The functional distribution of preposed and postposed ‘if’ and ‘when’ clauses in written discourse

Over the last three decades, a growing number of studies have investigated the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic features in L2. The bulk of this research has focused mainly on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. However, instructional pragmatic studies in L2-Russian are lacking. The main purpose of our study is to contribute towards filling this gap by analysing the effects of pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of two speech acts by Italian learners of Russian. Furthermore, we aim to explore whether the Multimodal Russian Corpus (MURCO), a multimedia subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, can be an effective tool for teaching speech acts in L2-Russian. Our research was composed of one experimental group (n = 18) and one control group (n = 11); each was composed of two intact classes of Italian university students at an intermediate level of L2-Russian, who were pre- and post-tested using a written discourse completion task. The experimental group was subjected to a programme of pragmatic instruction – eight thirty-minute MURCO-based lessons devoted to requests and advice, while the control group was taught according to the standard syllabus, that is, with no pragmatic instruction. The results revealed that the use of the target pragmatic features varied significantly in the experimental group, but not in the control group, thus showing a general positive effect of the instructional treatment based on the MURCO corpus. However, some limitations were identified with regard to the usability of this tool by teachers and learners.

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Imperative in English Proverbs

European Journal of Language and Literature ◽

10.26417/ejls.v8i1.p75-78 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 75 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Doc. Dr. Jelena Š. Novaković ◽

PhD student Božana Tomić

Keyword(s):

Personal Pronouns ◽

Referring Expressions ◽

Written Discourse ◽

Special Regard

Apart from personal pronouns which are by far the most used referring expressions in English and Serbian, reference can be established and maintained using demonstratives.Their function is to refer to the location or distance of a person or an object. The aim of this paper is to examine reference realised by demonstratives with special regard to the restrictions written discourse imposes on their usage. The texts we used for analysis are narrative stories written in the two languages.

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Dangerous Liaisons

10.1093/oso/9780198732174.003.0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

András Sajó ◽

Renáta Uitz

Keyword(s):

Executive Branch ◽

Individual Liberty ◽

Checks And Balances ◽

Functional Distribution ◽

Governmental Functions ◽

Private Actors ◽

Divided Powers

This chapter examines the idea of separating distinct governmental functions into at least three branches (horizontal separation) as a means to safeguard individual liberty. The three branches of government have different functions: the legislature legislates, the executive branch executes the laws, and the judiciary administers justice. This corresponds to the functional distribution of essential governmental tasks and competences. The chapter explores how governments based on separated (or at least divided) powers work, in a perpetual balancing exercise as a result of the operation of checks and balances. Finally, it discusses independent agencies that are now routinely added to the old constitutional mix of powers and the problem of outsourcing public powers to private actors.

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The Calender’s Visions of Beauty

10.1093/oso/9780198807070.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Kenneth Borris

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Written Discourse ◽

The Sublime ◽

Poetic Imagination ◽

Shepheardes Calender ◽

Visionary Poetics

By reconsidering the main female exemplars of beauty in Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender, this chapter shows that the admiration of beauty is central there, as it is also in early modern Platonic poetics. As in the Phaedrus, beauty for Spenser inspires visionary apprehension; yet unlike Plato the poet links this stimulus to literary pursuit of the sublime. Platonism associated genuine beauty with truth and goodness, and Spenser likewise assumes that his Calender’s esthetic disclosures foster wisdom and virtue in at least some readers, and hence in the nation. However, whereas Plato valorizes philosophy for illuminating truth, Spenser advocates the enraptured poetic imagination endued with learning. In doing so, he seeks to circumvent, insofar as possible, the intrinsic limitations of words, images, and written discourse, such as those that Plato had identified in the Phaedrus. This reading newly illuminates the strategies of Spenser’s visionary poetics.

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