Sentiment Analysis of Imran Khan’s Tweets

In the recent past, sentiment analysis has been an area of interests of psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, computer scientists, and linguists including corpus linguists and computational linguists. Interdisciplinary approaches to researching various issues especially the analysis of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are becoming popular nowadays. The availability of data on social media has made it easier to analyse the opinion or sentiments of its users. Analysis of these sentiments could reveal the face of users and it could help in various decision-making processes. Sentiment analysis is a system of knowing polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) in discourse. Moreover, sentiments can enable and disable certain functions of discourse and can divert the attention of the audience from important to a less important issue or otherwise, hence, there is a need to analyse the sentiments. In this research, sentiments (Polarity) of Imran Khan’s tweets are analysed with the help of R studio. Data for this study is collected from Imran Khan’s one-year’s tweets, tweeted from 1st January 2018 to 20th November 2018. Later we saved the data in. csv files. The results of the polarity check revealed that he has used all three types of sentiments that is positive, negative, and neutral. However, he mostly used neutral or free polarity items (FPIs) that is 67.41% in his tweets. Among positive and negative polarity items the number of negative polarity items (NPIs) is higher that is 23.21% as compared to positive polarity items (PPIs) which are only 9.40%. The manual analysis of results revealed that only software is not enough and there is a need to check the accuracy of the results manually. The use of negative polarity/negative face reveals that he tries to be independent and autonomous in his decisions (Goffman, 1967). The use of positive polarity items shows he tries to show his positive face to others. Moreover, sentiment analysis demonstrates the presence of themes propagated through the use of various lexical items.

Online Intercultural Dialogue: “Failed” Communication in a Telecollaboration Project

Over the past two decades, the development of computer-mediated communication technologies has modified human communication. Increasingly, representatives from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds are disposed to a constant negotiation of meanings. The main purpose of this study is to carry out a linguistically grounded analysis of the intercultural dialogue during online asynchronous written exchanges between Latvian and Cypriot students.Based on the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987), which implies that all adult members of society are endowed with two universal aspects: “positive face” and “negative face”, and using the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis, this research analyses the way learners communicate or hide their position concerning sensitive cultural issues. To attain the objective of the present research, a quantitative and qualitative experimental study was conducted. The learners’ public messages in the discussion forums were juxtaposed with their private messages concerning proposed cultural topics. The findings show a strong interdependence between the politeness strategies used by the learners and the intercultural issue discussed. Thus, online intercultural discussions can be qualified as context-dependent and content-dependant. Discussion forum does not seem to be an appropriate environment to facilitate and encourage intercultural discussions about potentially controversial issues.

Evaluating EFL University Learners’ Pragmatic Competence: Brown and Levinson’s Negative Politeness Strategies as a Model

ABSRACT Pragmatic competence forms a basic pillar in learning and teaching the communicative use of a foreign language (FL). Evaluating the FL pragmatic knowledge is a challenging and complex area of language testing. Far from the grammatical content of language, the current study aims to evaluate EFL learners' pragmatic competence in terms of communicating the linguistic expressions of negative politeness. Accordingly, it investigates EFL university learners’ ability to show social distance and realize power relations towards addressees. The study also presents the negative politeness strategies on the basis of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory. It is hypothesized that learners are pragmatically unaware of showing negative face towards addressees. It is further assumed that learners show tendency to go on record without redressive action, which often threatens addressees’ negative face. Added to that, learners are not aware of the appropriate use of politeness strategies followed according to the English culture. To investigate this, a Discourse Completion Test consisting of hypothetical situations that are familiar to learners' university life has been formulated. The study concludes that learners experience pragmatic failures while engaging in situations where there is a need to show negative face, and utter direct speech acts frequently. In addition, learners do not distinguish between the appropriate politeness strategies (positive, negative and off record) as far as the cultural orientation of the English language is concerned. They further disregard the appropriate use of address forms that constitute a paramount aspect of negative politeness.

‘The common good’

In this study, I attempt to propose a conceptualisation of interactive politeness which is anchored in the investigation of a kind of other-criticism known as ‘eršâd šodan’ or being exposed to verbal guidance, which is an important religious value among Muslims. The concept of ‘eršâd šodan’ has an imperative load that is expected to contribute to negative impoliteness (Culpeper, 2016). However, as the data of this study reveal, threatening individuals’ negative face through other-criticism was not interpreted as impoliteness among the subjects. My analysis through one-on-one interviews indicates that politeness among Persian speakers is more than a dynamic construction between conversational partners, for there are macro orders that influence people’s interpretation of politeness. I conclude that politeness in other-criticism is closely germane to how subjects connected imposition to the establishment of orders. This article intends to show that it is reasonable to expect that the criticism of an individual could be for the individual’s own good but also for the greater (group, community) good, reminiscent of cultural facilities that are provided to fulfil the certain interests of a particular community.

Strategic functions of linguistic impoliteness in US primary election debates

Since presidential primary debates in US election campaigns serve the function of identifying the most promising nominee for the subsequent presidency, they constitute a highly adversarial multilogue. Debaters do not only exchange factual arguments but also use diverse forms of impoliteness geared towards damaging the public image of political opponents and persuading audiences to vote accordingly. Combining political discourse analysis with pragmatic approaches to impoliteness, this paper examines the ways in which verbal aggression in debates inflicts damage on the addressee’s positive and negative face. On the basis of five Democratic and five Republican debates from 2016, it is shown that impolite utterances fulfil the four central strategic functions of (a) delegitimization, (b) coercion, (c) entertainment, and (d) (self-)defence, all of which support the macro-function of political persuasion through the construction of personal preferability.

КОГНІТИВНО-КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНІ АСПЕКТИ Й КОМУНІКАТИВНО-ПРАГМАТИЧНІ ВИЯВИ ВВІЧЛИВОСТІ В АНГЛІЙСЬКИХ ЛІНГВОКУЛЬТУРАХ (британській, американській, австралійській)

Розглянуто когнітивно-концептуальні аспекти й комунікативно-прагматичні вияви категорії ввічливості, зокрема комунікативних стратегій позитивної та негативної ввічливості, для позначення етнокультурної своєрідності досліджуваного мовленнєвого феномена на фактичному матеріалі англійськомовних просторів. Схарактеризовано принцип Поліанни, концепцію збереження обличчя, positive face (позитивне обличчя) i negative face (негативне обличчя). Розглянуто категорію ввічливості в теорії та практиці міжкультурної комунікації; схарактеризовано стратегії ввічливої поведінки в різних лінгвокультурних просторах як маркери меж норми, що визначають ефективність міжособистісної інтеракції в умовах міжкультурного спілкування

Impoliteness on the political stage: The case of the 2019 final Macedonian presidential debate

Electoral debates are a win-lose game in which the stakes for the political contenders are extremely high. The antagonistic nature of these encounters very frequently results in impoliteness or face aggravating moves with which the debaters aim to hurt the opponent’s positive or negative face. The aim of this research is to investigate the impoliteness strategies employed by politicians during electoral debates. Garcia-Pastor’s (2008) positive-face and negative-face impoliteness strategies are taken as a starting point in the analysis at hand. The final electoral debate of the 2019 presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia is used as a data source for this research, which is based on several different hypotheses and is both qualitatively and quantitative oriented. The findings of the research are in line with the insights gained from previous studies, which, more or less, suggests that Macedonian politicians follow the mainstream “rules” when it comes to using impoliteness in political debates.

Taking care of their positive online face? Reasons and strategy development

This paper examines a peer virtual exchange project between students at the University of Cyprus and the University of Latvia. The main purpose of this project is to develop intercultural awareness. Through telecollaborative tasks, students are asked to interact in a common discussion space around elements related to their cultural values. The aim of this paper is to discuss students’ strategies for these online exchanges. The hypothesis this paper seeks to examine is that students do not express themselves freely in the discussion forums in order to protect their personal and national image. We are thus interested in the public self-image of the students, known as ‘face’. Our findings identified politeness strategies and we are interested in the main reasons for their acts towards positive and/or negative face.

Neighborhood Poverty and Amygdala Response to Negative Face

Introduction: Considerable research has established a link between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain function. While studies have shown a link between poverty status and amygdala response to negative stimuli, a paucity of knowledge exists on whether neighborhood poverty is also independently associated with amygdala hyperactive response to negative stimuli. Purpose: Using functional brain imaging data, this study tested the association between neighborhood SES and the amygdala’s response to negative stimuli. Considering race as a sociological rather than a biological construct, we also explored racial heterogeneity in this association between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White youth. Methods: We borrowed the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The sample was 2,490 nine to ten years old non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White adolescents. The independent variable was neighborhood income which was treated as a continuous measure. The primary outcomes were the right and left amygdala response to negative face during an N-Back task. Age, sex, race, marital status, and family SES were the covariates. To analyze the data, we used linear regression models. Results: Low neighborhood income was independently associated with a higher level of amygdala response to negative face. Similar results were seen for the right and left amygdala. These effects were significant net of race, age, sex, marital status, and family SES. An association between low neighborhood SES and higher left but not right amygdala response to negative face could be observed for non-Hispanic Black youth. No association between neighborhood SES and left or right amygdala response to negative face could be observed for non-Hispanic White youth. Conclusions: For American youth, particularly non-Hispanic Black youth, living in a poor neighborhood predicts the left amygdala reaction to negative face. This result suggested that Black youth who live in poor neighborhoods are at a high risk of poor emotion regulation. This finding has implications for policy making to reduce inequalities in undesired behavioral and emotional outcomes. Policy solutions to health inequalities should address inequalities in neighborhood SES.

Efficient filtering of sad and fearful faces from working memory in dysphoria

Previous studies conducted in healthy humans by applying event-related potentials have shown that task-irrelevant fearful faces are difficult to filter from visual working memory (VWM), and anxiety symptoms increase this difficulty. It is not known, however, whether non-threatening faces are also difficult to be filtered and whether depression symptoms affect it. We tested whether task-irrelevant sad and fearful faces are differently stored by dysphoric (elevated amount of depressive symptoms) and control participants who performed a VWM task related to objects’ colors. We found that even if the groups differ neither in their VWM capacity, nor behavioral distractibility, they differed in filtering ability as indexed by the contralateral delay activity, a specific index for the maintenance phase of the VWM. Control participants unnecessarily stored fearful faces in memory, but they were able to filter sad faces, suggesting that specifically threatening faces are difficult to filter from VWM in healthy individuals. Dysphoric participants filtered both fearful and sad face distractors efficiently. Thus, depression-related attentional bias toward sad faces, if existing here, seems not to result in unnecessary storage of sad faces. Our results suggest a threat-related filtering difficulty and unexpected lack of this difficulty in negative face filtering in participants with depression symptoms.