Zohar Livnat | Bar-Ilan University (original) (raw)

Papers by Zohar Livnat

Drawing from genre analysis, this article assumes a fundamental connection between the form of th... more Drawing from genre analysis, this article assumes a fundamental connection between the form of the texts that constitute a certain genre and their communicative purpose. Concession structures are prevalent in academic papers of all kinds, since they offer an excellent opportunity to allow the voice of others to be heard and confronted in the text. However, while in less confronta- tional papers concession structures act inside the limitations of politeness or the conventions of the genre, at the more confrontational pole, their conflictual potential is manifest. In this search for the linguistic manifestation of confrontation, a high-resolution microanalysis of concession structures was carried out. Findings show that this syntactic or textual form may contain various linguistic elements that serve to bolster the differences in opinions and make a criticism more direct and more personal, including pronouns, personal names, unspecific terms of reference, passive voice, hedging, inten...

Dialogicity in Political Discourse

Based on Buber’s dialogic philosophy, ideas from the ethics of dialogue and politeness theory, we... more Based on Buber’s dialogic philosophy, ideas from the ethics of dialogue and politeness theory, we analyze letters written by members of an Israeli organization named Besod Siach – who come from both the left and right wings, are both religious and secular, who decided to broaden and deepen the dialogue between different groups in Israeli society against the backdrop of the polarization, alienation and violence threatening the state’s integrity and democratic foundations. Our analysis has three focal points: the language of the letters themselves, meta-linguistic utterances that appear in the letters and explicitly refer to the language the writers choose to use or refrain from using, and meta-textual utterances that relate more generally to the dialogic approach guiding the members of the group. Harmony is evinced among these three perspectives, thus exemplifying the conditions needed in order to hold an argumentative discourse that promotes dialogue.

The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres, 2019

Language & Communication, 2018

The aim of this paper is to theoretically associate the question of "membering" in call-in radio ... more The aim of this paper is to theoretically associate the question of "membering" in call-in radio shows with the diverse responses of callers to these shows to hosts' ironic utterances. Assuming that reactions to irony depend in part on the speaker's communicative competence, we suggest that they might be indicative of the speaker's communicative competence in a specific speech community, such as that of radio call-in program. The indirectness of irony requires that speech be understood and interpreted in a way that is shared by the community. These elements are central to the definition of a speech community: "sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech" (Hymes, 1974:54), and thus require an in-depth familiarity with this community's goals and agreements, modes of participation, and practices of speech.

Questions de communication, 2006

Lidil, 2010

Corpus-based research of scientiic articles in the social sciences in Hebrew demonstrates differe... more Corpus-based research of scientiic articles in the social sciences in Hebrew demonstrates different kinds of impersonal constructions characteristic of this genre, among them various uses of grammatical metaphors. An analysis of this data from the rhetorical perspective makes it possible to point to the rhetorical roles performed by impersonal constructions. They serve the 'rhetoric of objectivity' and the ethos of the credible and uninvolved researcher, and present the research as an entity independent of and separate from the researcher. The author's absence from the cognitive actions that underlie the text, in particular the drawing of conclusions, presents the conclusions as those that any rational reader would draw given the same data. Impersonal constructions involve the reader in the cognitive activities that underlie the scientiic paper and create common ground between the writer and reader. Viewed from the rhetorical perspective, grammatical metaphors appear to be rhetorical devices that serve the entire range of goals of the author, as a member of the scientiic community. RÉSUMÉ Cette recherche, basée sur un corpus d'articles scientiiques en sciences sociales rédigés en hébreu, se donne pour objectif d'identiier différentes formes de constructions impersonnelles du genre, dont en particulier l'utilisation des métaphores grammaticales. L'analyse, menée dans une perspective rhétorique, permet de dégager les fonctions rhétoriques de ces constructions impersonnelles, mises au service de la « rhétorique de l'objectivité » en renforçant la crédibilité du chercheur, non impliqué dans son discours. Cette absence formelle de l'auteur dans son raisonnement, en particulier dans la partie inale, donne au lecteur un

Pragmatics and Society, Dec 15, 2022

Yod, 2021

Revue des études hébraïques et juives 23 | 2021 Le Voyage de l'hébreu à travers le temps et la so... more Revue des études hébraïques et juives 23 | 2021 Le Voyage de l'hébreu à travers le temps et la société Référence électronique Il-Il Yatziv-Malibert et Zohar Livnat, « Usages non déictiques et impersonnels de la deuxième personne du singulier en hébreu moderne parlé : trois approches »,

Journal of Jewish Education

Journal of Language and Politics

The new dialogic, conversational nature of television broadcast news (Hamo, 2009) poses a challen... more The new dialogic, conversational nature of television broadcast news (Hamo, 2009) poses a challenge to traditional commentators, who are forced to move from an authoritative monologue to a confrontational dialogue that requires additional flexibility and conversational skills. The paper focuses on an Israeli case study which presents a confrontational dialogue in which one of the discussants is an experienced military correspondent and commentator. We demonstrate the various resources he uses in order to cope with a complex discursive challenge by using multimodal tools, both verbal and visual (Kress 2010; Kress and Van Leeuwen 2001; Jewitt and Oyama 2001). Besides interrupting his interlocutor’s eloquent discourse in any possible way, demonstrating his well-known direct and involved television persona, the military correspondent employs institutional discursive resources such as using authoritative voice and taking the role of the mediator. Concession structures (Anscombre 1985) re...