Discourse Studies current issue

The discourse of digital deceptions and '419' emails

Chiluwa, I. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

This study applies a computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) to the study of discourse structures and functions of ‘419’ emails — the Nigerian term for online/financial fraud. The hoax mails are in the form of online lottery winning announcements, and email ‘business proposals’ involving money transfers/claims of dormant bank accounts overseas. Data comprise 68 email samples collected from the researcher’s inboxes and colleagues’ and students’ mail boxes between January 2008 and March 2009 in Ota, Nigeria. The study reveals that the writers of the mails apply discourse/pragmatic strategies such as socio-cultural greeting formulas, self-identification, reassurance/confidence building, narrativity and action prompting strategies to sustain the interest of the receivers. The study also shows that this genre of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a regular part of our internet experience, and is not likely to be extinct in the near future as previous studies of email hoaxes have predicted. It is believed that as the global economy witnesses a recession, chances are that more creative and complex ways of combating the situation will arise. Economic hardship has been blamed for fraud/online scams, inadvertently prompting youths to engage in various anti-social activities.

Conversational coherence and gesture

Chui, K. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

The present study claims that the use of spontaneous gestures can contribute to accomplishing coherence in sequential conversational exchanges. Three types of speech-accompanying gestures were analyzed in Chinese conversation. Based on the syntactic-semantic relation with the co-occurring utterance, the first type is associated with words that do not convey explicit meaning; the second type is associated with covert constituents; the third type does not have any linguistic affiliates. They suggest different ways in which gesture adds information to the propositional content of the associated utterance or to the content of the speech event under discussion. They also play a role in achieving conversational coherence: on the part of the speaker, it is only by using the various types of gesture that a current speaker can make the message to be conveyed in the utterance complete. On the part of the next speaker, the recognition and negotiation with the former speaker of the gestured information is a way to acknowledge or confirm mutual knowledge. The collaborative efforts contribute to the coherence of the talk in the subsequent interaction.

Announced refusal to answer: a study of norms and accountability in broadcast political interviews

Ekstrom, M. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

This article investigates the announced refusal to answer as a form of dispreferred and challenging response in broadcast political interviews. The aim is to study how the rightness and wrongness of conduct is dealt with in situations of announced refusal. More specifically, the paper focuses on: (1) announced refusal as a particular type of conduct; (2) the orientation to norms and accountability in situations of announced refusal; (3) how the legitimacy of politics and journalism is negotiated in broadcast interviews. The data consist of 23 cases from Swedish election campaigns, and the analysis is based on Conversation Analysis, focusing on how the participants treat themselves and others as normatively accountable. The study indicates that the politicians understand themselves as accountable and avoid hostile actions in the interviews. Their refusals are designed mainly to be understood as appropriate distancing actions without explicitly complaining about the interviewers’ conduct.

'The leading journal in its field': evaluation in journal descriptions

Hyland, K., Tse, P. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

Evaluation, as the expression of a writer’s attitudes, opinions and values, has become a key term in discourse studies in recent years and has proved to be a particularly fruitful way of analysing academic texts. But while studies have shown the importance of evaluation in research genres, its role in seemingly more promotional academic genres has been largely neglected. This article examines the journal description (JD), a brief but ubiquitous feature of all journals, whether online or in print. Situated at the academic—commercial interface, the JD provides information for prospective readers and authors while endorsing a particular view of the field and positioning the journal in the academic community. Drawing on a corpus of 200 JDs in four contrasting disciplines, we show how evaluation is a key feature of this genre, influencing both lexical choices and rhetorical structure. The analysis contributes both to our understanding of a neglected academic genre and the evaluative resources of language.

A rehearsed self in repeated narratives? The case of two interviews with a former hooligan

Van de Mieroop, D. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

This article investigates the identity constructions of a former hooligan in two repeated narratives, obtained through interviews with a time lapse of six years. In both narratives, the interviewee constructs a similar heroic identity and opposes it to other categories such as cowards and followers. However, when relating how he became a hooligan, the interviewee presents himself as a follower. This contradiction with the heroic identity shows his struggle with group membership and that ‘identity work’ is an ongoing process. On the other hand, the striking similarity between the identity constructions in both interviews supports the thesis of a rehearsed self in big stories, but I argue that this is also due to other reasons, namely the role of the same interviewer who co-constructs the interview but who is also an outsider, and the influence of previous ‘rehearsals’ of the story, both within the group of hooligans and in real life.

Book review: STEPHANIE SCHNURR, Leadership and Discourse at Work: Interactions of Humor, Gender and Workplace Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. xii+161pp., hardback, ISBN 978230201804

O'Neill, K. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

Book review: WEI WANG, Genre across Languages and Cultures: Newspaper Commentaries in China and Australia. Berlin: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 2007. viii + 185 pp

Silva Bezerra, F. A. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST

Book review: ELENA SEMINO, Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 247 pp., ISBN 978521867306 (hbk)

Ci-hua, X. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:13:14 PST