argue that translators extensively employ play with register, colloquialisms and anachronisms. When viewed historically, recent target texts tend to be ‘free adaptations’ of Aristophanes’ text rather than ‘translations’. Following this major conclusion the paper argues that Aristophanes’ comedy is culturally relocated by the two government-sponsored Greek stages. This strategy is probably necessitated by the function and the aims of the source text translation and its intended audiences, that is, theatrical performances in open theatres at popular summer festivals viewed by varied audiences of an equally varied assumed level of theatrical and classical sophistication.
More...
The article deals with the elements of "foreign language" (foreign words borrowed from the Russian language) in the character's speech of spoken language, in the language of folk songs, satirical works, in fiction, describes the specifics of the use of barbarisms, borrowed words, jargons. In this regard, the following issues are covered: - the types of "foreign words" are defined, such as: barbarism, borrowed words, jargons. - the analysis of the above-mentioned linguistic elements are carried out in accordance with the direction of the research which were selected from the texts of folk songs, feuilletons, humorous poems, poetic and prose works of the outstanding Kazakh poet, writer, playwright, satirist I. Zhansugurov. - since ancient times, the Kazakh people were closely connected with the Russian nation in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres, therefore, the article describes the features of using Russian words and foreign language elements borrowed through the Russian language. -function of barbarisms. Pronunciation of words, separate words, combinations with the changed morphemic and syntactic structure are considered as barbarisms. - Barbarisms are actively used in spoken language. The authors prove the fact that the reason for this is daily communication with representatives of other ethnic groups. - In the language of folk songs foreign language elements are used for humor, ridicule, satire. - In the text of a satirical work, the elements of a" foreign language", especially in the character's speech are the basis for determining its behavior, temperament, worldview, degree of professionalism and speech etiquette. - The role of borrowed words in an artwork. Borrowing increases the lexical richness of the language serves as a source of new roots, other word-formation elements and terms, expands and nuances the nomenclature of concepts used in different areas of society. The process of borrowing is organic to the language, a natural form of language contact and a source of language change. - The role and importance of foreign language elements in the language of the character is determined. The author's speech and the speech of the characters are distinguished in an artwork. The author's language is a story about phenomena, events, characters, actions of characters, it has an assessment of people, facts. The language of the characters is a means of individualization. It is caused by age, education, profession, mood, temperament, culture of the hero.
More...