Representation of the Phenomenon “Trust” in Medical Advertising Discourse

The problem of creating institutional trust in modern Russian society is considered on the example of advertising activities of companies that produce and promote drugs on the consumer market. In order to identify techniques that contribute to the effective impact on the recipient – the formation of a trusting attitude towards the advertised product, the commercials shown on Russian television from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed. Using the methods of content analysis, discourse and stylistic analysis, elements of component and distributive analysis, it has been established that professional participants in medical advertising discourse use such techniques as the use of toponyms, lexical units borrowed from military discourse, terms, words with positive or negative connotations, presentation of statistical data, construction of a first-person statement, rhetorical questions. It was found that the mention of the country of origin of the drug, which is authoritative for the Russian consumer, has a positive effect on the confidence of patients in this drug; military vocabulary evokes associations with speed, accuracy, direction, strength and testifies to the effectiveness of the drug; medical, chemical, biological terms, statistical data objectify the transmitted information; rhetorical questions, self-narrative and others contribute to the establishment of close contact with the consumer.

L’imitation de la conversation en tant que strategie de connivence dans le discours journalistique sportif

Creating and maintaining an imaginary bond between the journalist and readers is a communicational strategy of the written sports news discourse. Since news discourse is monologal, it has specific communicational constraints that it seeks to overcome, and the lack of direct contact between the authors and their readers is a key hurdle to cross. Additionally, sport has a notable cohesive function, and as such produces a sense of a sports community even when taken as a news subject. The imaginary bond is therefore a strategy for overcoming the discursive gap between the journalist and their readers, while at the same time reinforcing the impression of community that the subject of sports draws on. In the sports news discourse this strategy is translated through different linguistic means, such as conversational elements. Based on selected articles from the French written sports news, a qualitative analysis of texts enabled us to observe the linguistic means through which the imitation of conversation contributes to the discursive strategy of bonding. The analysis is focused on informal and interactive conversational features. It shows that such conversationalization is particularly apparent in the informal character of the discourse on the lexical and discursive levels. This adds to the seeming informality of the communicational situation, and therefore to the readers’ sense of an imaginary sports community. On the syntactic level this is reinforced by interactional elements such as rhetorical questions and other interrogatives that address the reader as an interlocutor and echo the dynamics of a dialogue. Both conversational aspects, as used in the French sports news discourse, contribute to a sense of informal atmosphere and community bond among sports enthusiasts.

CONSUMING CONCERNS: LANGUAGE STYLE OF HUMOUR ON FOUR FEMALE STAND-UP COMEDIANS

Comedy is a male-dominated world as sociolinguistics theory also mentions that women employ less humour compared to men. However, female comedians also appeared on television. In Indonesia, Stand-Up Comedy Indonesia (SUCI) is a popular stand-up comedy competition broadcasted by a reputable national network channel, Kompas TV. Interestingly, numerous young female stand-up comedians also took part as participants of SUCI. This study aimed to analyse humour performed by four female comedian finalists from different cultural backgrounds such as Arab-Indonesian, Chinese-Indonesian, British expatriate, and Indonesian with Batak ethnicity. This study employed a qualitative method by applying various techniques such as video selection, downloading, transcribing relevant data, reducing data, applying theories, and concluding. The data were analysed using the theory of women's language and the theory of types and functions of humour. The study found that women employed humour in stand-up comedy to speak up their minds and share their concerns with the audiences using various language styles, including rhetorical questions, hypercorrect grammars, taboo words, and rising intonations. The humour was employed primarily to share their concerns toward sensitive cultural issues such as stereotypes and identity, sexism, relationship and gender equality, and body positivity. In addition, it contributes to enriching the theory of women's language style and humour. Keywords: humour, stand up comedy competition, women's language style, identity

The Dramatic Arc in the Development of Argumentation Skills of Upper Secondary School Students in Geography Education

Geography education can facilitate learners’ critical thinking and argumentation skills to make well-reasoned decisions on social and environmental issues. This study reports on a geography course consisting of 18 lessons, each of them 75 min, designed to afford intensive practice in argumentation to upper secondary school students (n = 21) and following the dramatic arc. The study produces examples of different developmental pathways of upper secondary school students’ argumentation during the geography course. In this qualitative case study, the data were collected from learning diaries and analyzed using content analysis following ARRA-analysis (Analysis of Reasoning, Rhetorics and Argumentation), which is based on Toulmin’s argumentation model. The results indicated that most of the students developed justified arguments and composed clear claims and relevant rhetorical modes such as qualifications, rhetorical questions and rebuttals. Justification categories that were mainly used were backings, grounds and warrants. However, some students had difficulties in recognizing the main claim and arguments. The students developed their argumentation skills following the dramatic arc. They possessed the prerequisites for argumentative reasoning and writing but needed further practice in analytical and critical writing.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF FIGURES OF SPEECH IN SEVERN SUZUKI’S PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a frequently used method with the intent of serving a trustworthy evaluation of what is intended to mean when the language is used to define and commentate. It is therefore of capital importance to consider the social context, the manner and word selection while analysing a speech in order to avoid passively reporting upon since the speech is impregnated with its meaning and perspective. In this respect, the purpose of the current study was to search for the critical discourse analysis of the speech given by a then 12-year-old Canadian girl called Severn Suziki, an environmental activist, in United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 in order to draw the attention of 117 presidents and representatives of 178 nations to some crucial topics such as environment and global warming. The keyword analysis of the speech revealed that the most frequently used words were ordered as child, children, world and afraid confirming the main aim of the speech that the environment should be protected for the future generations. Critical discourse analysis of the speech demonstrated that Severn Suziki utilised 7 figures of speech such as alliteration, hyperbole, imagery, irony, parallelism, rhetorical questions and simile justifying that she had her own particularity and implemented various persuasive techniques and figures of speech.

SYNTAX EXPRESSEMES IN THE POETIC DISCOURSE BY LESIA UKRAINKA: INTENTIONALITY AND AESTHETICS

The article analyses Lesia Ukrainka’s poetic discourse from the standpoint of syntactic expressemes functioning within it. Expressemes are viewed as figurative-rhetorical constructions that express aesthetic, emotional-evaluative and expressive potential, effectively influence the human cognitive-mental complex, consciousness, spiritual worldview, emotional perception, in contrast to conventional syntactic units. Based on the relevant linguistic methodology, a significant amount of empirical data has been studied, which testifies to the artistic perfection of Lesia Ukrainka’s poetic idiolect. The use of a rich data source enabled systematization of syntactic expressemes and investigation of syntactic means of rhetoric speech, such as rhetorical questions, exclamations, dialogues. It is noted that rhetorical questions, in particular, realize emotionalexpressive statement or objection, creating figurative, semantic-aesthetic effect of communication, accentuate important information, representing a high style speech, and emphasize its sophistication and imagery. Drawing on empirical data the author also outlines functional potential of interrogative and exclamatory statements, focusing on the intentional potential of antiphrasis constructions and repetitions, and study period as a complex figurative-rhetorical construction, characterized by aphorism, dynamic nature and special syntactic structure. In the context of the poetic idiolect, vocative communication and addressing are analysed, which not only verbalize direct appeal but also serve as a source of aesthetic pleasure. Syntactic expressemes as a means of verbalizing the intentions of aesthetics in Lesia Ukrainka’s poetic discourse correspond to the author’s idea, create aesthetics and expressiveness, represent the writer’s linguistic creativity, testifying to the inalienable relevance of her work through the prism of time, history and personalities. The prospect of the research is seen in a more detailed study of the functional capabilities of syntactic expressemes in Lesia Ukrainka’s lyrical-epic discourse.

Media portrayals of the Hong Kong Occupy Central Movement’s social actors

We investigated how two English-language newspapers – Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) and the mainland China Daily (CD) – portrayed key social actors (police, students, protesters, and governments) during the Occupy Central/Yellow Umbrella movement. We examined emotional valence, arousal, and dominance characterizations in 1,180 news articles via a multilevel, multivariate outcome regression and critical discourse analysis. The findings reveal that emotional sentiments associated with students and protesters in SCMP were generally more positive than in CD but that this was reversed for the police and the government. Whereas SCMP deployed personal stories to construct a humanized image of protesters and students, CD relied on expert authority, rhetorical questions, and imagined scenarios to convey empathy towards Hong Kong residents, creating a villainized image of protesters. Our mixed-methods approach reveals how SCMP and CD portrayed students differently via the discursive frames of “optimistic dreamers” and “powerless scapegoats,” respectively.

Book Review: Bula, A. (2020). Poetry as Throne for Sentimental Reticulation: A Review of Andrew Bula's Turns of Thoughts. Abuja: Old Press

This review article is a critical inspection of Andrew Bula's collection of poems, Turns of Thoughts (2020). As such, critical searchlights are thrown on poems as “Turns of Thoughts”, “Who Knows”, “Keeping Vigil”, “Love to Love”, “Wall Gecko”, “Far Out to the Woods”, “King on Fours in the Wilds”, “Trekking Home on a Windy Night”, ‘Presence and Space”, “Neighbour, Let’s Hate Hatred”, "Much Minuses & Little Pluses", "To Illumine our Rich, Fine World". In investigating these pieces, the aim really is to uncover the message and artistry of Bula's poetry. There are, of course, other pieces in the anthology that are simply mentioned in this review, without depth analyses. In such circumstances, the tendency is to liken them to other piece(s) or, quite simply, to take a cursory view of them. And then there is a showcasing of dominant literary devices as found in the poems as Rhetorical Questions, Paradox, Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Allusion, and Code Mixing. In the end, it is made out that Bula’s poetry is one of emotional elation and it reveals high moral awareness of, and gratitude to, important members of the public who have positively impacted society. Likewise, it is discovered that the poems also explore nature, love, and philosophical themes, while employing literary devices such as have already been mentioned.

Rhetorical Questions and Ruminations

Transitioning from graduate student to early career faculty can often provoke uncertainty and questioning. This study explores the rhetorical and revealing nature of such questioning (i.e., Am I really this lost? Am I in the right place?). Utilizing methods from arts based research (Barone & Eisner, 2012), specifically poetic inquiry (Prendergast et al., 2009; Richardson, 1992), we created found poetry around rhetorical questions from our existing collaborative autoethnographic journal. We frame our findings with a selection of poems to provide insight into our lived experiences of transition. The question poems illustrate that our first year as assistant professors were preoccupied with managing tasks, balancing work, avoiding burnout, building relationships, and discovering how to belong in the new context. While rhetorical questions do not necessarily produce answers, questioning in a collaborative space allowed us to explore the struggle, complexity, and ambiguity of academic identity construction as early career faculty.