Zeen A-Rasheed.
Title
The negative and positive evaluative language: A comparative study on British news reports of the
ISIS conflicts in Iraq and Syria using the Appraisal Theory.
Abstract
My study investigates British news reports related to the ISIS conflicts taking place in Iraq and
Syria. I collected and will collect my data from the LexisNexis online database. As a start to help
generate questions I selected ten news reports: 4 news reports about Syria and 6 about Iraq. The
study aims to uncover the disparities and/or similarities between the two sets of reports in their
utilisation of Appraisal resources, (Martin and White 2005) in evaluating ISIS’ role in the conflicts.
My analysis of the ten texts shows that the majority of evaluation in both groups of reports was
judgement- oriented rather than Affect and the sub-category of Force evaluation related to the
Iraqi news reports seems to convey positive force whilst that of the Syrian conflict appears to
contain just a few instances of negative evaluation. Also, some collective nouns were found such
as ‘Islamic extremists’; which conveys negative meaning whereas some others like ‘Islamic state’
were vague. It is of course not clear whether the same patterns of evaluation will be found in the
final corpus. In my talk I will provide some examples of how I have coded my texts, discuss how I
will collect and code my data.
Biography
I am a first year PhD student in the School of English Language, Communication and Philosophy in
Cardiff University. I was awarded an MA degree in Language Communication Research from the
same school in 2013/2014. I was also awarded another MA degree in English Language in
Salahaddin University- Erbil in 2009/2010.
Zayneb Elaiwi Sallumi Al-Bundawi
Title
Insider or Outsider: The researcher's position in ethnographic fieldwork
Abstract
My study aims to explore how the religious texts which are embedded within certain rituals are
used as means in constructing Muslim women’s identity in a non-Muslim community. The rituals
involved in this study are Shi’i (Shiite) rituals which are practiced in the first two months of the
Islamic calendar, Muharram and Safar; these are dedicated to commemorate the memory of the
third Shi’i Imam, Imam Hussein. Different rituals are associated with these two months, the focus
of this study is majales (sing. majlis); these are gatherings of people where they commemorate
the memory of Imam Hussein and the Battle of Karbala, the battle in which he was killed. I
participated and observed these majales which were held in an Islamic Centre in Cardiff, Wales
UK.
In my presentation I will refer to the different methods of data collection that were used and why
they were chosen. Since I am familiar with the rituals under study this allowed me, in a way, to be
an “insider”. This is supposed to make things easier for researchers but not always (Blommaert
and Jie, 2010: 27; Perdersen 2014: 28) . On the other hand not being too much familiar with the
Muslim community in Cardiff put me in a position of an “outsider”. The difficulties I had faced
during the period of my fieldwork and the conflict of identities or positions will be highlighted.
Biography
Zayneb Elaiwi Sallumi Al-Bundawi was born in Baghdad, Iraq. She got her BA and MA in English
language and Linguistics from the Department of English, College of Education for Women,
Baghdad University. From 2005- 2013 she worked as a lecturer at the Department of Translation,
College of Arts, Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, Iraq. Currently she is a second year PhD
student at Cardiff University, UK.
References.
Blommaert, J. & Jie, D. 2010. Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner’s Guide. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters.
Pedersen, M. H. 2014. Iraqi Women in Denmark: Ritual Performance and Belonging in Everyday
Life. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Najwa Alzahrani
Title
The Representation of Liberalism in the Saudi press: An Analytical Study of the Meaning of
“əlibrælij'əh” in the Saudi Context
Abstract
Saudi society is a recently unified and diverse one and issues of modernism and social reform are
the subject of much debate and controversy. Within that debate the term “əlibrælij'əh”, a
loanword to Arabic based on the English word “liberalism”, has been used to convey certain ideas
that could not be expressed via a single Arabic word. In fact, liberalism concept in English changes
through history depending on the context in which it is used. It was first associated with political
and social contexts indicating the liberation from political and religious institutions (Dees 1993).
Liberalism concept continued to change and it is currently associated with individual rights and
economic context (De Beaugrande 1999). Given that liberalism concept varied historically and as
it has been recently used in Saudi society, the key meaning of “əlibrælij'əh” is widely contested
among Saudis, who hold a range of attitudes towards the concept.
This debate has been carried out and widely reported in both the mass media and social media in
Saudi Arabia and my research therefore aims to examine the use and development of the term
“əlibrælij'əh” in Saudi newspaper column articles .The large corpus of newspapers texts should
make it possible to examine how the “əlibrælij'əh” keyword is construed and used in various Saudi
social contexts and how it relates to other relevant concepts that are used under the debate of
modernism and social change. The analysis of this corpus of newspaper texts will be done by using
two main methods: Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis which should permit a close
examination of “əlibrælij'əh” use and an interpretation on the basis of the context in which it
occurs.
Biography:
Najwa Alzahrani is a PhD student at the Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR)
at the school of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University. She got her MA as
well at CLCR/Cardiff University in 2014 and her BA was in English Language from KAU in Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. Her research interest is discovering the social keywords meaning specifically Saudi
social contested keywords by analysing a corpus of texts using linguistic methods of Corpus
linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis.
Ana Ameal-Guerra
Title
Multiple Interactional Goals and Roles in Service Transactions at the Seamstress’s
Abstract
In my Thesis I study audio-recorded transactions in Spanish/Galician between a seamstress and
her long-term customers at her house-workshop in the city of Vigo (Spain). I work within the
Qualitative Research tradition of microanalytical studies of Interactional Sociolinguistics, CA and
the Ethnography of Communication, incorporating insights from Business Communication and
Relational Marketing.
Transcriptions show different types of talk: On-Task Talk (OTT) - defined by participants’ focus on
the products/services at hand and their service relationship (Coupland 2000; Hewitt 2002); SocioRelational Talk (SRT) - relationally and socially designed and oriented in topics and discourse
genres (Ford 2001; Garzaniti et al. 2011; Placencia 2007); and Business Talk (BT) - not on task but
related to the business, e.g., reflecting their history, requesting word of mouth for new clients,
complaining about the work amount.
As multiple transactional, business and socio-relational topics, goals and functions mingle (Ryoo
2005; Yang 2012), which appears to be culturally expected in these long-term Service Relationships
(SRs), some authors have attempted to categorize the resulting complexity (Holmes 2000,
McCarthy 2000).
In my presentation, I will review these approaches, discussing through some data samples the
complications that arise when analyzing and classifying these types of talk sequentially in the short
and the long-term. Likewise, I will explore how these intricate distinctions relate both to the range
of roles and activities (Sarangi 2010, 2015) in the specific encounter, and also to the differences
within the service relationships involved.
Biography
Ana holds a BA in English, and Doctoral studies in Spanish Linguistics, and in General Linguistics
and Bilingualism. For almost nine years she taught Sociolinguistics, Multilingualism, Introduction
to Linguistics, Phonetics/Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, English and Spanish for Foreigners and
Heritage Speakers at the University of Berkeley (California), the State University at Albany (New
York) and the University of Vigo (Spain). She combined her Teaching with Supervising and Training
language teachers. Since 1998, both in Spain and USA, she has been part of Editorial Committees
of sociolinguistic Journals, and Research Teams in Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Language
Acquisition and TFL programs.
References
Coupland, Justine (ed.) (2000) Small Talk. Pearson Education Limited.
Ford, Wendy S. Zabava (2001) Customer expectations for interactions with service providers:
Relationship versus encounter orientation and personalized service communication. Journal
of Applied Communication Research 29 (1), 1-29.
Garzaniti, Ivana; Pearce, Glenn and Stanton, John (2011) Building friendships and relationships:
The role of conversation in hairdressing service encounters. Managing Service Quality 21 (6),
667-687.
Hewitt, Heather (2002) How we pay: transactional and interactional features of payment
sequences in service encounters. The University of Edinburgh's Linguistics and English
Language (LEL) Postgraduate Conference Proceedings, 27th-28th May 2002.
Holmes, Janet (2000) Doing collegiality and keeping control at work: small talk in government
departments. In Coupland (ed.), 32-61.
McCarthy, Michael (2000) Mutually captive audiences: small talk and the genre of close-contact
service encounters. In Coupland (ed.), 84-109.
Placencia, María Elena (2007) Entre lo institucional y lo sociable: conversación de contacto,
identidades y metas múltiples en interacciones en la peluquería. Revista Internacional de
Lingüística Iberoamericana 1 (9), 139-161.
Ryoo, Hye-Kyung (2005) Achieving friendly interactions: a study of service encounters between
Korean shopkeepers and African-American customers. Discourse & Society 16 (1), 79-105.
Sarangi, Srikant (2010) Reconfiguring self/identity/status/role: The case of professional role
performance in healthcare encounters. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional
Practice 7 (1), 75-95.
Sarangi, Srikant (2015) Activity types, discourse types and role types: interactional hybridity in
professional-client encounters. In Donna R. Miller and Paul Bayley (eds.) Hybridity in Systemic
Functional Linguistics: Grammar, Text and Discursive Context. UK: Equinox Publishing Ltd,
SW11, Chapter 8.
Yang, Wenhui (2012) Small talk: A strategic interaction in Chinese interpersonal business
negotiations. Discourse & Communication 6 (1), 101-124.
Mohammed Altheeby
Title
Differences in the Pragmatic Competence of Saudi EFL and ESL learners
Abstract
The pragmatic competence is important to understand the nature of language used in
communication, to deliver your intended message with all its nuances in any sociocultural context,
and to interpret your interlocutor’s message as it was intended. Pragmatic knowledge is crucial to
use language in the right social contexts for the right purposes, and to understand the rules of
appropriateness and politeness that affect people’ linguistic choices in conversations, speech acts,
etc. Empirical research on interlanguage pragmatics has recently focused on how different
learners of English perceive pragmatics of English, which contributed in shifting the emphasis in
language learning/teaching from language structure to the language use.
Recent studies have highlighted several areas where learning contexts can play a central role in
the pragmatics acquisition, and the aim of this research is to examine and compare the pragmatic
competence of English language learners in two contexts (i.e. EFL context and ESL context). The
study primarily focuses on the pragmatics of requests and refusals, and data will be collected
through DCTs and Role Plays designed to elicit responses in forms of requests/refusals. The study
will be conducted in Saudi Arabia and Britain, and three groups will participate: Saudi EFL learners
in Saudi Arabia, Saudi ESL learners in Britain, and English native speakers. Responses will be then
coded and analysed to find out how pragmatics is used by each group.
In this presentation, I will give an overview of my study discussing the research questions and the
methods that will be used to address them.
Biography
I am a first-year PhD student at Cardiff University, undertaking a research project about
‘Differences in the Pragmatic Competence of Saudi EFL and ESL learners’. I did my MA in
sociolinguistics at Essex University (the UK), and my BA in applied linguistics at King Khalid
University (Saudi Arabia).
Samantha Austen
Title
Learner error in second language acquisition: the transfer of form or concept.
Abstract
Italian L1 speakers of English L2 make specific and predictable errors when expressing particular
temporal concepts in English. This paper asks to what extent these errors are caused by L1
conceptual constraint, hindering acquisition through conceptual transfer (Jarvis 2011). Using a
cognitive linguistics approach, the processes that may underlie conceptual transfer were
delineated, and areas of potential conceptual difference within the grammars of English and Italian
were revealed.
The study had three aims; i) to seek statistical evidence for increased error rate in the expression
of target concepts; ii) to produce qualitative data revealing to what extent L2 thinking for these
concepts is constrained by L1; iii) to assess the involvement of non-linguistic cognition. All
participants (54 Italian L1 speakers of English L2 (experimental group), 30 native English speakers
(control), 50 native Italian speakers (control) and 40 Maltese speakers (control)), completed a
twenty item cloze test and 6 of the experimental group did this while thinking aloud. All the
participants performed a non-verbal task. The concurrent think aloud protocols were analysed and
cross referenced with the cloze test results. Think aloud reports indicate that participants thinking
for the target concepts is constrained by L1 mediated cognitive processes. Results of the statistical
analysis showed the experimental group had an increased error rate for target concepts. Tentative
claims are made regarding the influence of L1 conceptual transfer in second language acquisition.
Biography
Sam received her MA in Applied Linguistics in 2008 from the Cardiff University, UK. She is currently
in the final stages of her PhD also at Cardiff. For her PhD Sam is looking at the role of conceptual
transfer in some persistent errors made by Italian L1 learners of English L2 as they acquire the
English tense and aspect system. Sam is an English language teacher, and has taught and directed
EFL and EAP courses in a variety of linguistic and cultural contexts. Her primary research interests
are L1 transfer, cognitive linguistics, and TEFL.
References
Jarvis, S. (2011) Conceptual Transfer: Cross-linguistic effects in event construal. Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition. Vol. 14/1 pp.1 – 8.
Giulia Baker
Title
Do you get it? An investigation of primary school children’s comprehension of verbal ambiguities
in joking riddles.
Abstract
In the 70s and 80s much research was carried out investigating the age at which young children
were able to understand verbal ambiguities and the stages at which different types of ambiguity
were comprehended. This research diminished significantly during the 80s and 90s. More recently
a new body of research has emerged focussing on the comprehension of ambiguous language
used in jokes and riddles. Findings have led researchers to conclude that developmentally
appropriate jokes provide an ideal medium through which to teach students how to manipulate
language and that joke discussion improves higher order reading skills (e.g. reading for meanings
that are not explicit). Deliberately focussing on how words/phrases can be interpreted in more
than one way is also said to promote divergent thinking – a skill which is not restricted to the
literacy curriculum but which is promoted across all primary school subjects. Although there is
consensus that developmentally appropriate jokes can be used to develop the aforementioned
skills, guidance is currently lacking as to which types of jokes or riddles are in fact ‘developmentally
appropriate’ for specific Year Groups in primary school - despite riddles, wordplay and jokes having
in the past appearing at various stages in the primary literacy curriculum. This study uses verbal
riddles to investigate whether different types of ambiguity are comprehended by children at
different stages across KS2 (Key Stage 2). Issues concerning comprehension judgements are
discussed together with preliminary findings.
Biography
Having graduated in Modern Iberian and Latin American Studies (UCL) I worked in Marketing for
several years before completing a PGCE (London Institute of Education) and TEFL Diploma
(Cardiff). I then worked as a class teacher in different primary schools across KS2 (Key Stage 2)
and was a Primary Literacy Co-ordinator in a large inner city primary school in London. I took a
career break following the birth of my two children, returned to Cardiff and completed an MA in
Applied Linguistics (Cardiff). I am currently in my 3rd year of PhD study in Language and
Communication.
Neil Bowen.
Title
Creating a ‘voice’ and making a ‘stance’: A tripartite model of communicative voice in written text.
Abstract
My aim in writing the paper attached to this presentation was to investigate how 'academic voice'
was realized (or instantiated) in written text. To do this I attempted to merge the findings from
three complimentary, but disparate paradigms (SFL, MDA, and CL), under the assumption that the
field as a whole operated on a unified concept of 'voice'. However, in my attempts to do this, I
have come to the conclusion that, in order to fully understand the contributions from these
paradigms, we need to move toward a more encompassing notion of 'voice'; one in which voice is
a tripartite reflection of Bakhtin's (1986) notions of 'heteroglossia' and 'dialogism', alongside – or
more accurately, intertwined with – Kristeva's (1980) notion of 'intertextuality'.
This presentation, then, is a whirlwind tour of how 'voice' (and the accompanying term 'stance')
are defined, used, and operationalised in research into written Academic English. I begin with an
overview of how leading scholars define voice and stance, and then introduce my own speculative
model of how these concerns relate to a wider notion of 'communicative voice' in written text. I
follow this with a (very) brief introduction of how voice and stance are typically operationalised in
the 3 paradigms of SFL, MDA, and CL, before returning to how I see voice as realized in writing.
Biography
I started adulthood as an engineer, during which time I won the UKSkills competition (twice),
EuropeanSkills competition (Groningen), and came 7th in the WorldSkills competition (Montreal).
For this I was given a young achievers award from the Queen, and an award from Prince Charles.
Then I quit my job, sold my house, and travelled the world. For the next six years I worked mainly
in S.E Asia as a scuba diving instructor, boat captain, and P.A. to an American Actor. I returned to
Wales in 2009, where I completed a BA in language studies at Swansea and an MA at Cardiff. I
speak Thai and pigeon English. I am also 38 years old for those who don't know.
Dorottya Csenge Cserzo
Title
The challenges of combining interviews with naturalistic data.
Abstract
In the past year, the main focus of my research on video-mediated communication has been
conducting interviews to complement my recordings of video chat sessions. As I only have a
limited number of naturally occurring video interactions, it seemed that interviews would be a
good way to collect additional data. I developed my interview questions based on an interview
conducted as part of my MA coursework on the topic of keeping in touch with family over Skype.
The interview guide was tested on 4 interviewees in late 2014 before the more intensive interview
collection period in 2015 when I conducted 24 interviews in one month. I now have over 10 hours
of interview recordings and just over 6 hours of videos, half of which come from naturally occurring
interactions and the other half was recorded as part of undergraduate coursework.
However, integrating different kinds of data into a coherent research project poses its own set of
challenges. In this talk, I will discuss the interview questions, both in terms of the interview guide
and the actual questions asked as transcribed from some of the recordings. This will shed light on
what I hoped to learn from these interviews, my take on what can be learned from interviews, and
how the interviews complement the video recordings. I will also discuss the process of
transcription and analysis, for which I am using the qualitative research software Nvivo.
Biography
I completed my BA in Budapest before coming to Cardiff for my MA and PhD. I am a third-year
part-time student researching the affordances of video-mediated communication. At this stage I
have collected all my data, which consists of over 6 hours of recorded video chat sessions and 29
audio recorded interviews (around 20 minutes each). I have done a preliminary analysis on most
of the video recordings and some of the interviews. These analyses are based on the purposes of
the video calls recorded or discussed in the interviews (personal or course work).
Nadia Elias
Title
Exploring how intonation helps achieve topical coherence in spoken discourse in English.
Abstract
The present study is interested in “topical coherence” that is achieved across the interaction that
happens between the participants as they are negotiating in order to reach to an agreement on
the topic of their discussion. The present study is interested in investigating the role of ‘Thematic
Structure’: theme and rheme, ‘Information Structure’: given and new, Grice’s Cooperative
Principle and Relevance Theory, and cohesive devices in achieving this kind of coherence. Their
role will be investigated alongside the interaction that happens between the speakers in the
informal English conversation. Map task method is used to collect data.
The starting point and first stage in investigating topical coherence in the present study is basically
related to the idea that the thematic and information structures often coincide i.e. theme= given
and rheme= new. What the study tries to find out is whether they are cases in which they might
not coincide. Then it will try to see the meaning that will be generated when the two systems
diverge by the resulting tension and incongruence and whether this would hinder the participants
from having a coherent interaction and prevent them from achieving a topical coherence in their
discourse. The second stage is represented by investigating the role of the other two factors that
are of interest i.e. cooperative principle and cohesive devices. This is to see how they would
interact when the two systems diverge to help the interlocutors have a coherent discourse on the
topic they are negotiating about i.e. map task.
Biography
I obtained BA and MA degrees in English Language from Mosul University, Iraq in 2000 and 2003
respectively. I work as an assistant lecturer at English department, School of Basic Education,
University of Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan. I am currently on study leave. After having my second Master
degree in English and Communication/ School of English, Communication and Philosophy/ Cardiff
University in 2013, I have started my PhD in the School. I am in second year now. I am working on
topical coherence and how the factors of thematic structure, information structure, cooperative
principle and cohesive devices help achieve it in the informal spoken English.
Jessi Frasier
Title
One social actor, multiple identities: the construction of identities for a social actor across two
trials
Abstract
Attorneys can manipulate the ways in which one person can be portrayed to the jury through the
identities that they construct for them. Despite the importance of these identities it has not been
the primary focus of research on closing arguments and is one area that has received little
attention in identity research as well. Some of the areas that have previously been explored in
closing arguments are the use of metaphor (Cotterill 1998), impression management (Hobbs 2003)
and terms of reference/frequency of reference (Felton Rosulek 2008, 2009; Felton Rosulek 2015).
This study focuses on identity construction as a component of persuasion in closing arguments. It
aims to explore the identities constructed for a single social actor across two US murder trials. In
the first trial he is the defendant and in the second trial (his wife’s) he is not even present as he
has already been convicted. The framework for the analysis of identity is Bamberg’s (2012)
identity navigation. This framework is a useful tool as it allows for the analysis of multiple or
evolving identities for a single person instead of constraining them to a single, unchanging identity.
This research is part of my larger analysis that is looking at identity construction for the key social
actors (e.g. defendant, victim, attorneys) and the role it plays in the persuasive process of 6 US
murder trials.
My projected findings are that not only can one person have opposing identities constructed in a
single trial but that one attorney can construct multiple identities for the social actor across two
different trials.
Biography
I have a BA in Linguistics from Tulane University, an MA in Linguistics from Bangor University and
an MA in Language and Communication Research from Cardiff University. The focus of my PhD
research is identity construction in US murder trials and the role of these constructed identities as
part of the persuasive process.
References
Bamberg, M. 2012. Narrative Practice and Identity Navigation. In: Holstein, J.A. and Gubrium, J.F.
eds. Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Los Angeles, London: SAGE Publications, Inc, pp. 99-124.
Cotterill, J. 1998. 'If It Doesn't Fit, You Must Acquit': Metaphor and the O. J. Simpson Criminal Trial.
Forensic Linguistics 5(2), pp. 141-158.
Felton Rosulek, L. 2008. Manipulative silence and social representation in the closing arguments
of a child sexual abuse case. Text and Talk 28(4), pp. 529-550.
Felton Rosulek, L. 2009. The sociolinguistic creation of opposing representations of defendants
and victims. The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law 16(1), pp. 1-30.
Felton Rosulek, L. 2015. Dueling discourses : the construction of reality in closing arguments.
Oxford, New York : Oxford University Press.
Hobbs, P. 2003. 'Is That What We're Here About?': A Lawyer's Use of Impression Management in
a Closing Argument at Trial. Discourse & Society 14(3), pp. 273-290.
Sheila Gewolb
Title
Older workers’ talk: Discursive representations of ageing, work and retirement by the over 50s
Abstract
This presentation focuses on the study I have been conducting over the past six years into how
older workers construct their age-identities and how they represent their views on retirement in
respect of continuity vs. change. I will introduce the methodologies used for data collection and
analysis and briefly summarise my findings and the conclusions I have drawn from these results.
Focus group sessions in workplaces and semi-structured interviews in respondents’ own homes
were conducted to gather participant data. Themes that were identified from focus group
material were used to guide the interviews, with recorded data being analysed using Discourse
Analysis. Using this approach, which included applying ‘Positioning theory’ (Harré and van
Langenhove, 1999; Jones, 2006), and age categorisation [processes] (Coupland, Coupland and
Giles, 1991), allowed for a rigorous investigation into how older age-identity was constructed and
how views about retirement were represented by older workers and people who had already
retired.
Findings indicated that older people often distanced themselves from being associated with
negative ageist stereotypes of being retired, and that these images of ‘bad’ retirement could be
countered by keeping busy and active after leaving work to achieve successful ageing and ‘good’
retirement, echoing Ekerdt’s (1986) notion of a ‘busy ethic’. Retiree testimony was generally
found to support these views, with this life stage being described as a time of opportunity and
new beginnings. These results indicate that negative stereotypes of being retired and ageing need
to be challenged by the positive views that were represented by retired people.
Biography
Sheila Gewolb has been a student at Cardiff University since 2002, achieving her BA in
Communication in 2008 and currently in the final stages of a part-time PhD which focuses on a
discursive analysis of how people over 50 construct their age-identities in a workplace setting and
speak about retirement.
She has previously presented papers on aspects of her study at three international conferences: imean Conference, Bristol (April 2013); Cultural Gerontology Conference, Galway (April 2014); and
the Sociolinguistic Symposium (SS20) in Jyväskylä, Finland, (June 2014). She has also had a paper
published in March 2015 in the journal Working with Older People: ‘Working towards successful
retirement: older workers and retirees speaking about ageing, change and later life’.
References
Ekerdt, D. J. (1986) ‘The busy ethic: Moral continuity between work and retirement’.
The Gerontologist, 26: 3, 239-244.
Harré, R. and van Langenhove, L. (1999) Positioning Theory: Moral Contexts of Intentional
Action. Oxford: Blackwell.
Jones, R. L. (2006) ‘‘Older people’ talking as if they are not older people: Positioning theory
as an explanation.’ Journal of Aging Studies 20: 79-91.
Argyro Kantara
Title
When politicians laugh: Alexis Tsipras’ use of laughter at pre-election interview openings.
Abstract
Previous conversation analytic work on the use and function of laughter in broadcast political
interactions has mostly focused on its affiliative use as audience behavior (Ekström 2009, Eriksson
2009, Eriksson 2010), as a response to something the participants had constructed as humorous.
Fewer studies have focused on its disaffiliative use as a response to something that has not been
constructed as humorous; Clayman (1992) has investigated the use of laughter as a disaffiliative
response from the audience in presidential debates, while Romaniuk (2009, 2013a, 2013b) has
investigated its use by politicians in the context of televised news interviews. In particular, she has
examined two dimensions of politicians’ laughter; firstly its retrospective dimension, arguing that
laughter acts as an implicit commentary on the interviewer’s questions, undermining them and
secondly its prospective dimension, projecting a disaffiliative verbal response.
Adding to the latter line of research, in this talk I examine a specific politician’s (Alexis Tsipras) use
of laughter at interview openings. More specifically I examine his use of laughter as a response to
the first question asked by the journalist, this being either an accountability or promise soliciting
question, in three out of four one-on-one pre-election interviews he gave during the 2012 Greek
general elections campaign. By examining both the retrospective and prospective dimensions of
Alexis Tsipras’ laughter, I will argue that his laughter is not only disaffiliative, undermining the
journalists’ questions and projecting either an evasive answer or a counterchallenge, but it also
establishes a ‘cool but aggressive’ persona for the ears of the overhearing electorate.
Biography
After having worked as an EFL/ESP teacher in Athens and Thessaloniki, as an ESP/EAP and
linguistics lecturer in a private college in Athens, as a freelance translator and examiner for ESOL
Examination bodies, I decided to further widen my already diverse educational background (BA in
Theology, MSc in TESP, MA in Modern English Language, MSc in Social Research Methods). So I
came to Cardiff to investigate “Adversarial Challenges and Responses in Greek 2012 pre-election
interviews” hoping to contribute to the growing body of cross-cultural research on broadcast talk.
My research marries quite ‘happily’ conversation analysis, journalism studies and political
communication with research on laughter and argumentation theory. I am also interested in the
epistemology of (TV) journalism, propaganda studies and intercultural communication.
References
Clayman, S.E. (1992) Caveat orator: Audience disaffiliation in the 1988 presidential debates.
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 78: 33-60
Ekström, M. (2009) Power and affiliation in presidential news conferences: A study of
interruptions, jokes and laughter. Journal of Language and Politics, 8(3): 386-415
Eriksson, G. (2009) The management of applause and laughter in political interviews. Media,
Culture & Society, 31 (6): 901-920
Eriksson, G. (2010) Politicians in celebrity talk show interviews. Text & Talk 30 (5): 529-551
Romaniuk, T. (2009) ‘The Clinton Cackle’: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s laughter in news interviews.
Crossroads of Language, Interaction, and Culture 7:17-49
Romaniuk, T. (2013a) Cracks in the glass ceiling?: Laughter in politics and the gendered nature of
media representations. Unpublished PhD dissertation, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Romaniuk, T. (2013b) Interviewee laughter and disaffiliation in Broadcast News Interviews. In P.
Glenn and E. Holt (eds) Studies of Laughter in Interaction, London, New York: Bloomsbury
Dr Dawn Knight (Keynote Speaker)
Title
Dispelling the myths: the ubiquity of corpora in linguistic research
Abstract
There are many misconceptions about corpus-based enquiry, the most common being that corpus
linguistics is purely quantitative approach, one that deals only with large-scale homogenous and
decontextualized banks of language. While perhaps such a perception was somewhat true of early
corpus-based enquiry (1970s-1990s), a seismic shift in the theoretical and methodological makeup
of the corpus linguistic (CL) landscape has been witnessed in modern times.
The paper examines how we can design, construct and analyse a range of different linguistic
datasets of different scales (from the micro to the macro), communicative- and media-based
modes (from monomodal to multimodal and ubiquitous datasets) and including single and/or
multiple participants, to allow us to answer a range of different questions about language.
The paper draws directly on a range case studies from research I have carried out in the past
decade including the use of CL with discourse analysis (DA) for the study of ‘big data’ online; CL
with conversation analysis (CA) in the examination of spoken interaction in small group teaching;
the examination of language use ‘beyond the word’ and the investigation of the interface between
multiple modes of communication in everyday life using heterogeneous datasets collected ‘in the
wild’.
The presentation aims to open your eyes and minds for the potential of utilising corpora to answer
a range of different questions about language in your own research, as well as providing some ‘top
tips’ for doing this.
Biography
Dawn Knight is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Cardiff University. Her current research
interests lie predominantly in the areas of corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, lexico-grammar,
learning and (mobile) technology, multimodality and the socio-linguistic contexts of
communication. The main contribution of her work has been to pioneer the development of a new
research area in applied linguistics: multimodal corpus-based discourse analysis. This has included
the introduction of a novel methodological approach to the analysis of the relationships between
language and gesture-in-use based on large-scale real-life records of interaction (corpora).
Harriet Lloyd
Title
Pity and Patriotism: Representations of British Charitable Giving.
Abstract
In this talk, I will review the broad question that has driven my research: how is charitable giving
justified as a means of redressing social inequalities within a state? The distance that exists
between sufferers and donors in international aid contexts is what necessitates the use of nonpolitical intermediaries such as charities, between them. In the intra-national context, however,
other types of interaction are possible. I will draw upon Arendt’s conception of ‘pity’, which is
used to describe acts of compassion that take place at a distance, to examine the idea that viewers
of within-country charity appeals are also encouraged to see themselves as being distant from
sufferers, although this distance is social, rather than geographical.
I will argue that programmes such as Children in Need, as well as everyday talk about charitable
giving, use language and other modalities to present intra-national problems as being the same as
those faced by people elsewhere, and therefore as fixable using the same means. Words such as
‘poverty’ and ‘hunger’ are used in both inter and intra-national appeals, and in both contexts the
lives of disadvantaged others are contrasted with what is presented as the norm of Western
affluence. Meanwhile, the idea of national identity is evoked only insofar as it justifies privileging
the needs of British sufferers over those of sufferers elsewhere.
Biography.
I am currently in my fourth year of my PhD. Originally from Pembrokeshire, I gained my BA in
English Literature from Cardiff University in 2008. I worked in the housing department of Cardiff
Council until 2010, when I was awarded 3 + 1 ESRC funding to explore representations of charitable
giving. I gained an MA in Language and Communication in 2011. I am interested in global social
inequality and poverty, and how it is sustained by neoliberal and nationalist discourses. I am also
currently employed as a research assistant in a TUC-funded project in JOMEC, on representations
of trade unions in the news.
Boitshwarelo Rantsudu
Title
Appraisal theory and NVivo: successes and challenges in analysing stance and neutrality.
The concepts of stance and neutrality have been variously defined, particularly in relation to news
discourse, and in this paper I discuss various views on these concepts and present the
methodological approach I have taken to analyse their appearance in the coverage of a strike by
public sector workers in two Botswana newspapers. In carrying out the first phase of my analysis
I have combined the categories of Appraisal theory and qualitative data analysis software tools.
This approach has been found to address some of the challenges encountered in data analysis.
The aim of my presentation is to highlight the successes and some of the challenges of using this
approach. These successes and challenges are discussed in relation to data management and
classification, retrieval of data sources (the news texts) and their co-text, and gaining a
comparative perspective. I also touch briefly on some results that I have drawn from analysing
comparable news texts. The data analysis has so far indicated that, when studied within the
context of hard news reporting, stance and neutrality are not mutually exclusive concepts, but
that the variety of linguistic resources employed in news texts affords the journalists success in
expressing some evaluations while maintaining the neutrality ideal.
Biography
I am a 2nd year PhD student in Language and Communication (Cardiff University). My current
research interests are in Attitude and interpersonal positioning in newspaper discourse. Within
these areas I am investigating patterns of evaluative stance and apparent neutrality within the
context of Botswana media. My research also touches on how the broad areas of evaluation,
stance and neutrality relate to notions of identity and affiliation.
Susan Reichelt
Title
“That was a bit, um, British, wasn’t it?” – Scripted Britishness on American television and its
comparability with British based media
Sociolinguistic research on scripted television dialogue has been on the rise over the last few
decades. Realising its potential to provide language data over a considerable time frame, linguists
have started to embrace scripted dialogue as a way to track variation and change in various shapes
and forms (e.g. intensifiers in the American sitcom Friends (Tagliamonte and Roberts 2005),
identity-patterns in The Big Bang Theory (Bednarek 2012), gender representation in Star Trek (Rey
1996), etc.).
This study emphasizes the variability of character representation with a focus on geographical
background. It aims at presenting linguistic stereotyping of British characters on an American
television series and similarities regarding Britishness as portrayed on recent BBC series, as well
as natural occurring language. The research is based on a corpus consisting of the complete
dialogue of three television series (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (USA), Sherlock (UK), and Torchwood
(UK)) and their characters’ usage patterns of pragmatic markers (mainly intensifiers, hedges, and
discourse markers).
My results show that the presented characters in an American based show have definite overlap
with natural language as well as British based media in the use of certain features (frequent use
of very and really as intensifiers, preference of sort of over kind of as hedges, etc.), but that
frequencies are quite different depending on the series’ background.
Biography
I am now nearing half-time of my PhD on fictolinguistics in television shows, after having
completed my Master’s in sociolinguistics in Aberdeen and my Bachelor’s in English studies in
Hamburg. Working with a corpus of almost two million words opened my eyes to a broad variety
of linguistic phenomena, from patterned usages of pragmatic markers and terms of endearment,
to gems of Buffy-speak and Gilmorisms.
References
“Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants”
Bednarek, Monika. 2012. Constructing 'nerdiness': Characterisation in The Big Bang Theory.
Multilingua 31(2), pp. 199-229.
Rey, Jennifer M. 1996. To Boldly Speak : Changes in the Linguistic Characterization of Women in
the Televised Star Treks. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium 22, pp. 65-72.
Tagliamonte, Sali and Roberts, Chris. 2005. So weird; so cool; so innovative: The use of intensifiers
in the television series Friends. American Speech 80(3), pp. 280-300.
Amjad Saleem
Title
Does memorization without comprehension lead to awareness of language patterns?
Abstract
Muslims across the world memorize the Quran in Arabic for verbatim recall. Memorizers can be
native speakers of Arabic, non-native speakers of Arabic, or non-Arabic speakers. The last category
of speakers constitutes an unusual learner population, in that they cannot draw on primary
linguistic knowledge to assist their memorization.
My presentation will report if memorization of the Quran by non-Arabic speaking memorizers
leads to pattern recognition in Classical Arabic. In order to understand whether Quran
memorization results in sensitivities to language, the mechanism and processes involved in
memorization and long term retention of the Quran are also explored.
Expert memorizers (i.e. those with experience of teaching the Quran to others) were interviewed
about their memorization practices, i.e., what they brought to the act of memorization and what,
according to them, underlay their success in memorization (study one). To establish whether
Quran memorization results in sensitivity to language, young memorizers with no knowledge of
Arabic language were tested on their awareness of language patterns through a grammaticality
judgement task (study two).
Contrary to implicit predictions in the research literature, findings from the language tests (study
two) indicated that the participants had developed very little awareness of pattern recognition in
Classical Arabic. These results are explained in the light of memorizers’ reflections on their
memorization practices. It is argued that memorizers’ extreme risk aversion in memorization
stands in their way of developing awareness of the language patterns.
Biography
I have been living in Cardiff for than four years now. I started off with MA in Language and
Communication in 2010, completed it, and started my PhD. I am looking forward to submitting my
thesis very soon.
David Schönthal
Title
The cohesive landscape of English of-NPs: A co-textual analysis.
This talk investigates English of-NPs (e.g. that idiot of a man, the front of the house, or a box of
kittens) from a textual rather than structural point of view. Specifically, it goes beyond the
boundaries of these expressions’ internal structure and investigates their role within the textual
metafunction by the means of a cohesion analysis. Fundamentally, this analysis is based on the
notion that English of-NPs consist of three conceptual entities, namely an entity that precedes the
relator of, one that follows it, and an entity that consists of the expression as a whole.
For the purpose of analysis, 200 of-NPs from the BNC were extracted and examined within their
immediate co-text. Using Halliday and Hasan’s (1976, 1989) theory of cohesive ties and relations,
each of-NP has been analysed in terms of all the identity and similarity chains its three conceptual
entities are involved in, i.e. its ‘cohesive landscape’. This allows for a distribution analysis of the
different chains across the of-NP’s co-text, which yields results in terms of the expression’s textual
function.
Consequentially, a set of different textual functions of of-NPs has been identified: While some ofNPs merely function as a fixed entity, which is introduced to the co-text as a whole, others are a
means to link a new feature with an already established entity. Most strikingly, however, of-NPs
often function as a textual transition point between the cohesive chains of two different
conceptual entities.
Biography
After the completion of my Bachelor of Arts at the University of Berne in the realms of Switzerland,
the conferment of my Master of Arts at Cardiff University, and the tribulation of a year of Swiss
military service, the summer of 2013 called for another change of scene. Taking a leap of faith, I
moved back to the city of Cardiff where I began my adventure of three years of the study of the
phenomenon of of-NPs in the language of English, as well as becoming afflicted to the overuse of
it.
Jaspal Naveel Singh
Title
Breakin social differentiation: Hip hop solidarity in intercultural cyphers in Delhi.
Abstract
Practices associated with hip hop culture are understood by scholars as tools for pedagogy and
social and personal transformation (e.g. Alim 2007; Ibrahim 2009; Beach and Sernhede 2012;
Petchauer and Garrison 2014, see Petchauer 2009 for a survey). Language is typically a central
concern in such studies. The breakin cypher, however, is a hip hop ritual that is in many ways
practiced without language, or at least without verbality; it is nonetheless a ritual in which complex
forms of communication occur. It involves kinestetic, proxemic, haptic and figurative-iconic modes
of communication that allow dancers of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate
nonverbally with each other – or rather against each other. During ethnographic fieldwork in
Delhi’s hip hop scene, I observed that breakin cyphers have the potential to create, precisely
because of their nonverbality, ‘intercultural cyphers’ that bring together dancers from differing
caste/class/gender/age/regional/linguisitic backgrounds and thereby challenge dominant Indian
ideologies of untouchability across social stratification and differentiation.
Over the last 65 years Delhi’s rapid urbanisation and drastic in-migration from all over India and
from abroad formed superdiverse layers of complexity (Blommaert 2013) that incite imaginations
of social differention (Wengoborski and Singh 2013). Recently the breakin scene in Delhi has been
challenging these imaginations and it begins to foster solidarity between youths from diverse
backgrounds (see also Nohl 2003; Fogarty 2012 for comparable findings). I will discuss one video
recording of a battle and suggest that in this breakin battle difference is articulated, negotiated
and decisively surmounted by an enactment of hip hop solidarity.
Biography
Jaspal studied Medieval and Modern History, Philosophy and Linguistics at Johannes Gutenberg
University, Mainz, and Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University. He currently
explores India's hip hop scene as a transcultural and complex phenomenon. An ethnographic
fieldtrip to Delhi has been conducted in 2013. He is especially interested in discursive historicity
and narrative positionality. Furthermore, he has found that hip hop is used pedagogically and as a
tool for social transformation, which gives a voice both to the urban poor and to India’s burgeoning
middle class milieus. The research project employs linguistic ethnography and discourse studies.
References
Alim, H. S. (2007) Critical hip-hop language pedagogies: Combat, consciousness, and the cultural
politics of communication. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 6(2): 161-176.
Beach, Dennis and Ove Sernhede (2012) Learning processes and social mobilization in a Swedish
metropolitan hip-hop collective. Urban Education 47(5): 939-958.
Blommaert, Jan (2013) Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of
Complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Dattatreyan, E. Gabriel and Jaspal Naveel Singh (under review) Desirous recognition: Enacting
pedagogy, dirupting value. Critique of Anthropolgy.
Fogarty, Mary (2012) ‘Each one teach one’: B-boying and ageing. In: Andy Bennett and Paul
Hodkinson (eds.) Ageing and Youth Culture: Music, Style and Identity, pp. 53-65. London:
Berg.
Ibrahim, Awad (2009) Takin Hip-Hop to a whole nother level: Métissage, affect and pedagogy in a
Global Hip-Hop Nation. In: H. Samy Alim, Awad Ibrahim and Alastair Pennycook (eds.) Global
Linguistic Flows: Hip-Hop Culture, Youth Identities and the Politics of Language, pp. 231-248.
London: Routledge.
Nohl, Arnd-Michael (2003) Interkulturelle Bildung im Breakdance. In: Jannis Androutsopoulos (ed.)
HipHop: Globale Kultur – Lokale Praktiken, pp. 297-320. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Petchauer, Emery (2009) Framing and reviewing hip-hop eduactional research. Review of
Educational Research 79(2): 946-978.
Petchauer, Emery and Antonio Garrison (2014) Fashioning self, battling society: Hip Hop graffiti
jackets as a method of positive identity development. In: Brad Porfilio, Debangshu
Roychoudhury and Lauren M. Gardner (eds.) See You at the Crossroads: Hip Hop Scholarship
at the Intersections, pp. 93-110. Rotterdam: Sense.
Wengoborski, Sonja and Jaspal Naveel Singh (2013) Creating the city of Delhi: Stories of strong
women and weak walls. In: Hans-Christian Petersen (ed.) Spaces of the Poor: Perspectives of
Cultural Sciences on Urban Slum Areas and Their Inhabitants, pp. 147-168. Bielefeld:
Transcript.
Eimi Watanabe
Title
British Perceptions of and Attitudes towards Japanese-English Bilinguals.
Studies have been done on attitudes towards bilingualism and bilinguals but the majority of it have
either focused on English and European languages (Lambert et al., 1960) or foreign-accented
English (Anisfeld, Bogo and Lambert, 1962). These studies found that people tend to have different
attitudes towards different accents. However, people’s perception can change with the
information given about the speakers. Rubin’s study (1992) showed that listeners’ judgements of
speech intelligibility can likely be affected by speakers’ ethnic appearance. Furthermore, Hay and
Drager (2010) concluded that objects in the room can shift people’s perception.
The aim of my PhD research is to investigate British people’s attitudes towards Japanese-English
bilinguals. It will examine whether there are differences in attitudes towards native speakers of
English, early bilinguals of English and Japanese, and late learners of English who are Japanese.
The study will also observe whether their attitudes are the same when people are explicitly told
that the speakers are bilinguals and when they are not.
In this presentation I will give an overview of the current research I am doing for my PhD. Previous
research done in the area will be described and the methodology I will be using for my research
will be explained.
Biography
Eimi is a first year PhD student at the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff
University (UK). She completed her BA degree in Sociology with Social Psychology at University of
York (UK) in 2012. A course she took on Conversation Analysis led her to the path of linguistics,
and she received her MA degree in Linguistics at University of Kent (UK) in 2013. Her research
interest is in the area of bilingualism and her PhD thesis will investigate British people’s attitudes
towards Japanese-English bilinguals.
References
Anisfeld, M., Bogo, N., & Lambert, W. E. (1962). Evaluational reactions to accented English speech.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Pscyhology, 65, 223-231.
Hay, J. & Drager, K. (2010). Stuffed toys and speech perception. Linguistics, 48 (84), 865-892.
Lambert, W. E., Hodgson, R. C., Gardner, R. C. & Fillenbaum, S. (1960). Evaluational reactions to
spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 60, 44-51.
Rubin, D. L. (1992). Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates’ judgements of nonnative
English-speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher Education, 33 (4), 511-531.
Piotr Wegorowski
Title
“What exactly is the ward?” Defining neighbourhood in neighbourhood policing.
Abstract
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were introduced to the police system in the UK by the
Police Reform Act 2002 in an attempt to increase police’s visibility, accessibility and familiarity, in
order to form a link between the police and the public. In this paper, I briefly outline the scope of
activities PCSOs engage in as well as provide a quick overview of my research, which investigates
the ways in which PCSOs communicate with members of the public.
Based on an example of one professional activity, namely a PACT meeting, I demonstrate how
institutional understanding of a local area does not map easily onto the lay understanding of the
neighbourhood. Instead, a translation needs to be produced in order to define the key concept of
neighbourhood policing. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic observation, I also outline the
direction of my future research.
Biography
Piotr Węgorowski graduated in French and Linguistics from University of Aberdeen before
completing a MA in Forensic Linguistics at Cardiff University. He currently pursues doctoral
research as a part of the AHRC-funded project “Translation and Translanguaging: Investigating
Linguistic and Cultural Transformations in Superdiverse Wards in Four UK Cities.” His research
interests include forensic linguistics, linguistic ethnography and discourse analysis.