Exploring the Pragmatic Relationship Between Word Meaning and Textual Content in a Scientific Paper (original) (raw)
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Genocide in language , 2018
The subject of genocide in the language is widespread in our daily lives because of the existence of multiple and enormous cases of genocide events at the present situation. Genocide can be defined as the deliberate mass murder of a whole group of persons, one of the crimes against humanity. Genocide can be defined as atrocities committed during aggression, on ethnic or religious grounds. This research attempts to apply theory of Speech Acts to the International Law of inciting genocide. It also tackles the subject of genocide from the point of view of nomenclature uses and rhetorical strategies so as to check how leaders utilize these to justify their decisions to agitate killings large organs of people. Examples of historical genocides are exemplified. Besides, cases of genocide are analyzed thematically speaking based on the inducements of the wrongdoers.
Communication & methods, 2020
The aim of this article is to present a model of journalistic or advertising writing analysis, taking into account four linguistic areas: syntax, semantics, orthography and morphology, within an ethical perspective. The foundation is based on what I call the "ethics of the word", which does not apply exclusively to journalism or linguistics; it is transversal. Journalists ought to pay special attention to language so that in the pretense of information they do not fall into the vice of misinformation. Through critical hermeneutics, the linguistic analysis methodology is taken to clothe it with an ethical orientation, either because of the pursuit of excellence in the work instrument by journalists, because of their responsibility with the language or with the creation of public opinion. Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es presentar un modelo de análisis de redacción periodística o publicitaria, tomando en cuenta cuatro elementos lingüísticos: sintaxis, semántica, ortografía y morfología, con una mirada ética. La fundamentación parte de lo que denomino la "ética de la palabra", que no es de aplicación exclusiva en el periodismo o en la lingüística; es transversal. Los periodistas han de poner especial cuidado en el lenguaje de manera que en la pretensión de información no caigan en el vicio de la desinformación. Por la vía de la hermenéutica crítica, se toma la metodología de análisis de lingüístico para arroparlo con una orientación ética, bien por la búsqueda de la excelencia del instrumento de trabajo por parte de periodistas, por su responsabilidad con el idioma o con la creación de la opinión pública.
Semantics and Pragmatics, 2020
Meaning-making is at the center of all human communicative events. Communication is an exchange of meanings encoded in written or spoken words, non-verbal cues, signs, symbols, and so on. Creating, exchanging, and interpreting meaning is ingrained in human nature since prehistoric times. Language is the most sophisticated medium of communication. It is through language that we set meanings or in other words — refer, define, and signify the things in nature and the ideas in our mind. (Griffiths, 2017) The term ‘meaning of meaning’ was first coined by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in 1923. According to him meaning is related to multiple phenomena. It has various facets and these features are related to the external world (extra-linguistic factors) and the linguistic properties (phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics) The concept of meaning is vast and has many moving parts. Questing for the answer — ‘what is the meaning of meaning’ makes us take a multi-disciplinary approach; from linguistics, philosophy, neurology, to semiotics. In this essay, I will reflect on the meaning of ‘meaning’ from a multidisciplinary approach, discuss the challenges of doing meaning, and the role of context in understanding the meaning of words and sentences.
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2021
Suicide notes are messages left by individuals who commit suicide or who intend to commit suicide. These written messages express the victims' feelings that were not expressed when they were alive. And thus, this qualitative study intends to investigate the characteristics of linguistic features of suicide notes written by eleven male well-known individuals. The approach to this study is qualitative content analysis. Data were obtained from suicide notes written by eleven male well-known individuals. These notes were retrievable online. The researchers read, classified, and described the data based on the five characteristics of linguistic features of suicide notes, they are clear reasoning, expressing emotion, structure text, grammar, punctuation. The results showed that all of the characteristics of linguistic features were found in the well-known individuals' suicide notes. The characteristics of clear reasoning took place as the most frequent one to occur since it tells the readers of the victims' point of view about the problems that they were facing that led them to suicide. While the absence of doubt and form of address took place as rare. In the end, the result of this research can provide more information in research regarding the study of suicide notes in forensic linguistics, an application of linguistic on analyzing data or legal issues.
In Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
مجلة کلية الآداب (الزقازيق), 2019
Advancing argumentation: The communicative force of assertive speech acts in Crest's translation of Remarque's 'Im Westen Nichts Neues' Abstract Asserting a claim means advancing argumentation by backing up reasonable arguments. It is a distinctive activity that requires a certain amount of intelligence. According to Searle (1969: 66), the act of asserting a claim or giving reasons is called arguing. In spite of the research presented for understanding the argumentative function of the language, the factors affecting the composition of an argumentative text varies according to several linguistic features. Thus, this study deals with the act of arguing in a political narrative from a pragmatic perspective. Just so, this study attempts to answer two main questions that have the same scope: (1) What are the pragmatic realizations of the act of asserting in narratives? And (2) What is the significance of the illocutionary force of assertive speech acts in advancing argumentation in written texts? The corpus of the study consists of some selected dramatic passages of Remarque's political novel with common English publication by Fawcett Crest. In answering the study questions, it is hypothesized that (1) the act of arguing in written texts, more specifically in political narratives, usually takes the form of an assertive, (2) a great coherent communicative force is best viewed in the illocutionary force of this act that leads to effective perlocutionary effects. In order to reach convincing results proving the hypothesis, a qualitative descriptive approach is developed for the analysis of the data relying on observation and introspective reading.
AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE ON SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS Compiled by
The aim of the subject of study is to give a brief introduction to semantics and pragmatics. Semantics is the study of meaning. More precisely it is the study of the relation between linguistic expressions and their meanings. Pragmatics is the study of context. More precisely it is the study of the way context can influence our understanding of linguistic utterances. The term semantics simply means the study of meanings. The study explores how meaning in language is produced or created. Semantics not only concentrates on how words express meaning but also on how words, phrases and sentences come together to make meaning in language. To start with, you will be motivated to focus on the nature and scope of semantics. Hence, here in this unit, you will be introduced to the concept and definition semantics, brief history of semantics, semantics and other disciplines, major concern of semantics, and the different approaches to the study of semantics. The symbols employed in language must be patterned in a systematic way. You have been already informed that language is organized at four principal levels – sounds (i.e. Phonetics/phonology), words (i.e. Morphology), sentences (i.e. syntax) and meaning (i.e. semantics). Phonology and syntax are concerned with the expressive power of language while semantics studies the meaning of what has been expressed. Knowledge of grammar is an aspect of the innate cognitive ability of human beings. The power of interpretation complements that innate ability. Interpretation is an aspect of semantics. Therefore, language acquisition or learning includes not only the knowledge of the organization of sounds and structures, but also how to associate meaning to the structures. Semantics can, therefore, be characterized as the scientific study of meaning in language. Semantics has been the subject of discourse for many years for philosophers and other scholars but later was introduced formally in literature in the late 1800’s. Hence, we have philosophical semantics and linguistic semantics among other varieties of semantics. Earlier scholars in philosophical semantics were interested in pointing out the relationship between linguistic expressions and identified phenomena in the external world. In the contemporary world, especially in the United States philosophical semantics has led to the development of semiotics. In some other parts of the world, and especially, France, the term semiology has been favoured. The reliance on logical calculations in issues of meaning has led to the development of logical semantics. However, for your purpose in this course, emphasis is on linguistic semantics, with our interest on the properties of natural languages. You shall see how this study relates to other disciplines. We shall also examine the real issues in linguistic semantics. Semantics has been identified as a component of linguistics. In its widest sense, linguistics is the scientific study of language. As a field of study, semantics is related to other disciplines. In semantics, we study the meaning of words and also how the meanings of words in a sentence are put together to form sentential meaning. Linguistic semantics studies meaning in a systematic and objective way. Since meaning as a concept is not static, a great deal of the idea of meaning still depends on the context and participants in the act of communication (discourse). There is a strong connection between meaning and pragmatics. The exchange or relay of information, message, attitude, feelings or values from one person to another contributes to the interpretation of meaning. This is done mainly by the use of language. It is often expressed that language is a system which uses a set of symbols agreed upon by a group to communicate their ideas or message or information. These symbols can be spoken or written, expressed as gestures or drawings. Depending upon the focus of study, semantics can be compartmentalized as lexical semantics, grammatical semantics, logical semantics and semantics in relation to pragmatics.
Some uses and abuses of language
1994
Silence is made to be broken, it is an unnatural and unwelcome phenomenon wherever people are together. Communication is positive in most circumstances. However, it can have negative aspects which surface occasionally, which this artiele highlights. Communication, especially mass communication, is a two-edged sword that may inform or deceive. This artiele, drawing on four recent studies of language and society, shows how apparentIy neutral texts, for example in school textbooks and government circulars, turn out to be riddled with ideological content; how govemments, democratic in name and appearance, elaim moderation and civilization to be on their side while at the same time perpetrating unspeakably barbarous acts, and how the media play into their hands; finally, how language policy itself, carried out by govemments expressing the best intentions, often tums out to be full of self-interest. We have, perhaps unfairly, pointed out deceptive language on only one side of the political spectrum, for which we apologise. Our references are usually to the English language but parallels could be drawn with others. LINGUISTIC AND SOCIAL PROCESSES Gunther Kress 1 elaims that linguistic and social processes are totally connected. Many social processes are argued about and take place through language, and Kress argues that linguistics cannot talk solely about texts without reasoning about why texts are written, what motivated them. All discourses are interpretations of reality, not reality itself, based on the social position (meant in its widest sense) of the writer/speaker. Discourses, that is, "systems of meanings arising out of social institutions" determine both the form and meaning of texts. Kress O minimizes the individual elements there might be in any act of reading or writing, while stressing social ones. Writers, whether they realize it or not, "find themselves in certain social/discursive positions which structure their writings to a greater or les ser degree". While enjoying apparent freedom to construct the text he/she wishes "the writer of the text finds that he or she occupies a writing position with respect to any particular text which guides, influences, determines her or his writing" (p68). Kress elaims that a reading, like a writing, is never merely "my personal opinion" but a compounding of our social elass, race, age, sex and professional position. One would like to see people able to step outside themselves, as it were, when reading a text, to be "resistant readers", as he says, but it appears to be utopian to hope for such a thing to happen. We often lack a healthy cynicism, or rather a critical spirit of enquiry compelling us to suspend belief in the ideological framework established.
Analysis and Interpretation of Genocide Related Terms
Armenian Folia Anglistika, 2016
The present article seeks to establish the cognitive value and the communicative message of genocide related terms with the account of the extra-linguistic factors. Terms like slaughter, massacre, ethnic cleansing, physical annihilation, killings, deportations are used to present and discuss both pro-Turkish attitudes of and neutral or pro-Armenian standpoints of great humanists and friends of Armenians. Still another intent of ours is to show that the terms genocide and democide which realize a specifically highlighted cognitive function, are the most appropriate ones to best define the disastrous events of 1915 on the territory of West (Turkish) Armenia.