Empathic and peacebuilding gestures: an analysis of greeting gestures across cultures

Communication process allows people to receive and send messages through verbal and nonverbal resources which play an important role in healthy interpersonal acts. While verbal communication has been the subject of many studies, the present study aims to focus mainly on the nonverbal aspect that is greeting gestures. In this article we shall analyze which greeting gesture, that is widely used across different cultures may evoke a feeling of empathy and thus build peaceful interactions so needed in human communication nowadays.

Dyskurs diet odchudzających we współczesnej włoskiej prasie kobiecej. Analiza jakościowa

The discourse of slimming diets in contemporary Italian women's press. Qualitative analysis. Based on a corpus of articles extracted from contemporary Italian female magazines (2021) Donna Moderna and Grazia, this paper examines the nature of discourse of slimming diet. It is shown that the discourse has changed compared to the study conducted on the material from 2005-2008. Altogether 29 monthly issues have been analyzed. Currently emerging corpus does not contain many persuasive techniques related to emotions (Aristotle's pathos), the credibility of provided advice is enhanced mostly by arguments from authority (ethos). The innovation thus lies in the references to currently important societal topics, such as ecology (a manifestation of linguistic fashion). The research based on a rhetorical tools and analysis of press discourse shows that the topic of weight loss is treated nowadays with greater awareness and is being transferred to the pages of the men's press, in women's magazines its place is taken by e.g., cosmetic-surgical, or ecologic discourse. The conclusions from own research have been preceded by a review of theoretical issues in the field of a modern concept of a slimming diet, myth of beauty, development of the press in Italy, the role of cuisine and food in the Italian women's press.

Recenzja monografii: Р.В. Белютин, Прагмасемантические и лингвоментальные проекции немецкого спортивного дискурса, Смоленск: Издательство СмолГУ, 2019. 336 s. ISBN 978-5-88018-641-9

Book review: Belyutin, R.V. 2019. Pragmasemantic and linguomental projections of German sports discourse. Smolensk: SmolSU Publishing House. 336 pp. ISBN 978-5-88018-641-9.

Udział plotki i plotkowania w komunikacji ustnej na przykładzie komunikacji biurowej – podejście hybrydowe: pragma-, socjo-, psycho- oraz ekolingwistyczne

The article aims at analysing the concept of gossip at workplace. The main goal of the article is to answer such questions as: what is gossip? Who is involved in spreading gossip at workplace? What are the sources of gossips? The first part (section 1) of the article is theoretical and aims at defining the concept of gossip. The second part (sections 2 and 3) analyses the results of a questionnaire which was carried out among forty respondents. The results are compared with the theoretical assumptions put forth by a number of research works discussed briefly in the article.

Afrikaans: a language where ideology and linguistics meet

This paper summarizes the discussion about the origin and the status of Afrikaans. Two schools appear to be opposed to each other: the philological school and a creolistic view. The philological school tried to demonstrate with meticulous research of sources that Afrikaans is a full daughter of 17th century Dutch, which set foot ashore with van Riebeeck in 1652 at the Cape of Good Hope. Linguists who thought of a pattern of creolization in the formation of Afrikaans point to the influence of the languages of slaves brought to South Africa and to the influence of the original inhabitants, the Khoi and the San. This contribution mainly outlines the ideological background of these two schools of thought. For the philological school this is the system of Apartheid, while for the Creolist view the emphasis is more on decolonization.

The beginning of work on school gardens in Norway – Andreas M. Feragen's garden in Holt on Agder

This paper recounts the beginnings of the School Gardening Movement in Norway, which is now (in 2021) a topic of great interest throughout the country. The famous 19th-century school teacher and reformist Andreas M. Feragen (1818–1912), who retired from his teaching position at the age of 93, was the first to argue, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, for including gardening both as a subject and as a practical activity in primary schools. A widely used reader first published in 1863 included four pieces by Feragen about different types of gardens which would be appropriate for a rural school: the first piece was about the garden in general, the following three described a kitchen garden, a fruit garden, and a flower garden. These four pieces were written in the form of a story about a teacher and his students strolling around the gardens discussing what they saw and how to grow vegetables, fruit trees and fruit bushes, and flowers. Feragen followed up these pieces with an article in the teachers’ journal Den norske Folkeskole [The Norwegian Primary School] in which he argued that basic gardening knowledge ought to be included in the teacher training curriculum. School gardening in Norway started with Feragen’s own gardens surrounding his school in Holt in Agder, clearly the very gardens he described in his pieces in the reader.

Questioning North Korea’s digraphic inflection point: Kim Il Sung’s 1964 and 1966 conversations with linguists reconsidered

Kim Il Sung’s 1964 and 1966 conversations with linguists are appropriately deemed important as the establishment of the North’s “cultured language” as a standard, as well as guidance related to language purification and script. In the analysis of inflection point related to language planning and policy in the North, is the often guidance on re-enshrinement of teaching “Chinese characters” (hanja) in North Korean education. Clearly this was official pronouncement of functional, synchronic digraphia, which has been preserved and operationalized down to the present. Scholarship on these conversations, amounting to policy guidance, attribute the shift in policy related to script as an inflection point. The author of this article concurs with its importance, but with respect to digraphia in the North, the conversations related to hanja instruction served as a confirmation for what was a broad trend in North Korean language planning during the years 1953-1964, a language planning and policy fait accompli, diminishing the portrayal of the conversations as a digraphic inflection point in North Korea.

Nauka języków obcych uczniów z dysfunkcją słuchu

Hearing impaired people have serious communication problems: both with (full) understanding of reality and with learning the first language. In order to counteract communication exclusion, they compensate for the deficiencies with an increased use of other senses. They learn the first language consciously with the help of a speech therapist, compensating for hearing dysfunctions, e.g. wide-angle vision. Karpińska-Szaj calls such learning inclusive; they can be successfully used in teaching foreign languages.

Arabskie zapożyczenia leksykalne w języku hiszpańskim

The large number of words from Arabic found in modern Spanish is proof of the deep influence Arabic has had on the Spanish language. Historical sociolinguistic processes which have lasted to the present day indicate that the influence of Arabic culture has been neither brief or superficial. Instead, it has, and continues to have great significance for the language situation of Spain. Much linguistic research has shown how loans from Arabic have been assimilated as they have become part of the lexical resources of modern Spanish. Arabic culture and civilization in the Iberian Peninsula (711-1942) above all involved the sciences, literature, art, architecture, engineering, agriculture, the military, medicine. At that time, Al-Andalus was one of the most influential European centers of science and cultural exchange in Europe. Contacts between Arabic and the Romance languages found in the Iberian Peninsula resulted in numerous loans both from Arabic to the Romance languages and from the Romance languages to Arabic. These topics have been the subject of extensive research conducted from historical, cultural and linguistic points of view. Despite the existence of numerous works concerning Arabic loans, this area requires, further, deeper research. In this article, selected issues concerning Arabic loans in Spanish are analyzed as are the adaptive processes they have undergone and the level of their integration into Spanish. The basis of the analysis is made up of oral and written texts collected in the Corpus de Español del Siglo XXI [CORPES XXI, RAE] – a corpus of contemporary Spanish from the 21st century.

Trening kompetencji międzykulturowej na podstawie analizy podręcznika do nauki języka szwedzkiego dla uczniów na poziomie średniozaawansowanym Rivstart B1+ B2

The aim of the article is to reflect upon the conveying of cultural content in the foreign language classroom that contributes to the development of intercultural competence. It has been attempted to systematize the multitude of aspects which characterizes the use of cultural studies in language classes. It has been done by drawing attention to reasons for taking into consideration this sort of knowledge while preparing the lessons and teaching methods that are in favour of an insightful contact with a cultural content. Attention has been primarily drawn to the coursebook Rivstart B1 +B2 that is intended for intermediate students of Swedish language. The coursebook has been subjected to a comprehensive analysis with regard to the cultural learning.