Cognition, Communication, Discourse

The DIVIDED SELF metaphor and conceptualizations of the internal conflict in suicide notes

2023-08-31T13:48:23+00:00

This paper presents DIVIDED SELF metaphor analysis conducted drawing from the discourse of suicidal notes. The suicide notes represent a distinct genre because of its typical rhetorical structure and communicative purpose. In particular, the internal conflict experienced by the authors of suicidal notes makes this material suitable for an analysis of the metaphorical conceptualization of one’s own DIVIDED SELF. The research aims at modeling the conceptualization of one’s own conflicting SELF by the authors of the suicide notes and proposing approach to the metaphorical conceptualizations of the DIVIDED SELF as metaphtonymy, as well as describing their potential for representing the individual’s internal conflict. First, the cognitive framing of the inner SELF of the authors, divided into the instances of the Subject and the Self, was investigated. Second, in order to analyze metaphtonymic connections between the individual’s inner conceptualizations, the agentivity of the inner SELF conceptualizations was compared. Third, a metaphtonymic configuration of SELF conceptualizations was modeled and the potential of metaphorical framing of extreme psychological states through the metaphthonymic representation of the SELF described. The material of the study consisted of a corpus with a total size of 164,483 lexical units (the CEASE corpus combined with a self-assembled corpus of suicide notes). As demonstrated by the analysis, the aspect of the Self mainly acts as a fragmentation of the author in the DIVIDED SELF metaphor. That is, the study allowed to model metaphorical conceptualizations metaphtonymically and structure the stages of the formation of metaphtonymy through the visual illustrations.

Fauna-inspired fashion through the English language glass

2023-08-31T13:48:26+00:00

The article deals with representation of animal-inspired fashion highlights in the English fashion discourse with the focus on evolution of naming systems, categorization, multimodality, advertising and marketing strategies valid for online commerce. Animalistic motifs are considered on the basis of language-naming practices for clothes, footwear, accessories, jewelry and make-up. Fashion has become an important field of communication in modern world. Now it generates multimodal fashion discourse and refined fashion narrative with countless articles and innumerable posts on social media, Instagrammable looks of celebrities and influeuncers imitated by thousands of fashion fans. Glamorous fashion events are prominent social gatherings, which entail extensive international media coverage making a noticeable domain of online landscape. In the 21st century, radical changes in fashion were triggered by ecology movement and animal advocacy movement. Wild and domestic animals were used for clothes making for centuries but in the 21st century due to animal personhood movement and vegan fashion animals are likely to turn into a mere source of inspiration for designers. The shift in world vision and values triggers changes in customers' mentality and promotes creativity of fashion designers. Animal-inspired prints, gowns, footwear, accessories become means of self-expression and personification. Modern designers reinterpret the iconic images of the past bringing fashion to a new level what results into new word coinages in English, new distribution of fashion lexemes. Ergonyms – names of fashion items – contain indexical signs and might get associative meaning and emotional meaning being connected with famous people and celebrities. The list of animalistic fashion terms with indexal names is getting longer in the wake of the attempts to introduce new prints into fashion industry. Online business dictates advertising and marketing strategies with catchy names, slogans and detailed linguistic description of goods. Naming conventions are being changed as animal-prints get connotations, associations; lexical units acquire occasional intensifiers and determiners. Playfulness of animal-inspired fashion items is conveyed via humorous names and naming components. Zoomorphic accessories give rise to new portmanteau words. Modern fashion discourse proves linguistic practices and naming conventions are becoming more sophisticated and intricate.

Diachronic plurality in translation of Shakespeare’s plays: a cognitive-discursive perspective

2023-08-31T13:48:30+00:00

This paper focuses on the efficiency of cognitive-discursive approach to the study of diachronic plurality in translation on the material of Shakespeare’s plays as time-remote original texts and their chronologically distant Ukrainian retranslations of the 19th-21st centuries. Complex research methodology based on the methods of cognitive translation studies together with methodological principles of discourse analysis is implemented to reveal the influence of discursive and cognitive factors on the process and result of retranslation. Discourse analysis substantiates the discursive factor that becomes a prerequisite of diachronic plurality in translation of Shakespeare’s plays in cases when chronological and ideological, cultural and individual frameworks of the original and translated texts are different. Methods of cognitive translation studies prove the cognitive factor to become the determinant of the diachronic plurality in translation of Shakespeare’s plays because cognitive consonance or cognitive dissonance of the translators with the author’s ideas cause different interpretations of the original texts by the translators and—consequently—different degrees of cognitive proximity of the translated text with the original one. The correlation of cognitive consonance and cognitive dissonance with the degrees of cognitive proximity appears to be the following: cognitive consonance correlates with cognitive equivalents (full and partial) or cognitive analogues (functional and stylistic); cognitive dissonance correlates with cognitive variants (referential, valorative, and notional). Methodology of cognitive translation studies helps determine the translator’s choice of effective translation strategies (achaization, modernization, and neutralization of temporal distance) and tactics (reproductive or adaptive) while translating a time-remote original work.

Presenting grammar through Internet memes in teaching English for specific purposes

2023-08-31T13:48:33+00:00

The article discusses the potential of using Internet memes in teaching a foreign language. We consider an Internet meme to be a set of semiotic signs. This approach explains the potential of Internet memes application in educational process since most of the language learning methods rely on semiotic elements. Internet memes are multimodal structures that can be used as an efficient tool for presenting material in teaching English. Memes are classified into verbal, nonverbal and complex ones (combining image and verbal element). A set of sample memes presenting the combination of images and verbal elements has been selected to demonstrate the process of meaning making, which is an integral part of mastering a foreign language. Due to the importance of visual perception in learning process and the very nature of Internet memes as widespread forms of expression and communication existing in visual format, the use of them if beneficial for both teachers and learners. The elements of the sample memes are analyzed in terms of Roland Barthes’ theory of image narrative potential. We provide the evidence that anchorage and relay functions of linguistic messages account for the process of meaning making. In terms of semiotics the effects of text and image combination are examined in detail. Special attention in the article is given to the ways of memes application and the effectiveness of their use in the in-class and out of class learning process for practicing a grammar phenomenon of modality. Memes demonstrate a modal construction in the situation close to real life providing a sample of using it in context and provoking imitation of real-life situation by student. The humorous effect inherent to Internet memes is aimed at achieving a reaction from numerous addressees, thus making memes an efficient tool for teaching/learning a foreign language due to an expected feedback. Special attention has been paid to Internet memes containing constructions with modal verbs expressing irony and paradox. The article provides tools of teaching English modals via memes as well as experiment results and their analysis. The study reveals positive results of the experiment in terms of efficiency of using Internet memes in educational process that demonstrates better results in learning new material as well as a higher level of students’ involvement and creativity.

Multimodal meaning-making of aggression in English song narrative: A cognitive-pragmatic perspective

2023-08-31T13:48:37+00:00

This article addresses cognitive and pragmatic aspects of the multimodal meaning-making of AGGRESSION in the English song narrative. The cognitive-pragmatic foundations integrate cognitive and pragmatic aspects with multimodal ones, which allows to explain how signs of different modes and semiotic resources instantiate the concept and which cognitive features are decisive for (re)construction of meaning by performers and viewers. Cognitive features have verbal and non-verbal implementation through visual and auditory modes. The verbal semiotic resource, implemented through auditory and visual modes, contains lexical and pragmatic means of direct/indirect realization of aggression. Lexical means include words that name/describe/express aggression, as well as lexemes that acquire the aggressive meaning in a certain context. Pragmatic means are represented by expressive statements realizing threat, order, reproach, and accusation. The non-verbal semiotic resource is also represented through both modes and is characterized by semiotic heterogeneity, including prosodic/mimic/gestural features, various aspects of performers’ appearance, music clip design and lighting. They include hoarse voice/high exalted vocals/screaming; aggressive look/bulging eyes/wide open mouth/tense distorted face; active movements/fight; dark clothes/ dark make-up/tattoos. The musical component is characterized by the lower register, alternating consonance and dissonance, and a fast tempo. The lighting includes the play of light and shadow, and flashes. The construction of aggression appears as a result of the integration of semiotic elements into a multimodal blend, which is an emergent entity. Semantic relations between the blend components are based on the complementarity or contradiction of their elements, which makes it possible to single out convergent and divergent constructive patterns.

Patterns of evidentials use in dream narratives

2023-08-31T13:48:41+00:00

The article presents a study on evidentials use in dream reports collected from online dream journals. First, I discuss the relation between the categories of stance and evidentiality. Specifically, I define evidentiality for the needs of this research as a semantic category that labels the source of information in the English language. Evidentiality encompasses perception, reportative evidentiality, and inferential judgment. The role of evidentials in rendering the dream experience is considerable due to the quasi-perceptual and specific experientiality of dreaming. Therefore, the core categories of evidentiality were singled out for this study, such as revelative, sensory and sensory-inferential, reportative, non-sensory inferential and mirative (marking unexpected information). The sample was then manually processed to count the relative frequencies of the means rendering these subcategories of evidentiality. The main findings reside in the role of revelative evidentials in marking the status of dream vs. real narrative spaces. Additionally, the classic assumption about the visuality of dreams was confirmed by the high number of visual perceptual evidentials, while audial and other perceptual mode instances are much fewer in the sample. Finally, the choice of evidential subcategories in dream reports is conditioned by the narrators’ need to account for vague recollection of dreaming experience with the preference for simpler inferential forms. In turn, the category of mirativity (i.e. labeling of unexpected information) is discussed as a prospective research avenue due to its rich potential in subtle yet informative marking of the speaker’s reaction to the information communicated or to the channel of obtaining it.

Cognitive-evolutionary theory of language: justification

2023-08-31T13:48:44+00:00

This article is devoted to substantiating the cognitive-evolutionary theory of language within the framework of cognitive linguistics. The main principle of cognitive linguistics, “explanation,” serves as the foundation for this theory. It is argued that the need for this theory arises from negative trends in modern cognitive linguistics, such as an excessive focus on studying concepts without a common understanding of the term "concept" and the substitution of the object of cognitive linguistic research with the study of thinking facilitated by language, rather than thinking itself. The article proposes a new theory for cognitive linguistics that aims to explain the mechanism by which the quality of thinking influences the quality of language. Furthermore, it seeks to determine what factors contribute to the quality of thinking and identify the reasons for differences in the development of languages, thinking, and cultures associated with languages. To support this theory, an interdisciplinarity is suggested, which involves incorporating anthropological data from various fields such as philosophy, logic, cognitive psychology, ontopsychology, ethnopsychology, psycholinguistics, neurophysiology, neurolinguistics, ontolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, and primatology. The author argues in favor of the overwhelmingly positive impact of biological and cognitive evolution. While the commonly accepted notion of thinking influencing language lacks complete proof, the article identifies perception as the cognitive structure that ensures the quality of thinking. In line with the idea that the quality of perception affects thinking, which in turn affects language, three degrees of perception are identified: syncretic, superficial, and alternative. Each degree of perception is described alongside linguistic and mental characteristics observed in great apes, children, modern primitive and ancient civilized people, as well as modern civilized people. The article concludes that differences between languages (and cultures) stem from the quality of perception regarding their developmental possibilities. As a result, the cognitive-evolutionary algorithm “perception: syncretic, superficial, or alternative → corresponding logic of thinking → corresponding logic of language (corresponding logic of culture)” is proposed.

The ECOSOPHY concept in discourses of language education: a cross-cultural perspective

2023-08-31T13:48:47+00:00

This paper focuses on studying the peculiarities of the linguocognitive actualization of the concept of ecosophy in language education discourses with an emphasis on its cross-cultural ontology in the English language teaching and learning environments of Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire, the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine. On the premise of analysing the multidisciplinary essence of ecosophy as deep ecology philosophy, within the methodological framework of cognitive linguistics, ecolinguistics and linguoculturology, the authors substantiate the status of ecosophy as a universal fundamental conceptual constituent of linguodidactic discourses of the twenty-first century, oriented at biospheric egalitarianism to realize the Sustainable Development Goals formulated by the United Nations as the blueprint to secure a better future. As a result of the conducted psycholinguistic experiment centered around elicitation techniques, such quantitatively dominant culturally universal components of the concept of ecosophy as harmony, resilience, and sustainability, together with the conceptual facets content and level, as the basis of better language education cross-culturally have been revealed. Our further conceptual and linguistic analysis has enabled our construing a multi-dimensional matrix as a representation of the concept researched. The data obtained have proved that the conceptual dimension content comprises the conceptual commonalities social life, economics, politics, peace/war/safety, environment, culture, whereas the dimension level embraces the concepts individual/identity, community, state. The matrix serves as a tool for explicating major conceptual highlights of ecosophy in language instruction discourses across eleven countries, thus perspectively contributing to the development of more efficient, culturally relevant linguodidactic methods and media.

Political toxicity in the contrastive perspective (Based on American, British and Ukrainian media discourse)

2023-08-31T13:48:50+00:00

This research focuses on the issue of political toxicity in the media discourse of the United States of America, Great Britain and Ukraine. It defines common and distinctive features of semiotization of political toxicity in the media discourse. In political communication, toxicity is understood as a type of interaction between various participants in political discourse, which is characterized by a high degree of aggressive verbal, para- and/or non-verbal behavior and discriminates against the opponent based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc. resulting in such a politician (politicians) being perceived and then defined as toxic. Its purpose is to identify common and different ways and means of semiotization of political toxicity. It is based on methods of associative and identification experiments, computer multimodal analysis, as well as statistical processing of the information received. The study reveals the modes of the toxic effect deployment and the dictums of the politician’s toxic image formation in the their collective, associative-individual, symbolic, and media discourse-portrait. Complex analysis of a politician’s toxic image in different linguistic cultures takes into account the politicians’ behavior as opinion leaders and the coverage of the target audience, to which the effect of their toxic rhetoric extends: one person, a group of people, or the wider community. At the same time, the types of harm resulting from the visualization of the media toxic effect can be aimed at both the psychological states of the addressee and their gender, age, and professional characteristics. The paper determines means of verbal expression of toxicity both by the aggressive-emotional type of the politician and by the socio-cultural features of political struggle in the United States of America, Great Britain, and Ukraine.