A COGNITIVE STYLISTIC STUDY OF SELECTED SKITS ON AFRICAN SOCIAL MEDIA/ UN ESTUDIO COGNITIVO ESTILISTICO DE SKITS SELECCIONADOS EN LAS REDES SOCIALES AFRICANAS

This research aims at examining how the cognitive stylistic model of analysis can be useful in the interpretation of African skits. The analytical process reveals how viewers make interpretive connections between the text-world and the real world, by bringing their experience and background knowledge to interact with the text. Two skits – one Nigerian and one Ghanaian – were purposively retrieved from YouTube for the analysis, using a qualitative approach within the cognitive stylistic framework of Text World Theory. We discovered a congruence of the cognitive faculty, experience, and epistemic perceptions leading to the construction of the discourse worlds of the skits.

Switching between Codes, Social Personas and Seminar Activities. A Case Study of Localized Hypersubjectivities Constructing a Laboratory-Based Superdiverse Micro-Community

One perspective bound to rouse interesting ideas in relation to efforts of mapping out World Theory, especially in the interplay between ‘local cultures’ pinned against the backdrop of globalization, might just come in the form of sociolinguistics. The author argues that the code-switching practices (polylingual practices, cf. Jørgensen) observed taking place between two groups of highly creative tri-/tetra-and pentalingual Erasmus students solving Physiology-related tasks during laboratory hours, are the perfect site for studying a superdiverse micro-community. The clash and intertwinement of not only every student’s linguistic baggage, but of their various background cultures and performed social personas, in the midst of switching back-and-forth between their locally co-constructed English(es) as Lingua Franca(s), are reflective of the challenges posed by accelerated patterns of migration. This linguistic behavior is also emotionally-driven and socially fluid. Therefore, micro- and even niche-subcultures exhibit a tendency to be reduced to hypersubjectivities co-existing in ad-hoc micro-communities (Hall).

The Untranslatables of World Theory. A Geopolitical Outlook

The paper investigates the cultural transfers and translations of the term ‟theory”, as instrumented in some of the most influential anthologies of the past decades. It puts forward the argument that while in literature per se a widening of the canon has been produced, ‟theory” remains a term charged with high hegemonical presumptions. Therefore, it pleads for a non-hierarchical and practical conception of theory, that can account for the large variety of non-Western literary phenomena.

Worlds of evidence

The Hillsborough football stadium disaster (1989) in Sheffield, UK, led to the deaths of 96 football fans and resulted in the longest jury case in British legal history (2016). This article examines the witness statements of two Sheffield residents who claim to have attended the match. Using a mixed-methods approach that incorporates a cognitive linguistic framework (Text World Theory) with visualisation software (VUE) we consider both form and function of a number of linguistic features, such as meta-narrative, evaluative lexis, syntax, and modality to investigate how institutional voices permeate and potentially distort layperson narratives. Our analysis casts doubt on the veracity of the statements and raises questions about what can be considered evidential in a forensic investigation.

Processing of expressions by individuals with autistic traits: Empathy deficit or sensory hyper-reactivity?

Individuals with autistic traits display impaired social interaction and communication in everyday life, but the underlying cognitive neural mechanisms remain very unclear and still remain controversial. The mind-blindness hypothesis suggests that social difficulties in individuals with autistic traits are caused by empathy impairment in individuals; however, the intense world theory suggests that these social difficulties are caused by sensory hyper-reactivity and sensory overload, rather than empathy impairment. To further test these two theories, this study investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the cognitive neural processing of repetitive expressions in individuals with autistic traits. This study employed the Mandarin version of the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) to assess autistic traits in 2,502 healthy adults. Two subset groups were used, e.g., the participants of a high-AQ group were randomly selected among the 10% of individuals with the highest AQ scores; similarly, the participants in the low-AQ group were randomly selected from the 10% of participants with the lowest AQ scores. In an experiment, three different facial expressions (positive, neutral, or negative) of the same person were presented successively and pseudo-randomly in each trial. Participants needed to define the expression of the face that was presented last. The results showed that compared with the low-AQ group, the high-AQ group exhibited higher P1 amplitudes induced by the second and third presented expressions, as well as higher P3 amplitudes induced by the third presented negative expressions. This indicates that individuals with autistic traits may experience overly strong perception, attention, and cognitive evaluation to repetitive expressions, particularly negative expressions. This result supports the intense world theory more strongly than the mind-blindness hypothesis.

Social dialectics of prehistory

The author of the monograph, written on the original material, restores the classical scientific social philosophy, which allows the means of dialectical methodology and materialism in sociology to predict the end of the prehistory of antagonistic epochs and the beginning of the true history of a single humanity. The new industrialization at the moment of transition from prehistory to history creates civilizational neo-industrialism as a dialectical synthesis of traditional civilization and progressive formation in the form of new socialism. The global project of neo-industrialism civilizes humanity — saves it from barbarism, wars, social inequality, and the destruction of nature. In historical Russia, civilizing development is realized at the expense of new industrialization and the solution of general democratic tasks with the transition to post-capitalist tasks. Conceptually, civilizational neo-industrialism acts as the fifth world theory, which makes it possible to understand the future of the dialectic of new social forces in the transition from prehistory to history. It is of interest to postgraduates, researchers and a wide range of readers in order to determine the worldview position, clarify the philosophical base of science and search for scientists, understand the dialectics of social existence and social consciousness.